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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/">theintercept.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel’s Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Jeremy Scahill</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 7, 2024<br></div>
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<p><span>T</span><span>wo weeks before</span> Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-09-22/ty-article/.premium/facing-empty-seats-and-massive-protests-netanyahu-promises-imminent-saudi-peace/0000018a-bd79-d490-adca-fdfb29570000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">empty chamber<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime
minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle
East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from
the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the
West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.</p>
<p>“What a historic change for my country! You see, the land of Israel
is situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe,”
Netanyahu <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-netanyahus-un-address-on-the-cusp-of-historic-saudi-israel-peace/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">bellowed<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
at a handful of spectators in the large hall, nearly all of whom were
his loyalists or underlings. “For centuries, my country was repeatedly
invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and
conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel
can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents.”</p>
<p>During that speech, Netanyahu portrayed the full normalizing of relations with Saudi Arabia, an initiative<a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/06/22/abraham-accords-israel-saudi-arabia-biden/"> spearheaded</a> under the Trump administration and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/05/27/biden-middle-east-abraham-accords/">embraced</a> by the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-palestine-gaza-diplomacy/">Biden White House</a>,
as the linchpin of his vision for this “new” reality, one which would
open the door to a “visionary corridor that will stretch across the
Arabian Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with
maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fiber-optic cables.”</p>
<p>He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but
no world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a
mixture of American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/07/26/intercepted-israel-protests-judicial-overhaul/">attacks</a> on the independence of the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/03/29/israel-judiciary-war-crimes-palestine/">Israeli judiciary system</a>. The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right governing <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/01/06/deconstructed-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-government/">coalition</a>,
not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment,
it seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing
battle to continue his political reign.</p>
<blockquote>Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. </blockquote>
<p>Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers
encircling Gaza and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several
military installations as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an
instant. Everything, that is, except the primary agenda that has been at
the center of Netanyahu’s long political career: the absolute
destruction of Palestine and its people.</p>
<p>Just as the Bush administration<a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/03/15/iraq-war-where-are-they-now/"> exploited</a> the <a href="https://theintercept.com/collections/the-911-wars/">9/11 attacks</a> to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/10/september-11-america-response/">justify</a> a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/08/13/reign-of-terror-spencer-ackerman-september-11/">sweeping war</a>
in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the
horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his
entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the
October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and
he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be
his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once for all.</p>
<p>In that sense, Bibi was saved by Hamas.</p>
<img width="313" height="391" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1689523565-Bibi-UN-Hamas.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/09/22: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 78th Session of the General Assembly of the UN. In his speech PM Netanyahu emphasized three main themes: threats from Iran, Artificial Intelligence development and peace and prosperity in the Middle East. He urged countries to join Israel in developing responsible AI saying that this is a technology revolution like industrial and agricultural in the past. He pitched that recognition by Saudi Arabia and establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia will transform the Middle East and he showed a map of Israel in 1948 when the state was created and how it will look if and when relations with Saudi Arabia will be normalized by creating trade route directly from India to Europe via both countries. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu shows a
graphic illustrating his “New Middle East” during his speech at the 78th
Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2023.</p>
Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
<h2 id="gmail-h-intelligence-failures">Intelligence Failures</h2>
<p>Four months in, Netanyahu’s war of annihilation against Gaza has become a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/12/20/gaza-israel-biden-netanyahu-war-strategy/">guerrilla war</a>
of attrition. Not a single Israeli hostage has been freed through
military force, and Hamas has shown an enduring resilience and ability
to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/23/israeli-idf-demolition-gaza/">pick off</a> Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The Israeli public, outside of the ideological true believers intent on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-hold-conference-resettlement-gaza-2024-01-28/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">occupying and settling<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Gaza, is showing signs of fatigue and desperation. Many family members of captives are <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/now-demand-hostages-families-supporters-in-call-for-new-release-deal/#:~:text=The%20primary%20message%20delivered%20Sunday,would%20lead%20to%20their%20release." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">growing louder<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
in their demands for an immediate deal with Hamas that centers the
lives of their loved ones over the political agenda laid out by
Netanyahu and his clique. Some have <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240120-israeli-protesters-demand-return-of-hostages-early-elections" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">demanded<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> new elections or Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-03/ty-article/.premium/you-are-responsible-for-the-oct-7-holocaust-thousands-protest-against-netanyahus-govt/0000018d-705a-d971-a38f-71fa927b0000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">resignation<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>. Protests against the war, though small, are beginning to grow inside Israel, with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/19/1225651180/israel-tel-aviv-protest-gaza-war" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">some demonstrations<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> echoing global calls demanding a humanitarian ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.</p>
<p>As the death toll in Gaza surpasses a conservative estimate of 27,000
lives, many of the core narratives deployed by the Israeli and U.S.
governments to justify the slaughter are coming under increased
scrutiny; some have been definitively debunked. In Israel, this is a
delicate line of inquiry. That Hamas killed large numbers of Israelis is
not in doubt. But how they managed to do so while living under the
lauded and vigilant eyes of the Mossad, Shin Bet, the Israeli Security
Agency, and the IDF is the subject of mounting public attention.</p>
<p>There have been several credible reports that Israeli intelligence
analysts warned that Hamas operatives appeared to be training for raids
into Israel. The New York Times and other outlets have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
on the existence of a 40-page internal Hamas document code-named
“Jericho Wall.” Purportedly obtained by Israeli intelligence, it is said
to lay out detailed plans by Hamas to conduct precisely the type of
assault against Israeli military installations and villages that
occurred on October 7.</p>
<p>While warnings from Israeli analysts who reviewed the document were
reportedly brushed aside by senior officials, last July a signals
intelligence officer urged the chain of command to take it seriously.
Noting a recent daylong training exercise by Hamas in Gaza, the analyst
asserted that the training precisely mirrored the operations laid out in
the document. “It is a plan designed to start a war,” she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">pleaded<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>. “It’s not just a raid on a village.”</p>
<img width="391" height="260" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1907807353.jpg" alt="TKUMA, ISRAEL - JANUARY 04: Over 800 Damaged cars from the October 7th Hamas attacks are collected at a site on November 5, 2023 in Tkuma, Israel. The location received hundreds of cars from the kibbutzes, the Nova music festival location, and other surrounding areas affected. Each car got inspected by Zaka, the police and various other teams to identify the cars and any remnants of bodies. According to Jewish law all parts of a human being, including blood or body parts must be buried, which Zaka volunteers are responsible for. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Hundreds of vehicles damaged or destroyed during the
October 7 Hamas-led attacks and subsequent counterstrikes by the Israeli
military are collected at a site in Tkuma, Israel, on Nov. 5, 2023.</p>
Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images
<p>The night before Hamas’s raid, intelligence analysts began reporting
significant evidence suggesting that Hamas might be preparing for an
attack inside Israel. The head of Shin Bet traveled to the south and
orders were issued to deploy a special counterterror force to confront
any potential incursions, according to an <a href="https://w.ynet.co.il/yediot/7-days/time-of-darkness" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">investigative report<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> in the Israeli publication Yedioth Ahronoth.</p>
<p>Shortly after 3 a.m. on October 7, a senior intelligence official
concluded the activity in Gaza was likely another Hamas training
exercise, saying, “We still believe that [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is
not pivoting towards an escalation.”</p>
<p>A few hours later, as Israeli officials gathered in a command center
chaotically scrambling to deploy forces to respond to the multipronged
attacks led by Hamas, a senior officer silenced the room: “The Gaza
Division was overpowered.”</p>
<p>Early on in the war against Gaza, Netanyahu sought to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-sharply-criticized-for-post-blaming-intelligence-chiefs-for-oct-7-failure/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">deflect blame<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
for failing to foresee Hamas’s attacks onto his intelligence services.
