While Israeli television fills hours and hours of screen with the lives and images of the freed hostages, on the other side of the wall, in the West Bank, all the Arab and Palestinian networks focus on explaining stories of the prisoners released as part of the agreement between Israel and Hamas. The Lebanese Al Mayadeen –two of whose journalists died in Gaza due to Israeli bombs–, the Dubai Al Mashhad, the Saudi Ajyal or the Egyptian Al Ahly show the emotional reunion of these young people with their mothers or the displays of joy in front of the prison of Ofer.
The Arab channels use terms like “Palestinian resistance” or “occupying army” and, instead of stopping at the Israeli hostages, they show again and again the destruction of Gaza, the dead children, the burials in mass graves or interview displaced people who They sleep in the open. With modern aesthetics, they show videos set to sad music evidencing the pain of Gazans or with religious airs remembering the popular Hamas commander, Ahmed al Ghandour, who fell last week. Al Jazeera in Arabic connects with Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona, from where its correspondent explains live that the Catalan capital has broken relations with Israel. In a hotel in Jenin, the television offering is extensive: from Barça TV – with a menu of adjustments – to Nour Mariam, a Lebanese Christian channel that shows Marcelino, bread and wine in French with subtitles in Arabic.
Entering Jenin is an almost impossible mission due to recent army incursions into the refugee camp. But, once in this city of 70,000 inhabitants, life goes on. Traffic jams, people going to and from work, kids going to school and, as in any city, the wealthiest drinking tea in trendy bars or arriving in their high-end cars to modern shopping centers, which there are also and who, of course, are not in the refugee camp.
