"Fact or Fiction: Israel needs fake nurses to justify killing Gaza babies" (Opinion Piece)

[Ohlalalalala]

I posted this article earlier on a thread about misinformation, but thought it important enough to warrant having its own thread as it can help people not familiar with media studies and the intricacies of information warfare to understand better the current events.

It's a very interesting, long and detailed analysis by the academic Dr Marc Owen Jones, about what's happening right now in Gaza.

I find that the author explains excellently well how Israel is trying to keep control of the false narrative regarding Gaza and Palestine in general. I urge anyone interested to read the whole piece as I copied parts only of the analysis.

May I kindly ask anyone not to derail the thread and to keep the discussion respectful. Please report any offensive posts to @MNHQ.

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

Here are some excerpts (highlights mine):

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.

"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."

"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 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."

The author speaks about the fake nurse in his article but here's more about if from France24:

https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20231115-video-of-nurse-denouncing-hamas-occupation-of-al-shifa-hospital-in-gaza-is-fake

Thanks for this thread OP. I hope it opens people's eyes to what's happening or at least be open to what's being said.

The only people who will read this thread are the ones who are already awake to this trash that’s being churned out.

The pro Israeli ones just don’t read this stuff or actively try to derail the threads and distract from it.

That quote in the article ´A lie can get halfway across the world whilst the truth is still putting on its shoes ‘ is particularly applicable for this day and age of social media and Israel’s particularly lame attempts to churn out poor quality propaganda. It’s just enough to keep the eyes of the pro Israeli people closed.

It’s all so sad

Hi all,

This thread was removed in error - we've reinstated it now.

Thanks 😊

It's really shocking ... I wonder how many people fall for this propaganda. :/

There's a few in my thread about misinformation. I have actually asked them as I'd like to know why.

At this point people who believe the propaganda either have zero critical thinking skills or they're being wilfully ignorant.

I like to think that there are people who do not know what's really going on in Gaza and Palestine in general. That there are people who are so used to consuming the mass media's/ government's propaganda (sometimes so subtle you can't detect it easily) that they do not question it.

That said, I appreciate that @PurpleCrocs3 and @notsoready4school are right too.

Israel's response has played right into Hamas (and their backers) hands. Both in actual warfare and social media propaganda. Hamas wanted the Arab world to see Israel's response - so that the Arab world does not go ahead with normalising relations with Israel (as Saudi seemed to want to).

Why Israel couldn't think through a less lethal, less blinded by rage strategy is beyond me. They have the military and intelligence capabilities. They have democratic process. They are meant to be an educated government. What the hell are they doing? The laughable amateur propaganda, the confused and odd comms - Hamas are winning the propaganda war hands down. Israel have been caught on the back foot not only on 7th Oct but in the social media 'war' too. It's embarrassing. October 7th was embarrassing. They are killing thousands of Palestinian citizens and Hamas are rubbing their hands with glee as this was baked into their plan - attack, retreat and let the enemy show their cards. Hamas leaders, sat comfortably outside Gaza (and gaslighting their people with the promise of martyrdom) must be cock a hoop about Israel's fall from international grace. I've seen lots of sympathetic to Israel people ask 'What is Israel meant to do?' - not make themselves look both cruel (very, very cruel) and incredibly stupid at the same time. On defence, during attack, in intelligence. They have failed on everything. I feel as sorry for Israeli citizens as I do for Palestinian citizens. Zero plan or respect for the people who chose them to govern. It's a complete shitshow.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Czwa4NxIFWL/?igshid=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ==

Even the BBC are cautious of IDF authenticity.

@Weddingpuzzle I don't think they're blinded by rage at all. I think they've been waiting for the opportunity to ethnically cleanse Gaza and October 7th gave them the perfect excuse.

What do you think was the rationale behind the Hamas attack on October 7? I don't understand this.

Agreed. That's clear.
Governments are not "one person" to be blinded by rage. Governments have strategies. Plans.
It's not as if there was no precedent of atrocities.

BBC News - Bowen: Ceasefire demands will grow without proof of Hamas HQ at Al-Shifa
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67453105

Definitely. Everything they have done so far would suggest that.

Some more false propaganda:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=fSNANKtuKi4iWdqG&v=HD-yRuTasHU&feature=youtu.be

Seriously, some of it would just insult most people intelligence. I think it would actually make me angry if such little effort was made to keep my loyalty and make it easier for me to fight for it

I'd like to draw attention to importance of the words we use.

There is a big difference between Israel and Netenyahu/Ben-Gvir, the actions of the IDF and Israelis or Jews just as there is between Hamas, Palestinians, Muslims.

There is a lot of propaganda/misinformation flowing both ways and a Western world population so disillusioned that they dont care what confirmation bias means and think alternative facts is an acceptable thing to say out loud.

Agree completely. This is just a land grab for more territory and power, that's it.

Op; "I'm annoyed everyone doesn't ageee with me so here's a manipulated account of lies to pretend Israel is at fault"