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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/06/condemn-first-ask-questions-never-israeli-propaganda-and-the-crimes-the-west-chooses-to-believe/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Condemn first, ask questions never? Israeli propaganda and the crimes the West chooses to believe<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Tanupriya Singh - December 6, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><img src="cid:ii_lpua06e90" alt="Joe-Biden-Karine-Jean-Pierre-1024x576.jpg" width="417" height="235"><br><p>President Joe Biden and Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ahead of a daily press meeting. Photo: Wikimedia
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<p>On December 4, Josh Paul, a former US State Department official who <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/josh-paul-resignation-interview/">resigned</a> in October in protest against Washington’s “expanded and expedited” provision of lethal arms to Israel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5106v4b05I">appeared</a> on <i>CNN</i>.</p>
<p>Host Christiane Amanpour brought up the “savage” and “barbaric”
events of October 7. “We’ve heard the stories of rape and gang rape…how
does a nation [Israel]…get to feel that it is being supported and that
it then doesn’t have to do what is going in Gaza right now?”</p>
<p>These comments echo a set of stories that have come to dominate the
news cycle in the west in recent days as Israel has escalated its
bombardment of Gaza.</p>
<p>As part of his response to these allegations, Paul brought up the
“atrocities that happen everyday to Palestinians in the West Bank.” On
the issue of sexual violence in particular, he referred to an instance
where, during the human rights <a href="https://www.state.gov/key-topics-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/human-rights/">vetting process</a>
for arms transfers to Israel, Defense for Children International
Palestine (DCI-P) had drawn the US’ attention to the rape of a
Palestinian child in an Israeli prison.</p>
<p>According to the DCI-P, this is a <a href="https://twitter.com/MirandaCleland/status/1731791073263878289">reference</a> to a February 2021 <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_interrogator_sexually_assaults_palestinian_child_detainee">report</a>
that the organization had published, detailing the severe physical and
sexual assault of a 15-year-old child by an Israeli interrogator at a
detention facility in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“We examined these allegations, we believe they were credible, we put
them to the government of Israel. Do you know what happened the next
day? The IDF went into the DCI-P offices and removed all their computers
and declared them a terrorist entity,” Paul told <i>CNN</i>.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/state-department-official-explains-why-he-resigned-over-u-s-response-to-israel-hamas-war">interview</a> with <i>PBS News Hour</i>
in October, Paul had also noted that the vetting process for Israel had
“never found an Israeli unit to be guilty of a gross human rights
violation,” adding that though many violations had been identified, no
conclusion was reached because it required “senior-level sign off”
within the State Department.</p>
<p><i>CNN</i>’s sole follow-up question to Paul towards the end of the
interview was if he believed “that in order to have some kind of
peaceful resolution…Hamas has to be removed from power?”</p>
<h3><b>Manufacturing consent</b></h3>
<p>As unsurprising as this line of questioning from corporate-controlled
western media has now become, Amanpour’s reference to the “stories of
rape and gang rape” requires scrutiny amid a litany of news reports of
alleged “mass rapes” perpetrated by Hamas’ armed fighters during the
Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched on October 7.</p>
<p>During a <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-december-4-2023/">press briefing</a>
on December 4, when asked about the US’ response to reports of sexual
violence, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller—while noting that
the US had not made an independent assessment— said, “We’ve obviously
seen the reports that Hamas has committed sexual violence. They’ve
committed rape. We have no reason at all to doubt those reports.”</p>
<p>“[t]he fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn
women over that they’ve been holding hostage and the reason this pause
fell apart is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what
happened to them during their time in custody…”</p>
<p>When pressed on his use of the phrase “the fact that it seems” and
asked if he had any evidence to believe that Hamas was deliberately
holding female hostages, Miller simply backtracked and said “not fact
seems is a better way to say it,” then adding that Hamas had broken the
ceasefire deal.</p>
<p>This is despite the fact on December 2, senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, had told news organizations including <i>Associated Press</i> that a list of 10 female hostages proposed by Israel had been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-12-1-2023-c944c736efdf8993c7a17cf683d6e364">rejected</a> because they were soldiers who had been detained from military posts.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli journalist Neria Kraus also shared a <a href="https://twitter.com/NeriaKraus/status/1731728607322484801">video</a>
