Be aware of misinformation seen regarding Palestine

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Me too! I was wondering how wss it possible for so many people to fall for that sloppy propaganda. Now I know!

I found the article so eye opening that I decided to start a thread about it:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/conflict-in-the-middle-east/4944590-fact-or-fiction-israel-needs-fake-nurses-to-justify-killing-gaza-babies-opinion-piece

True.

That is odd it opened for me fine without subscription

Yeah, I'm in Ireland where the narrative is very different to mumsnet.

I guess you're from Ireland or South/ Latin America? I am intentionally not mentioning Muslim and/ or Arab countries for obvious reasons.

I meant he says the IDF planted the guns etc the box was one they brought in.

Ohlalalalala · Today 07:20

The author explains excellently well how Israel is trying to keep control of the false narrative regarding Palestine. I urge everyone to read the whole piece as I copied parts only of the analysis.

I’ll go back and read the whole piece, but thank you for copying parts out so it is more immediate. I would have missed understanding how even sloppy propaganda can work.

This morning I saw a statement on Al Jazeera from a Hamas spokesman where he showed a still of an Israeli soldier going into the Al Shifa hospital with a box on his back with a label on one corner ( not the large medical supply labels), then he points out a photo where you see the same box with the same label in the room with the allegedly discovered guns and tote bags. He says the IDF planted it.

Who knows, but what happens is that you eventually just blank-out from confusion. This is desired effect.

I presume someone could do a check on the markings of both the box in the room and the one on the soldier’s bag, presuming those images are also the verified ones.

Hassan Eslaiah

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-photographers.html

"Video is an especially effective propaganda medium. From October 7 onwards, social media channels have been flooded with clips posted by high-follower accounts linked to Hamas. Some of the individuals spreading this content present as “journalists,” even though they’re known to have ingratiated themselves with Hamas’ leadership. In one notorious case, a CNN freelancer posted a photo of himself holding a grenade while he accompanied Hamas on the 10/7 rampage. "

https://quillette.com/2023/11/16/hamas-cheerleaders/

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Humdingerydoo

Has anyone heard anything about Zaka in the hospital? It's sounding like they might have found a lot more than just Yehudit Weiss' remains”

All of the hostages will be dead before this is brought to an end. Netanyahu doesn’t care. It serves his purposes.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2023/11/17/us-hate-groups-antisemitism-osullivan-ac360-vpx.cnn

I've been so surprised at just how well their sloppy propaganda works. I live in a country that has been pro palestine for decades, the vast majority of people are sceptical of Israel, Israel have tried to smear my country with lies because they are well aware of our stance. Reading mumsnet has been an education, I had no idea that people swallow everything Israel say, listening to some posters here is like listening to the bonkers Israeli ambassadors and spokespeople that most people in my country roll their eyes and laugh at. It's crazy how well even poorly thought out propaganda works with the right audience.

The author explains excellently well how Israel is trying to keep control of the false narrative regarding Palestine. I urge everyone to read the whole piece as I copied parts only of the analysis.

But now that Israel can no longer deny that it is killing Palestinian babies, it is trying to legitimise their murder. In his work on ‘image restoration theory’, William Benoit calls this ‘reducing offensiveness’. Put simply, you blame the victim, or make the victim seem deserving of their suffering.

As the death toll rises, so do the outlandish attempts to shift blame on innocent victims.

But no amount of manufactured videos or planted “evidence” can obscure the truth. Children are dying by the hundreds in Gaza, their blood spilled by Israel’s bombs, bullets and siege.

Hate-filled, Mein Kampf-reading children
Beyond blaming Hamas, a more sinister stage in the legitimisation of Israel’s killing of children is emerging – the attempt to smear Palestinian children as recipients of evil, anti-Semitic Hamas propaganda. That Palestinian children are only trained to become ‘terrorists’.

On November 5, Israel’s official Arabic account tweeted a cartoon showing that Israel brings its babies up with ‘love’, while Hamas fills babies in Gaza with ‘hate’.

Then, on Monday, the official Foreign Ministry-run Israel account claimed on X that the Israeli military had found a copy of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ in a child’s room in Gaza. Pristine, with perfect notes and highlights, the ‘finding’ of the book was an attempt to bolster the narrative that Palestinian children are being filled with hate, are beyond redemption and are thus valid targets for killing.

Mein Kampf represents the epitome of anti-Semitism. It is Hitler’s autobiography. The significance of this will not be lost on many in the West, often the intended audiences for Israeli propaganda. The use of Mein Kampf, a copy of which was brandished theatrically by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, demonstrates that Israel is trying to portray older Palestinian children as brainwashed anti-Semites – it’s a simple tool to push that narrative.

But spreading disinformation and then deleting it has become routine, raising the question: Why is the Israeli military’s propaganda so sloppy? After all, doesn’t Israel risk losing credibility this way?

No, because the benefits outweigh the costs. The old adage, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”, tells us most of what we need to know about propaganda. The key is not truthfulness, but rather speed and primacy.

Controlling the narrative means getting information out faster than your enemy, and making that information sensational – regardless of whether it is factual. One study showed that 86 percent of people do not fact-check news they see on social media.

Once something false goes viral, the people who see it are unlikely to see the fact-checked version. The audience for such videos aren’t astute fact-checkers. In Israel’s case, large numbers of the audience are English-speaking, Western viewers who won’t catch fake accents and have no reason to believe such information is false.

It’s important to remember, propaganda does not need to be sophisticated to be effective – just fast and sensationalist. Social media is perfect for this.

Here's a very interesting long and detailed analysis by the academic Dr Marc Owen Jones, about what's happening right now. Some excerpts (highlights mine):

Fact or Fiction: Israel needs fake nurses to justify killing Gaza babies

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2023/11/17/fact-or-fiction-israel-needs-fake-nurses-to-justify-killing-gaza-babies

Israel knows it risks losing global support over its slaughter of children. So it’s turning to social media disinformation that’s sloppy but often effective.

In Gaza, a child is killed every 10 minutes. Since October 7, Israel has killed more than 4,000 children. Now, premature babies at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital are dying because the institution is out of power after over a month of Israel’s siege, and so is unable to operate incubators.

Israel knows it risks losing international support for its ongoing slaughter of children.

As a result, Israel’s propaganda and disinformation machine is finding new ways to justify the killing of children and the bombing of medical facilities.

Usually, Israel’s first response to accusations of atrocities is denial. When that fails, the second strategy is to blame Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups for Palestinian deaths.

It hasn’t given up on those strategies, but is also trying to directly link Palestinian children to Hamas, and thereby seek to portray them – and the places where they are sheltering – as legitimate targets.

Security division