“Contrary to the false claims: Under no circumstances and at no stage
was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s war intentions,” read a
tweet posted on Netanyahu’s official Twitter account. “On the contrary,
all the security officials, including the head of military intelligence
and the head of the Shin Bet, assessed that Hamas had been deterred and
was looking for a settlement. This assessment was submitted again and
again to the prime minister and the cabinet by all the security forces
and intelligence community, up until the outbreak of the war.”</p>
<p>But serious questions lingered over how Hamas was able to lay siege
to large sections of what Israel calls the “Gaza envelope” and whether
Netanyahu had knowledge that an attack of this very nature was being
planned in full view of Israel’s extensive surveillance systems and spy
networks. There is also a mounting body of evidence to indicate that
Israeli forces were given orders on October 7 to stop Hamas’s attacks at
all costs, including the killing of Israeli civilians taken captive by
Palestinian fighters. The Israeli military has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-announces-probe-of-failures-in-lead-up-to-oct-7-drawing-rage-from-ministers/#:~:text=Israel%20Defense%20Forces%20Chief%20of,criticism%20from%20right%2Dwing%20ministers." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">indicated<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
that it plans to conduct an “uncompromising” investigation into the
intelligence failures, drawing the ire of some far-right members of
Netanyahu’s government.</p>
<p>Under fire from his own ministers and supporters for impugning
Israeli military and intelligence agencies, Netanyahu apologized for his
comments, deleted the tweet, and then shifted to the stance he now
repeats: There will be a time for such inquiries — but only after Israel
achieves total victory in Gaza and eliminates Hamas. “The only thing
that I intend to have resign is Hamas,” he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/netanyahu-israel-hamas-politics-palestinians-war-fc430098bc31dd848af0e8b7cf52ce51" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> in November. “We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history.”</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1978287309.jpg" alt="03 February 2024, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: A picture provided on 4 February 2024 shows damage in the area of Al-Maqousi Towers, Al-Mashtal Hotel, and Al-Khalidi Mosque after the Israeli army withdrew from north of Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ishaq/dpa (Photo by Omar Ishaq/picture alliance via Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">The destruction in the area where the Al-Maqousi
Towers, Al-Mashtal Hotel, and Al-Khalidi Mosque stood after the Israeli
army withdrew from north of Gaza City on Feb. 3, 2024.</p>
Photo: Omar Ishaq/picture alliance via Getty Images
<h2 id="gmail-h-information-warfare">Information Warfare</h2>
<p>The violent ethnonationalist ideology at the center of Netanyahu’s
reign was born before his tenure and will endure when he’s gone. But his
rule has embodied the most extremist and destructive version of the
Israeli state project.</p>
<p>Netanyahu understands the power of defining and dominating the
narrative, particularly when targeting it to U.S. audiences. For
decades, he has advanced the Israeli propaganda doctrine of <a href="https://mepc.org/speeches/hasbara-and-control-narrative-element-strategy" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">hasbara<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
— the notion that Israelis must be aggressive about “explaining” and
justifying their actions to the West — to manipulate his adversaries and
allies, domestic and international, into serving his objectives.</p>
<p>Netanyahu’s “vision of himself as the chief defender of the Jewish
people against calamity allowed him to justify almost anything that
would keep him in power,” <a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=ypb9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT583&lpg=PT583&dq=obama+promised+land+Netanyahu%27s+vision+of+himself+as+the+chief+defender+of+the+Jewish+people+against+calamity+allowed+him+to+justify+almost+anything+that+would+keep+him+in+power&source=bl&ots=TqMOPqAGGG&sig=ACfU3U34Xa6JNWK2ogrz8aWJDDTFHsSXkw&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=obama%20promised%20land%20Netanyahu's%20vision%20of%20himself%20as%20the%20chief%20defender%20of%20the%20Jewish%20people%20against%20calamity%20allowed%20him%20to%20justify%20almost%20anything%20that%20would%20keep%20him%20in%20power&f=false" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">observed<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> former President Barack Obama in his 2020 memoir.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of October 7, Netanyahu cast Israel’s siege of a
tiny strip of land the size of Philadelphia as a war of the worlds in
which the very fate of humanity was at stake. “It’s not only our war.
It’s your war too,” Netanyahu said in his first <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sotu/date/2023-11-12/segment/01" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">interview<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
on CNN after the October 7 attacks. “It’s the battle of civilization
against barbarism. And if we don’t win here, this scourge will pass. The
Middle East will pass to other places. The Middle East will fall.
Europe is next. You will be next.”</p>
<p>The Israeli government rapidly deployed a multipronged propaganda
strategy to win unprecedented support from the U.S. and other Western
governments for a sweeping war against the entire population of Gaza. To
oppose Israel’s war is <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/06/06/antisemitism-definition-israel-palestine/">antisemitic</a>; to question its assertions about the events of October 7 is akin to Holocaust denial; to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/11/palestine-israel-protests-ceasefire-antisemitic/">protest the mass killing </a>of Palestinian civilians is to do the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/09/republican-debate-hamas-gaza-ceasefire/">bidding of Hamas</a>.</p>
<p>At the center of Israel’s information warfare campaign is a tactical
mission to dehumanize Palestinians and to flood the public discourse
with a stream of false, unsubstantiated, and unverifiable allegations.</p>
<p>“We were struck Saturday by an attack whose savagery I can say we
have not seen since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu told President Joe Biden
in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq5hTirpL9s" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">phone call<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
on October 11. “They took dozens of children, bound them up, burned
them and executed them.” He added: “We have never seen such savagery in
the history of the state. They’re even worse than ISIS and we need to
treat them as such.”</p>
<p>“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” <a href="https://timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on October 9.</p>
<p>The message of these statements and others like them was clear:
Israel is confronting monsters, and no one has any business telling the
Jewish state, established in the aftermath of World War II under the
mantra of “Never again,” how to respond to an attempted genocide.
