In Hollywoodified America, Batman is a hero while real-life heroes in Gaza are villains

By Roya Pour Bagher

Time and again, Hollywood, which in a way serves as an extension of the American political circus, has spun narratives where evil dons the guise of righteousness while virtue conceals itself beneath a cloak of villainy. 

But here’s the lingering question: how many have grasped the unsettling reality that the US is not just narrating these tales, but actively bringing them to life?

Just look at the Israeli regime, an outpost of the Western hegemony in West Asia, and its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which completed 464 days on Sunday. 

The apartheid regime has in recent weeks ramped up its attacks on medical facilities in the besieged Gaza Strip, blatantly and deliberately targeting healthcare workers. 

Its recent assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Deir al-Balah ignited a storm of global outrage, especially as occupation forces abducted patients, doctors, and even the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Dr. Safiya refused to leave his patients and hospitals despite the murder of his son and the injuries he sustained in Israeli military raids. 

Adding insult to injury, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller sought to rationalize these assaults during a press briefing, suggesting that such attacks might be legally permissible under certain conditions.

Miller: We certainly would, but I would say that Israel has said that these were Hamas operatives. They have said that one of them was carrying a gun at the time of the operation. So I’m not able to speak to the facts of the operation. You’d have to pass some kind of legal judgment – know all of the facts of the operation. But as a general matter, they do have the right to carry out operations to bring terrorists to justice, but they need to be conducted in full —

Journalist: Including in hospitals?

Miller: So we want them to conduct their operations in compliance with international humanitarian law. We would generally say that we don’t want them to carry out operations in hospitals, but under international humanitarian law, hospitals do lose some of their protections if they are being used to – for the planning of terrorist operations, for the execution of terrorist operations.

The child-murdering regime’s readymade excuse for its ruthless attacks always points to Hamas — the Gaza-based resistance movement that has been at the forefront of the fight against the Israeli occupation.

Even healthcare facilities in Gaza are labeled as covert Hamas hubs and medical staff as Hamas operatives to make room for more civilian deaths and more devastation. 

Not a shred of evidence substantiates claims made by the Israeli regime and its media. On the contrary, investigations have confirmed that Hamas and other resistance movements operate away from civilian areas, including hospitals and educational institutes.

This brings to mind a remarkable scene from the 2008 crime thriller The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan. 

The Joker, a notorious criminal who wants to destroy Gotham City, orchestrates a harrowing ruse: hostages disguised as henchmen and henchmen disguised as hostages. 

Misled, the police aim to strike real hostages, mistaking them for enemies. Batman, discerning the deception, intervenes just in time, saving the hostages and thwarting the Joker’s evil scheme. 

The film scene vividly illustrates how the scourge of misinformation and propaganda paved the way for catastrophe—and the heroism that is needed to unravel the web of deceit and shield the innocent.

Now, the US Department of State appears to be wielding that same Joker card. Under international law, deliberately targeting civilians, particularly in healthcare facilities, is unequivocally forbidden and constitutes a war crime—as it should. 

Yet, the US appears hell-bent on reshaping the legal framework with the aid of propaganda to shield its illegitimate ally. In essence, it is orchestrating an attempt to redefine international humanitarian law and war crimes. 

Compounding this issue is the glaring lack of evidence to support Miller’s claims of terrorists in targeted zones—a fact conveniently overlooked by the outgoing Joe Biden administration, which has gone out of its way to aid and abet the genocide in Gaza. 

Recall former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s baseless claims of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which paved the way for the brutal carnage and torture of thousands of innocent Iraqis for years. 

Was there any credible proof? Or was it a hegemonic agenda driving the selective rewriting of laws? Unsurprisingly, Miller’s attempt to justify the indefensible faced public backlash.

The classic American hypocrisy only deepens with time. While it touts itself as the bastion of democracy and human rights, it flagrantly disregards its own principles. 

Take the Leahy Law, for instance: military aid must cease if credible evidence of gross human rights violations emerges. Yet here we stand, over a year and a half into genocide, with international arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and former war minister—and a US administration that recently greenlit an eye-popping $8.7 billion to bankroll Israel’s war crimes. 

Why does the US flagrantly violate its own laws and evade accountability? Where is the democracy it so proudly champions?

Even more glaring is Washington’s hypocritical double standard regarding hospital bombings. There are strikingly different rules and different reactions depending on who is at the receiving end. 

When an alleged Russian strike on a Ukrainian hospital made headlines last year, it was met with immediate US condemnation and a chorus of outrage from Western-controlled corporate media. 

The headlines painted it as an unparalleled atrocity against the Ukrainian people. 

Fast forward to today: Almost 15 months of US-funded Israeli genocidal assaults on refugee camps, universities and hospitals, including Kamal Adwan Hospital. But, none of this has been enough to elicit a reaction from Western political czars. 

This latest attack, marked by the abduction of patients, medical staff, and its director, has once again underscored American duplicity. Just when the public believed American hypocrisy had reached its nadir—it plummeted further by attempting to rationalize hospital bombings in Gaza.

The arrogant American adores casting heroes and freedom fighters in its cinematic epics. It masterfully captures the vile depths of evil—disguising innocents in the garb of guilt to deceive the righteous. 

While The Dark Knight celebrated Batman saving the day, reality under American orchestration flips the narrative. It allies with oppressors sells the disguise of innocence as guilt, and hails civilian attacks through the blurred and biased Western media lens. 

Real-life heroes, having always defied Western agendas, remain unsung. Thus, the arrogance and wicked inclinations of America persist—because, in this narrative, evil must play its part to confront the good.

Roya Pour Bagher is a Tehran-based writer.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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