Has the West been taken in by Hamas’ lies and anti Israeli narrative?

Even if you are Pro Palestinian, if you thought this you would be an absolute idiot. Wanting equal rights for Palestinians does not mean that you support Hamas. I think that has been pointed out thousands of times.

He has denied he ever said any of it. What threat would he be under given he isn’t anywhere Hamas is now? He left Gaza almost two years ago.

From prior poster @OnePeppyFatball upthread.

Statement by Mu'taz Azzaizah – September 20, 2026
In recent days, there has been a widespread attack on the internet due to statements I made during a podcast discussion. They were distorted in a disgraceful and unfair manner, misinterpreted, and taken out of context by Israel and its Israeli occupation supporters.
I never claimed that the journalists present in the WhatsApp group in Gaza were affiliated with Hamas. I never claimed that Hamas controlled the journalists of Gaza or directed their work, nor did I claim that the presence of any journalist in that group meant they were affiliated with Hamas. Any claim to the contrary is a false claim.
The WhatsApp group I spoke about was simply a group that included representatives from the Hamas government, sharing updates and information about the situation in Gaza. Many journalists were present there, including myself, because receiving updates from government sources was part of our journalistic work, as is the case with journalists around the world.
I have criticized Hamas many times. Hamas is not only a resistance faction in Gaza, but it is also the ruling authority. As a Palestinian, I was born and raised in Gaza, so it is my full right to criticize those who rule me. But it is absolutely unacceptable to distort this criticism and turn it into something I did not say or mean.
When members of my family were killed, when my friends were killed, and when I was threatened and forced to flee and move under constant danger, it was Israel that carried out the killings.
My criticism of the Hamas government does not erase what Israel did to my people, nor does it give anyone the right to use my words to serve the Israeli occupation narrative.
As for the video I filmed of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, I filmed it inside Gaza while I was working as a journalist. I chose not to publish it because I was afraid that revealing the location would expose the Palestinian civilians in the area to danger. After about twenty minutes, Israeli warplanes targeted the location, resulting in the killing of the prisoners, along with Hamas militants who were present there.
To clarify: I did not participate in the events of October 7th, and I was not part of it in any way. I was in Gaza documenting what was happening in front of me.
I will not allow a critical view of a ruling Palestinian authority to be turned into a propaganda material serving the occupation. We have the right to criticize those who rule us, and we have the right to oppose the occupation. Neither of these two rights is nullified.
I remind you once again: the mass killing and massive destruction in Gaza, which I documented with my camera and conveyed to the world, was not committed by Hamas, but by Israel.

I’ve seen some pretty outrageous claims made by Jewish doctors too saying that their hospitals were over run by Islamists.

Those are individual people who choose to spout shit. Lots of people spout shit. About all kinds of things.

Well it’s hard to classify what you mean by ProPal/AntiIsrael and also how AI is interpreting “protest”…are they protests against war or protests for Palestine to exist or protests against Israel existing or protests against Israel’s retaliation or protests for Hamas?

The AI reply doesn’t even distinguish between these and I haven’t turned protests and marches into vigils, I mentioned I attended a vigil that was also what could be considered a protest against war as we prayed for peace.

My main point is that you don’t need to be a stooge of Hamas to arrange an event immediately after Oct 7th as you seem to be implying some global master plan by Hamas with terrorist sleeper cells all ready to start protests immediately after Oct 7th.

What is the narrative coming out of Gaza that they are spouting?? We can all see it!

Such as? I would think they’d get arrested if it’s in support of Hamas. I know a few have been arrested and convicted over the past three years, but it’s hardly wide spread?

A podcast claimed he said it. How do you even know it was him speaking?
How would they control it? They can’t.

There have been multiple high profile cases of NHS staff making extremely antisemitic comments and the recent enquiry concluded that antisemitism in the NHS is a major problem. But apparently Jewish doctors who are scared are just talking shit.

I didn’t say that. I said people talk shit, on both sides of the coin.

Jewish doctors in particular, apparently.

A medical tribunal heard that a doctor’s claims about her NHS hospital being targeted and looted by "Islamist" rioters were entirely false.
In September 2026, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal heard the case of Dr. Parmis Lamei Javan, a doctor who had been working at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, north London. Following the Southport stabbings in July 2024, Dr. Lamei Javan posted inflammatory and false statements on social media platforms.1]

Read it again s l o w l y. I didn’t say that at all.

It also feels true that journalists feeling threatened or barred from access by the Israeli government cannot be truly independent.

The people who are independent are the aid organisations who have been inside Gaza and have seen first hand what is happening.

I know it feels horrible to admit the genocide being carried out, the thousands of men, women and children who have been killed, the people now starving in Palestine, all at the hands of Netanyahu. I know it is far more comforting to believe there is a conspiracy theory and that actually Palestinians are living their best lives and having no issues at all. But if you continue to ignore the evidence being put in front of you, it allows governments around the world to carry out these attrocities.

Christ. Reading comprehension problems going on here.

Don’t engage with me again then if that’s what suits you. we are going round in circles anyway. You want to believe that Hamas control everything, people don’t have their own minds, and just parrot it out. Those people who say such things were most likely raging anti-semitics in the first place.

But guess what, most people are not. Wanting equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis is not a bad thing.

Who am I going to believe. An eminent Israeli historian who is not just basing his opinions on research but on a lived first hand experience or the Israeli propaganda machine which wants to perpetuate the idea that the Jewish people were the eternal victims in every country in the world. I think I'll go with Avi.

I answered this before but, as a result of the Jewish community being much smaller than the Muslim community, just because the per capita rate is much higher it doesn't not mean that antisemitism is so much worse than Islamaphobia.

I'm not glorifying him. Real life is not like a Hollywood movie with villains and heros. In this case you have the Hamas terrorists against the IDF terrorists.

There are questions about the hate crime figures- how well reported are all the crimes ? I think the Muslim community have less trust of uk authorities

that aside - any assault is wrong - but if what to tie the hate crime to the war crime with acknowledging the war crimes it’s going to be difficult

you can’t ask that people turn a blind eye to extreme wrong doings in the hope that it will prevent crime against yourself.

I watched the channel 4 dispatches doc on the government and Gaza last night and it reminded me of exactly why so many reacted as they did to what was happening(and still is) in Gaza. So many scenes of absolute carnage in Gaza, so many disgusting events from the announcement of the siege on the 9th of Oct to the targeting of Drs and aid workers to the sheer speed at which Israel killed thousands and thousands of people including thousands of children.

Time softens things but watching the doc last night really reminded me of the speed and scale of the devastation that Israel wreaked on Gaza. When you watch things like that you realise that it's not propaganda that made people feel so deeply it was sheer unadulterated horror at the hell that Israel unleashed. It's a completely normal human reaction to seeing unimaginable human suffering.