Israeli officials routinely invoke the Holocaust, compare Hamas to the
Nazis or to ISIS, and portray the events of October 7 as evidence of an
organized effort to commit genocide against the Jewish people.</p>
<p>On October 10, three days after the attacks, the Israeli military
organized a tour for international journalists to view the scene at Kfar
Aza Kibbutz. As they guided reporters and camera crews through the
community, IDF officials <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/unverified-allegations-beheaded-babies-israel-hamas-war-inflame-social-rcna119902" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">spread rumors<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> that as many as <a href="https://www.declassifieduk.org/beheaded-babies-how-uk-media-reported-israels-fake-news-as-fact/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">40 babies<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
had been murdered by Hamas, some of them beheaded. “It’s something I
never saw in my life. It’s something I used to imagine of my grandmother
and my grandfather in Europe and other places,” an Israeli general <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-takes-foreign-journalists-to-see-massacre-site-in-kfar-aza/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> reporters. “We got very, very disturbing reports that came from the ground that there were babies that had been beheaded,” <a href="https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1MYGNorgjgLJw" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus in a briefing for international
journalists. “I admit it took us some time to really understand and to
verify that report. It was hard to believe that even Hamas could perform
such a barbaric act.”</p>
<p>Lt. Col. Guy Basson, deputy commander of the Israeli army’s Kfir Brigade, claimed that he saw the aftermath of eight babies who <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-21/ty-article/.premium/army-officer-makes-incorrect-claims-on-oct-7-massacre-idf-well-set-record-straight/0000018d-2c67-daf5-a1bf-ac77f9b50000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">were executed<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
in a nursery at Kibbutz Be’eri. Among the victims, Basson asserted, was
also a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. “I see the number engraved
on her arm, and you say to yourself, she went through the Holocaust in
Auschwitz and ended up dying on Kibbutz Be’eri.” Another Israeli soldier
<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-journalist-slams-army-feeding-false-line-hamas" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> a journalist that “babies and children were hung on a clothes line in a row.”</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1730926291.jpg" alt="US President Joe Biden speaks with Eli Beer, Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel, while meeting with people in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, effected by this month's attacks on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in a surprise attack, holding some people hostage, that lead Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">President Joe Biden speaks with Eli Beer, founder of
volunteer EMS organization United Hatzalah of Israel on Oct. 18, 2023,
in Tel Aviv. Beer told several graphic stories about the Hamas attacks
that were later debunked.</p>
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
<p>Three weeks after the October 7 attacks, Eli Beer, the head of a
volunteer EMS squad in Israel, traveled to the U.S. and addressed a
gathering at the convention of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las
Vegas. “I saw in my own eyes a woman who was pregnant, four months
pregnant,” he <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/11/01/news/head-of-israels-ems-service-describes-horror-of-seeing-babies-slaughtered-by-hamas/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>.
“They came into her house, in front of her kids, they opened up her
stomach took out the baby, and stabbed the little, tiny baby in front of
her and then shot her in front of her family and then they killed the
rest of the kids.”</p>
<p>Beer offered graphic descriptions of other horrors he claimed to have
witnessed. “These bastards put these babies in an oven and put on the
oven. We found the kid a few hours later,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmXLoFs2LR8&t=0s" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
the U.S. audience on October 28. “I saw little kids who were beheaded.
We didn’t know which head belonged to which kid.” Beer, whose stories
were widely <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12689829/Palestinian-professor-previously-published-New-York-Times-makes-sick-joke-paramedics-Hamas-burned-baby-oven-without-baking-powder.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> in the international media, also <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/none-of-your-hearts-have-turned-to-stone-biden-lauds-first-responders-to-hamas-onslaught/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">met with<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Israel soon after the attack.</p>
<p>But there is a problem with the gut-wrenching narratives that have
bolstered the underlying justification for the slaughter of Gaza: They
are either complete fabrications or have not been substantiated with a
shred of evidence. Many have been thoroughly disproven by major Israeli
media outlets.</p>
<p>In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Netanyahu and other Israeli officials <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/showing-explicit-video-of-hamas-crimes-gallant-tells-nato-2023-is-not-1943/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">presented<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
U.S. and international leaders with a range of graphic images and
videos along with unverified narrative explanations for what they
allegedly depicted. “It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,”
Blinken <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/nato-ministers-shown-horrific-video-hamas-attack-2023-10-12/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> after first viewing the photos. “Images are worth a thousand words. These images may be worth a million.”</p>
<blockquote>In a coup for Netanyahu’s hasbara campaign, Biden and other leaders have laundered many of Israel’s obscene lies.</blockquote>
<p>In a coup for Netanyahu’s hasbara campaign, Biden and other leaders
have laundered many of Israel’s obscene lies. Beginning just days after
October 7, Biden <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/12/14/israel-biden-beheaded-babies-false/">repeatedly</a> claimed that he personally saw photographs of beheaded babies and more atrocities. Even after the White House <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-war-updates-gaza-attack/#link-SIA4LEH6CVAGFEXIJ4556IMXRI" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">admitted<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
Biden had seen no such photos, he continued to make the allegation,
including after visiting Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in Tel
Aviv. “I saw some of the photographs when I was there — tying a mother
and her daughter together on a rope and then pouring kerosene on them
and then burning them, beheading infants, doing things that are just
inhuman — totally, completely inhuman,” Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/12/12/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-5/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> at a campaign in event in December.</p>
<p>Blinken told the U.S. Senate another harrowing story about how Hamas
terrorists had tortured a family in their living room while
intermittently taking breaks to eat a meal their victims had placed on
the dining table before the horrors began that morning. “A young boy and
girl, 6 and 8 years old, and their parents around the breakfast table.
The father’s eye gouged out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast
cut off, the girl’s foot amputated, the boy’s fingers cut off before
they were executed,” Blinken <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_YHdUh-Yg" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>. “And then their executioners sat down and had a meal. That is what this society is dealing with.”</p>
<p>The story Blinken told about terrorists eating a meal while torturing
an Israeli family, as well as some of the assertions about decapitated
babies, was based on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-hamas-gaza-militants-ate-lunch-tortured-mutilated-young-family-2023-10" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">speculative fiction<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> invented by Yossi Landau, an official from the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/death-and-donations-did-the-volunteer-group-handling-the-october-7-dead-exploit-its-role/0000018d-5a73-d997-adff-df7bdb670000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">scandal-plagued<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> private Israeli rescue organization Zaka, who has <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">repeatedly spread<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> wildly false stories.</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1738963631.jpg" alt="BE'ERI, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 22: Members of Army rescue and ZAKA crews search for bodies and body parts after the Hamas and Palestinians militants attack on the Kibbutz on October 22, 2023 in Be'eri, Israel. As Israel prepares to invade the Gaza Strip in its campaign to vanquish Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched a deadly attack in southern Israel on October 7th, worries are growing of a wider war with multiple fronts, including at the country's northern border with Lebanon. Countries have scrambled to evacuate their citizens from Israel, and Israel has begun relocating residents some communities on its northern border. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of residents of northern Gaza have fled to the southern part of the territory, following Israel's vow to launch a ground invasion. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Army rescue and Zaka crews search Kibbutz Be’eri, one
of the sites attacked by Hamas fighters, on Oct. 22, 2023. Members of
Zaka, a private Israeli rescue organization, repeatedly spread
disinformation, some of which was promoted by U.S. officials.</p>
Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images/Getty Images
<p>There was <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-21/ty-article/.premium/army-officer-makes-incorrect-claims-on-oct-7-massacre-idf-well-set-record-straight/0000018d-2c67-daf5-a1bf-ac77f9b50000#:~:text=A%20Kibbutz%20Be%27eri,did%20not%20happen.%22" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">no Holocaust survivor<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
killed at Kibbutz Be’eri that day. There were no mass beheadings of
babies, no group executions in a nursery, no children hung from <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-committed-documented-atrocities-but-a-few-false-stories-feed-the-deniers/0000018c-34f3-da74-afce-b5fbe24f0000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">clotheslines<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>,
and no infants placed in ovens. No pregnant woman had her stomach cut
open and the fetus knifed in front of her and her other children. These
stories are entirely fictional, a set of audacious lies weaponized to
generate the type of collective rage used to justify the unjustifiable.</p>
<p>According to major Israeli <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/14-kids-under-10-25-people-over-80-up-to-date-breakdown-of-oct-7-victims-we-know-about/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">media outlets<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> that have worked diligently to <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/rk0bb2xrt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">identify<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> all the victims of the October 7 attacks, there was one infant killed that day: a 9-month-old named <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/yona-ohad-mila-cohen-73-43-10-months-three-generations-slain/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Mila Cohen<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> who
was shot dead at Kibbutz Be’eri as her mother held her in her arms.