of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in which she repeated
the allegations that “many women and girls were attacked brutally by
Hamas on October 7th.”</p>
<p>Miller’s comments are instructive in understanding the callousness
with which Israel’s allegations of atrocities have been unquestioningly
accepted and parroted by the US government and media over the past two
months to justify the ongoing genocide in Gaza.</p>
<p>On December 3, Israeli newspaper, <i>Haaretz</i>, published a <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-12-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018c-2036-d21c-abae-76be08fe0000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=Android_Native&utm_campaign=Share">report</a> which once again <a href="https://twitter.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1731302039378882594">refuted</a>
some of the most horrific claims coming from Israel of what happened on
October 7. These allegations include: 40 beheaded babies, a baby being
burned in an oven, babies being hung from a clothesline, and of the
killing of a pregnant woman who was found with her stomach split open
with the fetus still attached via the umbilical cord.</p>
<p>However, the damage had already been done. What price did President
Joe Biden pay for repeating Zionist lies while rushing weapons to
Israel? What price did any of the “journalists” in the west pay for not
practicing the basic principles of their profession?</p>
<p>By the time that a temporary pause came into place on November 24,
Israel had already massacred over 14,800 Palestinians in Gaza.</p>
<h3><b>Lies to fuel an unpopular genocide</b></h3>
<p>As Israel resumed its genocide in Gaza, successive news reports
emerged alleging that rapes had been systematically used as a “weapon of
war” against Israeli civilians on October 7. On November 18, <i>CNN</i> <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/16/the-lead-israel-investigates-sexual-violence-claims-on-october-7-jake-tapper.cnn">aired</a> one such video report.</p>
<p>Citing Israeli police superintendent Dude Katz, <i>CNN</i> <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/17/world/israel-investigates-sexual-violence-hamas/index.html">reported</a>
that Israeli officers had collected “more than 1,000 statements and
more than 60,000 video clips related to the attacks that include
accounts from people who reported seeing women raped,” adding that
“investigators do not have firsthand testimony, and it is not clear
whether any rape victims survived.”</p>
<p>On December 1, <i>Mondoweiss</i> published a detailed <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/cnn-report-claiming-sexual-violence-on-october-7-relied-on-non-credible-witnesses-some-with-undisclosed-ties-to-israeli-govt/">analysis</a> of <i>CNN</i>’s November 18 report.</p>
<p><i>CNN</i> had interviewed Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the Chair of a
“civil commission on Hamas’ October 7 crimes against women.” However,
what <i>CNN</i> did not acknowledge, and what <i>Mondoweiss</i> pointed
out, was her previous roles in Israel’s Attorney General’s Office and as
founder and director of the “Dvora Institute” which is a “close
advisory body” to the Israeli Prime Minister’s National Security
Council.</p>
<p>The commission headed by Elkayam-Levy has not taken direct testimony from “relevant witnesses,” as per a November 30 <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-30/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/hamas-campaign-of-rape-against-israeli-women-is-revealed-testimony-after-testimony/0000018c-2144-da36-a1de-6767dac90000">report</a> in <i>Haaretz</i>.
She went on to say that when asked by a foreign journalist if the
estimated number of victims was in the “Tens? Hundreds? Thousands?,” she
responded “I’m sorry. No. It would be irresponsible of me to cite a
number.”</p>
<p>It further notes inconsistencies in the statements provided to CNN by
an Israeli soldier, identified as “G” and allegedly a paramedic from an
Israeli special forces unit “669,” who had claimed to have found the
bodies of two girls who had been killed in the Kibbutz Be’eri.</p>
<p>Importantly, the <i>CNN</i> report also included information about a
police press conference during which “one witness said she saw a gang
rape,” following which a typed quote is presented on the screen.</p>
<p>Again, what was not included, and what <i>Mondoweiss</i> pointed out,
was that the woman in question was not in fact present at the briefing
and the police had instead played a recording, that the witness had
described what she saw while she was in hiding, and she had been
accompanied by a paramedic who said he did not see what she saw.</p>
<p>Over the past few days, news publications including the <i>BBC</i>
have published their own reports detailing similar testimonies of
alleged mass rapes, often repeating what has already been published or
even found to be false.</p>
<p>The <i>BBC</i> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181">stated</a>
it spoke to one man who was reportedly at the festival site and had
said in a statement “made through a support organization” that he had
heard “noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, decapitated.”</p>
<p>“To our question about how he could be sure — without seeing it —
that the screams he heard indicated sexual assault rather than other