Cohen’s mother, who was wounded by gunfire, survived. Among the other
civilians killed on October 7, seven of them were between the ages of 2
and 9 years, and 28 were between the ages of 10 and 19. Fourteen of
these children died in <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-committed-documented-atrocities-but-a-few-false-stories-feed-the-deniers/0000018c-34f3-da74-afce-b5fbe24f0000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Hamas rocket attacks<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>, not at the hands of the armed commandos who stormed the kibbutzes.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that widespread atrocities and war crimes were
committed during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7. It is also true
that Israeli military, government, and rescue officials have engaged in a
deliberate misinformation campaign about the nature of many deaths that
occurred that day.</p>
<blockquote>These stories are a set of audacious lies weaponized to generate the type of collective rage used to justify the unjustifiable.</blockquote>
<p>Israeli officials have toured the world with a film <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/b1pnmg9up" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">produced<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
at the direction of the IDF. The 47-minute “Bearing Witness to the
October 7 Massacre” features video allegedly seized from Palestinian
attackers equipped with GoPro cameras and cellphones, according to
Israeli officials. The movie has not been released to the public and has
only been available via special invitation from the Israeli government.
Its audiences have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/arts/screening-footage-israel-hollywood.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">included<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Hollywood celebrities, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/14/house-members-footage-attack-israel/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">dozens<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
of U.S. lawmakers and government officials, journalists, and global
luminaries; it has screened at various international venues, including
museums established in memory of the Holocaust. While hours of footage
of the attacks and their aftermath are available online, including video
shot by Palestinians who participated in the raids, the Israeli
government has said the footage is too sensitive to be publicly
released.</p>
<p>An IDF official, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/gruesome-footage-oct-7-hamas-052757815.html?" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">in uniform<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>,
personally delivers the professionally produced Digital Cinema Package
for the screenings, and viewers are required to sign nondisclosure
agreements affirming they will not record or distribute the footage. “It
will change the way you view the Middle East and the way you view the
war in Gaza,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United
Nations, at the Los Angeles <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hollywood-screening-bearing-witness-hamas-israel-attack-1235642773/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">premiere<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> of the footage last November. The film was characterized in media accounts as <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/11/footage-october-7-hamas-terror-massacre-shown-in-hollywood-new-york-this-week-bearing-witness-1235593662/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">depicting<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> “murder, beheadings, rapes and other atrocities against Jewish adults and children.”</p>
<p>The event, at the Museum of Tolerance, was organized by Israeli actor
Gal Gadot, star of the “Wonder Woman” movies, for film executives and
other members of the Hollywood industry. “Hamas must be eradicated. This
is the only way to prevent another massacre,” Erdan added. “If Israel
doesn’t eradicate this evil, mark my words: The West is next.”</p>
<p>While Israel has emphasized how incendiary the footage is, British journalist Owen Jones, who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5iG3DX7ho" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">attended<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
an IDF screening in the U.K., said a “significant amount” of the video
is already in the public domain. He said that while there was footage of
one IDF soldier who had apparently been decapitated, as well as the
already public footage of an unsuccessful attempt to behead a migrant
Thai worker with a garden tool, there was no footage substantiating
allegations of torture, sexual violence, and mass beheadings, including
of babies or other children. “Clearly this footage hasn’t been selected
at random. You would expect it to be the worst material that they have,”
Jones said. “This isn’t to say none of this happened, it’s just not in
the footage, which has been provided by the Israeli authorities.”</p>
<p>Israel’s hasbara campaign is reminiscent of the Bush administration’s monthslong carnival of lies, sanitized and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/03/15/iraq-war-where-are-they-now/">promoted</a> by <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/03/30/new-york-times-iraq-war-error/">major</a> media <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/03/29/iraq-war-atlantic-david-frum/">outlets</a>,
about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And Biden directly
participated in President George W. Bush’s campaign as well. In his
October 2002 Senate floor speech endorsing war against Iraq, <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2002-10-10/html/CREC-2002-10-10-pt1-PgS10233-7.htm#:~:text=But%20the%20reason%20he%20poses%20a%20growing%20danger%20to%20the%20United%20States%20and%20its%20%0Aallies%20is%20that%20he%20possesses%20chemical%20and%20biological%20weapons%20and%20is%20%0Aseeking%20nuclear%20weapons" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Biden declared that Saddam Hussein<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> “possesses chemical and biological weapons and is seeking nuclear weapons.”</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1730514202.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) hugs US President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on October 18, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Biden landed in Israel on October 18, on a solidarity visit following Hamas attacks that have led to major Israeli reprisals. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hugs U.S.
President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on
Oct. 18, 2023.</p>
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
<h2 id="gmail-h-allegations-of-systematic-rape">Allegations of Systematic Rape</h2>
<p>The Israeli propaganda machine is well oiled. Anyone can look back at
Israel’s four-month war against Gaza and trace a pattern: Israel
chooses an issue and demands global attention to its agenda at the
expense of any other matter.</p>
<p>When news organizations began reporting on the civilian toll of Israel’s initial airstrikes against Gaza, the government <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-new-york-times-cnn-reuters-ap-hamas-attack-photos-press-journalist/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">accused<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
photographers for major news organizations of being Hamas members or
sympathizers who had foreknowledge of the October 7 attacks. Netanyahu
said the journalists were “accomplices in crimes against humanity.”
Israel then <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/31/gaza-pregnancy-childbirth-health-care/">portrayed</a> Gaza’s <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/08/gaza-hospitals-babies-doctors-patients/">hospitals</a> as secret Hamas command centers, an allegation that the Biden administration bolstered as the IDF prepared to<a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/21/al-shifa-hospital-hamas-israel/"> lay siege to Al-Shifa Hospital </a>last November.</p>
<p>Throughout the war, Israel has sought to direct media and global
attention to various new smoking-gun narratives. And in nearly every
case, it succeeds in getting the U.S. on board to launder and promote
the talking points.</p>
<p>In late November, as the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/31/gaza-death-palestine-health-ministry/">civilian death toll</a>
in Gaza climbed, Israel was struggling to retain its dominance of the
narrative. Global demands for a ceasefire were mounting, and even some
of Israel’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/canadian-pm-trudeau-tells-israel-killing-babies-gaza-must-end-2023-11-14/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">allies<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> were expressing <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67356581" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">horror<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> at the indiscriminate killing of women and children and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe.</p>
<p>A weeklong truce, during which captives were exchanged, <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/arab-nations-say-israel-hamas-truce-should-be-extended" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">raised hopes<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
that a more enduring peace deal could be on the horizon, despite
Israeli insistence that that was out of the question. “A prolonged
ceasefire that allows more hostages to be released, and that evolves
towards a permanent ceasefire linked to a political process, is
something we have consensus on,” <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/11/27/gaza-humanitarian-pause-should-evolve-into-permanent-ceasefire-eu-top-diplomat" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> the EU’s top foreign policy official Josep Borrell.</p>
<p>Days earlier, the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium traveled to
the Rafah border to push for such a deal and drew the fury of the
Israeli government when they publicly condemned the indiscriminate
killing of Palestinian civilians. Eli Cohen, then the Israeli foreign
minister, accused the leaders of offering “support [for] terrorism,”
while Netanyahu released a <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1728080294735966359" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">statement<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> condemning them because they “did not place total responsibility on Hamas for the crimes against humanity it perpetrated.”</p>
<blockquote>Anyone can
look back at Israel’s four-month war against Gaza and trace a pattern:
Israel chooses an issue and demands global attention to its agenda at
the expense of any other matter.</blockquote>
<p>It was at this moment that the Israeli government decided it needed
to remind the world of Israel’s victimhood and launched a new phase of
the hasbara campaign. It began accusing the international community of
standing silent in the face of what Israeli officials described as a
widespread campaign of rape and sexual violence aimed at Jewish women
and orchestrated by Hamas on October 7. By early December, the issue had
become a major focus of conservative media and Israel’s allies.</p>
<p>“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights
organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible
atrocities, sexual mutilation? Where the hell are you?” Netanyahu <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> in a December 5 speech in Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>That day, on the other side of the globe, Biden was at a campaign
fundraising event in Boston. “Over the past few weeks, survivors and
witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of
unimaginable cruelty: reports of women raped — repeatedly raped and
their bodies being mutilated while still alive, of women corpses being
desecrated, and Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering
as — on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. And it’s
appalling,” Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/12/05/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-reception-weston-ma/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>.
“The world can’t just look away — what’s going on. It’s on all of us —
the government, international organizations, civil society, individual
citizens — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists
without equivocation — without equivocation, without exception.”</p>
<p>From the earliest moments following the October 7 attacks, Israel
charged that women had been raped by Hamas fighters, though it was often
an allegation made in sequence alongside other alleged atrocities. But
in mid-November, those assertions began evolving into a sustained public
blitz, <a href="https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1723759157960953981?lang=en" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">accusing<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Hamas of instituting a plan to “systematically rape women.” Israel government spokesperson Eylon Levy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/stakes-high-as-south-africa-brings-claim-of-genocidal-intent-against-israel" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">spoke<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> of a “Hamas rapist machine.”</p>
<p>“Hamas used rape and sexual violence as weapons of war,” <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-biden-slam-global-silence-on-hamas-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">charged<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
Erdan, the U.N. ambassador. “These were not spur-of-the-moment
decisions to defile and mutilate girls and parade them while onlookers
cheered; rather, this was premeditated.”</p>
<p>To date, there has been no credible evidence presented publicly that
such a campaign took place, and Hamas has vehemently denied that its
fighters committed any acts of rape or sexual assault. The fact that
Israel has not produced forensic evidence for individual rapes does not
prove that no such deeds took place. Rape investigations are often
complex, particularly <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/09/27/ukraine-russia-war-crimes-sexual-violence-collaborators/">when the crime occurs amid a chaotic scene of mass violence</a>. Sexual violence is common in warfare, and it often takes years for the full story of such crimes to emerge.</p>
<p>But there is a difference between making specific allegations of rape
or sexual assault and charging that organized mass rape was a central
component of an operation meticulously planned over the course of years.
Israel’s evidence of the latter comes nowhere near to measuring up to
its claims.</p>
<p>Israeli rescue workers as well as civilian and military medical
officials have described evidence of dead women who were naked or had
clothing removed, as well as women who were subjected to genital
mutilation, though they have not released documentary or forensic
evidence.</p>
<p>But many of the most <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1752807728387371216" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">graphic allegations<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> of mass rapes have been offered by Israeli military or rescue officials who acknowledge they have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/world/middleeast/zaka-israel-oct-7.html#:~:text=Mr.%20Landau%20is,using%20rape%20kits." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">no training<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
or expertise in forensics. Some of them, whose claims have been
featured in many media accounts, also spread false stories about other
alleged atrocities.</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1827100906.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2023/12/04: Shari Mendes speaks during special event to address sexual violence during Hamas terror attack on October 7 held at UN Headquarters. During the event, speakers described their personal experience seeing women violated during terror attack and condemned women's advocacy groups, specifically UN Women, to be silent on this. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Shari Mendes, an IDF reservist originally from New
Jersey, speaks at a conference organized by Israel at the U.N. on Dec.
4, 2023. Mendes has been one of the most prominent voices alleging
widespread sexual violence occurred on October 7.</p>
Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
<p>Shari Mendes, an architect serving in the IDF reserves in a
rabbinical unit, was deployed to a morgue to prepare bodies for burial
after the attacks. An American originally from New Jersey, Mendes did
multiple TV and print interviews about her experiences. “We have seen
women who have been raped, from the age of children through to the
elderly,” she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> reporters, <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2023/10/israel-hamas-terror-attack-shura-army-base-identifying-the-dead/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">emphasizing<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>, “This is not just something we saw on the internet, we saw these bodies with our own eyes.”</p>
<p>For months, Mendes has served as one of the most visible witnesses
bolstering Israel’s allegations of systematic rape. But few media
outlets featuring her claims have mentioned the <a href="https://www.oct7factcheck.com/Shari-Mendes-4409ad291a574619a697a232e4f4ed60#7bf65c30921e4358b03ee43d8b0ebf68" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">valid concerns<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> about her credibility and her history of promoting a false story. She <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12653435/Israeli-morgue-worker-says-horrors-inflicted-Hamass-victims-worse-Holocaust-including-decapitated-pregnant-woman-beheaded-unborn-child.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> the Daily Mail last October, “A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded.”</p>
<p>On December 5, as Israel engaged in a global media push around its
allegations that Hamas had committed mass rapes, Mendes was a featured
speaker at an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-776654" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">event<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> in New York organized by Israel’s mission to the U.N. on sexual violence and the October 7 attacks. The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-war-and-urgent-need-to-id-bodies-evidence-of-hamass-october-7-rapes-slips-away/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> that Mendes “is not legally qualified to determine rape.”</p>
<p>The observations of first responders or members of religious burial
units, particularly those without relevant scientific credentials, are
not a replacement for forensic documentation of an uncontaminated crime
scene. Israeli authorities have said evidence that would typically be