kinds of violence, he said he believed while listening at the time that
it could only have been rape,” the BBC notes.</p>
<p>Further down, the publication adds that Israeli police “say they have
multiple eye-witness accounts of sexual assault, but wouldn’t give any
more clarification on how many. When we spoke to them, they hadn’t yet
interviewed any surviving victims.”</p>
<p>Once again, the <i>BBC</i> repeats testimony from “one of the
body-collectors volunteering with the religious organization Zaka”
describing a “pregnant woman whose womb had been ripped open before she
was killed and her fetus stabbed while it was inside her,” then adding
that some Israeli media reports have raised questions about some of the
accounts.</p>
<p>It further states that Israeli investigators had admitted that
opportunities to document the crime scene and collect forensic evidence
were “limited or missed.”</p>
<p>Analysis of such reports, including by independent online news publication <i>The Electronic Intifada</i>, has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMqRK5LpGy4">pointed</a> to a lack of forensic evidence and first hand testimonies from survivors of the alleged acts of sexual violence. Moreover, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-30/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/hamas-campaign-of-rape-against-israeli-women-is-revealed-testimony-after-testimony/0000018c-2144-da36-a1de-6767dac90000">certain reports</a>
have cited alleged confessions made in interrogation videos obtained
from Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence agency notorious for its use of
torture, or sources from within the Israeli military— “the accuser here
is the army committing genocide,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMqRK5LpGy4">stated</a> <i>Electronic Intifada</i>’s director Ali Abunimah.</p>
<p>The independent outlet has also pointed to the contents of the
47-minute video compilation assembled by the Israeli Occupation forces
of the October 7 attack, which Israel has screened for selective
audiences.</p>
<p>British journalist Owen Jones was among those who attended the screening. He stated in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5iG3DX7ho">video</a>
posted on November 28 that “if there was rape and sexual violence
committed, we don’t see this on the footage…a clip of an Israeli women
inspecting a badly burned woman’s corpse to see if she was a relative
and she had no underwear, this has been offered as evidence of rape.”</p>
<p>On November 30, a three-member independent UN Commission of Inquiry
(COI) — which was established in 2021 to “investigate in the occupied
Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel all
alleged violations of international humanitarian laws and all alleged
abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13
April 2021” — announced last week that it would investigate alleged
sexual violence by Hamas fighters on October 7.</p>
<p>Israel has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-commission-investigate-hamas-sexual-violence-appeal-evidence-2023-11-29/">declared</a>
that it will not cooperate with the commission. Hamas has repeatedly
denied all allegations of sexual assault. Taher al-Nono, media advisor
to the organization’s polit bureau has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/accounts-sexual-violence-hamas-attack-mount-justice-is-remote-israels-victims-2023-12-05/">called</a> for a “serious and impartial international investigation into the matter.”</p>
<p>Since October 7, claims made by Israel have been reproduced and
published without question, the most egregiously false of which are then
retracted <a href="https://twitter.com/sarasidnerCNN/status/1712415116363169884?lang=en">quietly</a>. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-says-he-has-no-confidence-palestinian-death-count-2023-10-26/">questions</a>
are raised on whether or not the Palestinian civilian casualty figures
are accurate, or “Hamas-run” is added as a prefix to the Palestinian
Health Ministry when talking of death tolls to somehow still raise
doubts about the scale of the carnage unfolding in Gaza.</p>
<p>There is a denial of dignity to the Palestinian people— in life, in
death, and even in grief as family members in Gaza have been forced to
hold up the bodies of killed children up to news cameras. They are
either <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1717622466498240925">“crisis actors”</a> or <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-a-press-availability-43/">“human shields.”</a></p>
<p>Moreover, the readiness with which Israeli claims of alleged
atrocities by Hamas are accepted, no matter how outrageous, speaks to
the blatant racism against Palestinian, and broadly Arab people, and the
specific way this is used against boys and men to portray them as
inherently criminal or “savage.”</p>
<p>Little attention has been paid to the systematic abuse and torture of
Palestinians political prisoners held in Occupation prisons, even as
Israel has escalated its mass abduction campaigns and violent raids in
the West Bank. Palestinian human rights organizations have also filed <a href="https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22076.html">urgent appeals</a>
to UN human rights mechanisms and the COI including affidavits
submitted by Palestinians detailing horrific physical and sexual abuse
by Israeli settlers.</p>
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