taken in cases of suspected sexual assault was not recovered in the
aftermath of the attacks, attributing this failure to a combination of
the magnitude of the deaths, the charred nature of some bodies, and to
Jewish burial practices.</p>
<p>Some of the evidence publicly <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-28/ty-article/.premium/israel-police-presents-further-evidence-of-sexual-assault-by-hamas-members-on-october-7/0000018c-169e-dd03-a7ff-bebe1bdb0000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">cited<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
by Israeli officials is testimony provided by Zaka, the private Israeli
rescue organization whose members have been widely documented to have
spread false allegations. Haaretz published an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/death-and-donations-did-the-volunteer-group-handling-the-october-7-dead-exploit-its-role/0000018d-5a73-d997-adff-df7bdb670000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">exposé<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> documenting Zaka’s role in the rampant mishandling of forensic evidence that day and its subsequent campaign of misinformation.</p>
<p>The Israeli government has maintained that it possesses evidence that has not been made public and has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/the-people-investigating-israel-s-biggest-crime-scene/103228512" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">enlisted<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> international teams of forensic and other crime scene experts. Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html#:~:text=There%20are%20at,investigators%20or%20reporters." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> there are “at least three women and one man who were sexually assaulted and survived.”</p>
<p>But other Israeli officials have <a href="https://hebrewnews-com.translate.goog/article/57301?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">stated<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
that there are no known living victims of rape that day, while some
have described the challenge of identifying potential victims.</p>
<p>On December 28, the New York Times published what instantly became the most widely circulated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">news story<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> purporting to document a widespread campaign of sexual violence orchestrated by Hamas. That story has come under intense <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">scrutiny<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>, including <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/28/new-york-times-daily-podcast-camera/">within the Times newsroom.</a></p>
<p>The family of Gal Abdush, whose alleged rape was at the center of the
Times article, disputed the article’s assertion she was raped. One
relative also suggested the family was pressured, under false pretenses,
to speak with the reporters. Abdush’s sister wrote on Instagram that
the Times reporters “mentioned they want to write a report in memory of
Gal, and that’s it. If we knew that the title would be about rape and
butchery, we’d never accept that.” A woman who filmed Abdush on October 7
told <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/laisha/article/h1gzxtbtp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YNet<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
that Israeli journalists working for the Times had pressured her into
giving the paper access to her photos and videos. “They called me again
and again and explained how important it is to Israeli hasbara,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/TalulaSha/status/1747763918032773627" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">recalled<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>.</p>
<p>Critics of the Times story also <a href="https://speakupeg.com/2023/12/30/nyts-disgraceful-investigation-weaponizing-sexual-violence-against-women-for-occupation-propaganda/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">pointed to the inconsistencies<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> of the accounts of some of the alleged witnesses featured, as well as to its use of information provided by members of Zaka.</p>
<p>Several Israelis who survived the October 7 attacks have publicly
claimed that they witnessed rapes by Palestinian assailants, but Israeli
investigators have said they are still searching for supporting
evidence. Authorities also say they must match alleged victims with
specific eyewitness testimony in order to bring potential charges.</p>
<p>What often goes unmentioned in Israel’s sweeping allegations is an
important fact: Hamas was not the only Palestinian group to attack
Israelis on October 7. Many individuals who had no knowledge of Hamas’s
plans poured across the border and committed acts of violence in what
has been referred to as an unplanned “second wave.” Some of these <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/world/hamas-leader-says-not-all-the-israeli-hostages-are-being-held-by-his-group-2734804" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">non-Hamas<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> Palestinians also took Israeli hostages back to Gaza.</p>
<p>One survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, a veteran of
Israel’s special forces, has given multiple interviews to major media
outlets, including the New York Times, about a rape he claims to have
witnessed. During an appearance on CNN, Raz Cohen <a href="https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1743129298112790949?lang=en" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">described<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
the assailants as “Five guys — five civilians from Gaza, normal guys,
not soldiers, not Nukhba,” referring to Hamas’s elite commando force.
“It was regular people from Gaza with normal clothes.” Cohen, it must be
noted, has told varying, sometimes contradictory, versions of what he
witnessed.</p>
<p>Israel has painted all actions on October 7 as being committed by
Hamas and its fighters. That storyline obviously serves Israel’s
military and political objectives, but the truth is more complicated.</p>
<p>In light of Israel’s well-documented campaign of lies and
misinformation about other events on October 7, incendiary allegations,
such as claims that Hamas engaged in a deliberate campaign of systematic
rape, should be viewed with extreme skepticism.</p>
<img width="391" height="270" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1738610338.jpg" alt="In this picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military on October 22, 2023, the international press film the Israeli army spokesperson during a press visit to Kibbutz Beeri along the border with the Gaza Strip, in the aftermath of a Palestinian militant attack on October 7. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Members of the media go on a press tour organized by
the Israeli military on Oct. 22, 2023, at Kibbutz Be’eri, which was
targeted by Hamas during the October 7 attacks. Witnesses said that an
Israeli tank fired on a house filled with Israeli civilians held hostage
on October 7.</p>
Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
<h2 id="gmail-h-friendly-fire">Friendly Fire</h2>
<p>As many U.S. media outlets and politicians have promoted and
laundered Israel’s claims, spreading them far and wide, there have been
strong voices among the Israeli public and media that have exhibited
skepticism. This is especially true regarding the actions taken by
Israeli forces as they responded to the October 7 attacks. Calls are
growing inside Israel, led by survivors and victims’ families, for the
Israeli government to provide a factual explanation of precisely how
their loved ones died: Were they killed by Palestinian militants or by
the Israeli military?</p>
<p>Israeli media outlets have aired interviews with survivors and IDF personnel <a href="https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2023/11/21/friendly-fire-incidents-killed-idf-soldiers-and-civilians/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">describing<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> what they refer to as “friendly fire” <a href="https://www.the7eye.org.il/503392" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">incidents<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>,
including the shelling of a house where Hamas commandos were holding
Israeli civilians hostage. Families of some Israelis killed at Kibbutz
Be’eri have <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-06/ty-article/.premium/idf-probing-death-of-12-hostages-in-beeri-house-shelled-on-orders-of-senior-officer/0000018d-7b6c-d008-a9cd-fbfdb0040000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">cited<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
witnesses who said that an Israeli tank fired on a house filled with
Israeli civilians held hostage on October 7. A dozen hostages, including
12-year-old twins, died inside the house after Israeli forces began
shelling it.</p>
<p>“According to the evidence, the shooting of the tank was fatal and
killed many hostages in addition to the terrorists,” the families <a rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
in a January 4 letter to the IDF’s chief of staff. Given the
“seriousness of the incident, we do not think it is right to wait with
the investigation until after the end of the war.” They demanded a
“comprehensive and transparent investigation into the decisions and
actions that led to this tragic outcome.” Israeli military Brig.
Gen. Barak Hiram has since admitted he ordered the shelling that day.
“The negotiations are over,” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/22/world/europe/beeri-massacre.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">recalled<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> saying. “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.”</p>
<p>Yasmin Porat, who had escaped the horrors at the Nova music festival and sought refuge in a home at Be’eri, offered <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861#transcript:~:text=Transcript%20of%20the%20Kan%20interview%20with%20Yasmin%20Porat" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">extensive details<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> on this incident. In a <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231021-israel-settler-israel-forces-killed-hostages-not-hamas/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">series<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
of interviews on Israeli media, Porat described how Palestinian
commandos entered the home and told the Israeli civilians they intended
to take them hostage and, after moving them to a location with other
hostages at the kibbutz, ultimately used their Israeli captives to
contact the police to negotiate. “Their objective was to kidnap us to
Gaza. Not to murder us,” she told Israeli network Kan News. “And after
we were there for two hours with the abductors, the police arrive. A gun
battle takes place that our police started.”</p>
<p>Porat, who said her captors “treated us very humanely,” described how
she managed to escape the house by convincing one of the gunmen to exit
with her. After using her as a “human shield” to exit the house, the
Palestinian was taken into custody, and Porat remained on the scene as
Israeli forces laid siege to the house. “They eliminated everyone,
including the hostages. There was very, very heavy crossfire,” she said.
“Everyone was killed there. Just horrible.” </p>
<p>Other witnesses at Be’eri have <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-10-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018b-499a-dc3c-a5df-ddbaab290000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">described<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
how Israeli forces were able to retake the kibbutz from Palestinian
fighters only after the IDF shelled houses where hostages were being
held.</p>
<p>There is also <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-18/ty-article/.premium/israeli-security-establishment-hamas-likely-didnt-have-prior-knowledge-of-nova-festival/0000018b-e2ee-d168-a3ef-f7fe8ca20000#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20police%20source%2C%20the%20investigation%20also%20indicates%20that%20an%20IDF%20combat%20helicopter%20that%20arrived%20to%20the%20scene%20and%20fired%20at%20terrorists%20there%20apparently%20also%20hit%20some%20festival%20participants." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">evidence<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
indicating that Israeli forces responding to the attacks at the Nova
music festival, where 364 people died, may have killed Israeli civilians
as they attacked Palestinian militants, including with munitions fired
from Apache helicopters. Yedioth Ahronoth and other major Israeli media
outlets have published reports detailing the massive fire from combat
helicopters and drones unleashed against the gunmen who violently
stormed the festival. Military sources <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/b111niukzt" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">described<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> the difficulty in distinguishing civilians from attackers, particularly in the early phases of the Israeli counterstrike.</p>
<p>In the most sweeping journalistic account to date of the events
surrounding the Israeli military’s operations on October 7, Ronen
Bergman and Yoav Zitun — two well-connected and prominent Israeli
journalists —<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october#translation" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
about the state of chaos and panic within the security establishment.
They described “a command chain that failed almost entirely and was
entirely blindsided; orders to open fire on terrorist vehicles speeding
towards Gaza even as there was a concern that they contained captives —
some sort of renewed version of the Hannibal Directive.”</p>
<p>The Hannibal Directive, which dates back to 1986 and has been the
subject of great controversy in Israel, authorized military forces to
stop the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers at all costs, even if it meant
shooting or injuring the captives. In a 2003 <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2003-05-21/ty-article/the-hannibal-procedure/0000017f-dbb8-db22-a17f-ffb9aba40000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">investigation<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>,
the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the broadly held understanding
of the directive: “From the point of view of the army, a dead soldier is
better than a captive soldier who himself suffers and forces the state
to release thousands of captives in order to obtain his release.”</p>
<p>The Hannibal Directive was <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-06-28/ty-article/.premium/idf-chief-orders-to-revoke-controversial-hannibal-directive/0000017f-e15f-d804-ad7f-f1ff16e00000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">allegedly rescinded<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
in 2016. But Bergman and Zitun report that by midday on October 7, the
IDF issued a similar order, instructing all units to stop Hamas from
bringing hostages back to Gaza and to do so “at any cost.” They describe
Israeli helicopter gunships, drones, and tanks firing on any and all
cars en route to Gaza, burning them and in some cases killing everyone
inside the vehicles. Haaretz <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article/.premium/underprepared-and-overconfident-israel-failed-to-spot-the-signs-of-impending-disaster/0000018b-4976-d03a-afcb-697edb020000#:~:text=Brig.%20Gen.%20Rosenfeld,repulse%20the%20terrorists." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
on an IDF commander, locked in a subterranean bunker, calling in a
strike against his own bases “in order to repulse the terrorists.”</p>
<p>The truth is that we do not know how many of their own people Israeli
forces killed during the counteroffensive on October 7. Nor do we know
what happened in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-attack-kibbutz-survived-4057fb1f" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">firefights<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> when armed Israelis, including kibbutz private security and military personnel, sought to defend their settlements.</p>
<blockquote>How many
Israelis — soldiers and civilians — were killed in the chaos and had
their deaths recorded as killed or sadistically burned alive by Hamas?</blockquote>
<p>Beyond the deadly shelling of the house at Be’eri, the public has
been given very few details of what exactly transpired when official
Israeli military forces deployed to confront the commandos from Gaza.
Israeli military and police forces engaged in prolonged standoffs and
shootouts with Palestinian gunmen holed up in houses, police stations,
military installations, and other buildings, often holding hostages. In
some cases, these battles went on for days.</p>
<p>In November, Netanyahu senior adviser Mark Regev was asked by MSNBC
host Mehdi Hasan about some of the lies told by Israeli officials and
soldiers about the events of October 7. Regev remarked that when a claim
has been proven false, Israel retracts or clarifies it. “We originally
said, in the atrocious Hamas attack upon our people on October 7, we had
the number at 1,400 casualties and now we’ve revised that down to 1,200
because we understood that we’d overestimated, we made a mistake,”
Regev <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-yRuTasHU" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>.
He then added: “There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt we
thought they were ours; in the end, apparently they were Hamas
terrorists.”</p>
<p>Israel’s social security agency has stated that the death toll from
October 7 is 1,139 people. It has identified 695 Israeli civilians
killed that day, along with 71 foreigners, most of whom were migrant
laborers. Some 373 members of Israeli military and security forces were <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231215-israel-social-security-data-reveals-true-picture-of-oct-7-deaths" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> dead.</p>
<p>Israel has estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinian
fighters were killed that day, many of them during assaults launched
with advanced weapons fired from tanks, helicopters, and drones. How
many Israelis — soldiers and civilians — were killed in the chaos and
had their deaths recorded as killed or sadistically burned alive by
Hamas? How many Israeli lives were sacrificed under Hannibal-style
orders to prevent them from being taken hostage at all costs?</p>
<p>The answers to these questions will bring no absolution to those who
initiated the carnage on October 7. No civilians would have died in
those Israeli communities had Hamas not launched its operations. It is
also true that if Israel had not engaged in a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/22/intercepted-podcast-palestine-rashid-khalidi/">75-year campaign</a> of<a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/12/13/intercepted-podcast-israel-palestine-military-equipment/"> ethnic cleansing</a> and<a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/04/01/israel-palestine-apartheid-settlements/"> apartheid</a>,
there would not have been an October 7. The illusion promoted by the
Israeli state that its people could live a bucolic life in the “Gaza
envelope” while their government enforced the caging and repression of
2.3 million Palestinians next door was shattered.</p>
<p>The families of the dead deserve to have answers. The specifics of
what happened that day also matter because of how these events have
shaped the public attitude toward Israel’s war, with its horrifying
death toll, particularly among Palestinian children.</p>
<img width="391" height="263" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1981882942.jpg" alt="GAZA CITY, GAZA - FEBRUARY 6: Many Palestinian families take refuge under harsh conditions at a school affiliated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at the Daraj neighborhood as the Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Gaza on February 6, 2024. (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Many Palestinian families take refuge under harsh
conditions at a school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, in the Daraj neighborhood
as the Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City, Gaza, on Feb. 6, 2024.</p>
Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images
<h2 id="gmail-h-faulty-justifications">Faulty Justifications</h2>
<p>Cynical manipulation of the truth has been a hallmark of Netanyahu’s career. He has <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/14/hamas-israel-palestinian-authority/">long advocated for Hamas</a>
to achieve and maintain power in Gaza precisely because he believed it
was the single best path to achieving his own colonial agenda.</p>
<p>“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state
has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,”
Netanyahu <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-09/ty-article/.premium/another-concept-implodes-israel-cant-be-managed-by-a-criminal-defendant/0000018b-1382-d2fc-a59f-d39b5dbf0000" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">told<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> his
Likud confederates in 2019. The logic was clear: The world will never
give the Palestinians a state while Hamas remains in power. That’s why,
since at least 2012, Netanyahu has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">facilitated the continued flow of money<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> to Hamas.</p>
<p>By January 18, with the horrors in Gaza intensifying, U.S. and
European diplomats were telling anyone who would listen that they were
deep into planning for a “day after” scenario that would pave the way
for a two-state solution. Netanyahu responded to this chatter by giving a
televised speech in Hebrew. “I clarify that in any arrangement in the
foreseeable future, with an accord or without an accord, Israel must
have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan
River,” Netanyahu <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-says-no-way-solve-israel-security-gaza-war-without-palestinian-state-2024-01-18/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">said<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>. “That’s a necessary condition. It clashes with the principle of sovereignty but what can you do?”</p>
<p>While it was reported as a defiant rebuke of his U.S. and European
allies, there was nothing new in Netanyahu’s position. It has been the
Likud party’s official stance since its 1977 charter. “Between the Sea
and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">document<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
reads. “A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel,
undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the
establishment of a ‘Palestinian State,’ jeopardizes the security of the
Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel, and
frustrates any prospect of peace.”</p>
<blockquote>The
hospitals are Hamas, the U.N. is Hamas, journalists are Hamas, European
allies are Hamas, the International Court of Justice is antisemitic.</blockquote>
<p>The lies that were spread in the immediate aftermath of the October 7
attacks did not end there. Nearly every week, sometimes every day, the
Israeli government and military have unloaded a fresh barrage of
allegations intended to justify the ongoing slaughter. The hospitals are
Hamas, the U.N. is Hamas, journalists are Hamas, European allies are
Hamas, the International Court of Justice is antisemitic. The tactic is
effective, particularly because the U.S. and other major allies have
consistently laundered Israel’s unverified allegations as evidence of
the righteousness of the cause.</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1853466901.jpg" alt="NORTHERN GAZA, GAZA - DECEMBER 15: Head of the IDF spokesperson Unit, Daniel Hagari, stands at the opening to a tunnel near the border with Israel on December 15, 2023, northern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces say this is the largest tunnel they've found yet in Gaza, comprising branches that extend well over four kilometers (2.5 miles) and reaches 400 meters (1,310 feet) from the Erez crossing. The IDF alleges the project of building the tunnel was led by Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and was used as part of the Oct. 7 attack, funnelling fighters near the Erez crossing and Israeli border communities. As the IDF have pressed into Gaza as part of their campaign to defeat Hamas, they have highlighted the militant group's extensive tunnel network as emblematic of the way the group embeds itself and its military activity in civilian areas. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari,
pictured in northern Gaza on Dec. 15, 2023, is a daily fixture in
Israel’s propaganda campaign.</p>
Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images
<p>The latest example is Israel’s campaign to destroy UNRWA, the single
most important humanitarian organization in Gaza, which was established
in 1949 specifically to protect Palestinians violently expelled from
their homes and land by the creation of the Israeli state. Almost <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/29/unrwa-funding-genocide-israel/">immediately after</a> the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/26/icj-ruling-gaza-genocide/">ICJ ruled against Israel</a> in the genocide case <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/12/icj-israel-genocide/">brought by South Africa</a> in The Hague, Israel accused 12 of the organization’s 30,000 employees of participating in the October 7 attacks.</p>
<p>Israel then <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">presented<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
the U.S. and other governments with “intelligence” it claimed to have
obtained from the interrogations of Palestinian captives, documents
recovered from the bodies of dead Palestinians, seized cellphones, and
signals intercepts. Israel charged that 10 percent of UNRWA’s
12,000-person local staff in Gaza had some form of “links” to Hamas.
“The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas’ radical ideology,” an
anonymous senior Israeli official told the Wall Street Journal in a
widely cited article penned by a <a href="https://x.com/jeremyscahill/status/1752702933848993908?s=20" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">former IDF<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremyscahill/status/1752702933848993908?s=20" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">soldier<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>.</p>
<p>The innuendo-laced allegation of UNRWA staff having undefined “links”
to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, or “close relatives” who belong to the
groups is a risible charge given that Hamas is not just an armed
militia, but also the governing civil authority in Gaza.</p>
<p>The U.S. responded to Israel’s allegations by immediately announcing it was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/27/world/middleeast/pause-funding-gaza-unrwa.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">suspending<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> all funding to UNRWA. “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves,” Blinken <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-says-evidence-of-unrwa-staffers-oct-7-involvement-highly-highly-credible/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">admitted<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a> on January 30. Nonetheless, he declared: “They are highly, highly credible.”</p>
<p>But journalists from Sky News reviewed the so-called dossier and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/israeli-intelligence-report-claims-four-unrwa-staff-in-gaza-involved-in-hamas-kidnappings-13059967" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>,
“The Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News
has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not
directly implicate UNRWA.” Britain’s Channel 4 also obtained the
document and <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/israels-evidence-of-unrwa-hamas-allegations-examined" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">determined<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
it “provides no evidence to support its explosive new claim that UNRWA
staff were involved with terror attacks on Israel.” The Financial Times,
which also reviewed the materials, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bb8fc310-d359-4a31-b8e3-11a433b935f5" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">reported<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
there were specific allegations of direct participation in the October 7
attacks against four Palestinians employed by UNRWA, not 12 as
originally asserted.</p>
<p>This was a transparent attempt by Israel to distract from the rulings
in the ICJ genocide case and to obliterate a U.N. agency that Israel
has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/31/israels-allegations-unrwa-effort-eliminate-agency" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">long viewed<span>Opens in a new tab</span></a>
as an impediment to its goal of denying Palestinians the right to
return to the homes and territory from which Israel expelled them. It
was also an action that explicitly violated the orders issued by the
world court, which directed Israel to “take immediate and effective
measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and
humanitarian assistance.” Based on Israel’s sweeping and unverified
allegations alone, the U.S. led scores of Western nations to denounce
the U.N. agency and pull their funding at the moment it is needed most.</p>
<p>From weapons and intelligence to political, diplomatic, and legal
support, Israel has wanted for nothing from the Biden administration.
The<a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/02/israel-gaza-icj-palestinian-deaths"> mounting pile of Palestinian civilian corpses</a>
and their surviving family members, meanwhile, are relegated to the
workshopped afterthoughts uttered by Western politicians who have been
told they should occasionally squeeze a line or two into their speeches
about death and suffering in Gaza.</p>
<p>Propaganda and weaponized lies can only obscure the dead bodies, the
forced starvation, the mass killing of children, and the utter
destruction of an entire society for so long. Over time, it becomes
increasingly difficult to conceal the nexus between the actions taken by
Israel after October 7, the mendacious narratives it deployed, and
Netanyahu’s desperate struggle to retain political power and his
personal liberty. The 1,200 Israeli and international victims of October
7, and the more than 27,000 Palestinians whose deaths were justified in
their names, deserve an unvarnished rendering of the truth.</p>
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