"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.

Such bullshit repeated on these threads

"Genocide" - no single race is being targeted

"Ethnic cleansing" - no single race is being targeted

Surely the fact that

• Israeli actresses dressing up as Palestinian nurses to blame hamas
• looking at calendars and presenting as evidence of murder planning
• planting fake guns in mri rooms
• presenting Norwegian tunnels as hamas

Is manipulation by Israelis to justify an abhorrent war they conducted to get land and move a population by pretending its for a justified cause? Why are you blaming OP for a post instead of spending some time thinking about the army that's just killed over 10,000 people and made a million homeless and then planted lies about them? Would you have blamed the people writing about the holocaust or the holocaust perpetrators themselves?

Thank you for summing up Israel's modus operandi.

I am not pretending; I am stating the obvious.

By now anyone not living in a cave, and having a functioning brain cell can see clearly what's happening in Gaza and Palestinein general.

Arabs have a popular idiom "it's a goat, even if it flies!".

"It's what you say when you see someone is insisting on something wrong, despite all evidence and common sense contradicting them.

They fight tooth and nail to be right, ignore all proof, bend all reality, twist all words, close their eyes, plug their ears, and shout at the top of their lungs to hold on to their mistaken view."

This article explains it well:

https://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/884366

They know, you know, I know. Everybody knows at this stage.

Ad Hominem

No one will know what is true or not until all the dust settles. It is wise to reserve judgement u til all the facts are laid bare by objective witnesses.

War is hell and shouldn’t happen. I hope after this ends everything is investigated throughly- much like it was after the Bosnian war- and everyone who was involved is held to account fairly. Everyone, no matter their race, ethnicity, political leanings or religion. I currently suspect that won’t happen because the bias on both sides is so huge that it can only dehumanise the other.

I am sickened by social media these days. Sickened by the hate disguised as moral crusading. And quite frankly sickened by the leering gore porn being spread so liberally around in the name of truth by people who consider themselves a moral good. It is utterly gross.

Choose love, not hate, if you want an end to all war.

It is crystal clear what's happening. This is not new. Palestinians have been suffering for over 75 years. Do you want us to stay silent and wait patiently for the genociders to finish their work?

No way! Silence is complicity.

I am not Palestinian. I am not a leftist. I am a human being who is watching with horror what's happening in total impunity. I've never felt such deep contempt for most of the world's "leaders". I despise them wholeheartedly for selling their souls.

@Ohlalalalala

I just disagree with you. I don’t think engaging in sides is going to help here- it is certainly clear that IDF are not going to stop just because people in the west are outraged and all it does is further whip up the hate speech that led to this situation. Is what is going on right? No. Is what Hamas does right? No. Will this end because I personally think it is awful? Also no.

In a situation that involves such generational hatred, grievance and propaganda (some over a thousand years old) the only thing to do is build from a common ground - the wish for peace and safety for civilians on both sides and the recognition that everyone- not matter religion, ethnicity or race- is human and should be treated with dignity.

By engaging in the propaganda wars people are buying into the us vs them narrative. By sharing photos and stories that can’t be verified completely people are fuelling the situation, rather than taking the heat out of it. Don’t get me wrong- everything needs to be investigated thoroughly. But right now is not the time. Right now is the time to come together to push for peace. Right now is the time to join hands and make connections and show that the political/ religious extremists don’t represent us. It’s not about turning a blind eye. It’s about offering a positive hand.

My major worry at the moment is that consent if being manufactured through social media for something on a bigger scale than what is happening in Gaza. The situation is so febrile that all it would take is one more incident to ignite the entire Middle East and lead to World War 3.

Palestinians are being targeted. They're a nationality. So is is genocide.

I support Israel on this following the Hama incursion and killing of 1200. Hamas knew perfectly well what it was doing and probably in part was cross yet another arab national Saudi was about to recognise the state of Israel (and hopefully Saudi still will). I read all sides' views however.

Very wise words, @Ratsoffasinkingsauage . That's what scares me, too.
Such terrible propaganda and misinformation, people getting "facts" from TikTok... it's just getting more febrile and fanning the flames of hatred.

We’ve all seen it, unconfirmed reports of the most gruesome nature will circulate immediately Around the globe only for it to be refuted weeks later , with barely any mention in the media ,

yesterday I read this "Israeli official Mark Regev explained that since several bodies had been "badly burnt", they were assumed to be Israeli civilians. He added that it was later concluded that they were Hamas terrorists." There are also so many reports out there that I don’t want to link to unless they’ve been confirmed by the Israeli government.

OMG, I came across hundreds of anti-Palestinian posts depicting, allegedly, Palestinians actors impersonating multiple roles, multiple people posing in the ruins with the same dust covered baby or the same kids toy, rubber "dead" babies, people applying fake blood to fake corpses, AI images of crying Palestinian kids with 6 fingers etc etc - its all bullshit and works both ways. Its a brutal war, I think it should be enough - all this conspiracy bullshit is disguising.

The Nazis did not target just one race & yet we do not deny that genocide.
The Nazis did not target just one country & yet we know it was ethnic cleansing.

The Nazis targeted Jewish people & Roma & Sinti community & of course gay men.

Stop Stop Stop with the vile whataboutery

One thing is clear: Palestinians are being exterminated mercilessly before our eyes by those inhuman genociders.

No embellishment, no propaganda, no lies can hide the truth anymore.

If you are genuinely casting doubt on the plight of Palestinians at this point, I have nothing more to say to you. You just can't argue with people who say it's a goat, even if it flies.

Hi OP,

How do you know what is the truth? Would you be willing to stake the lives of other people on your truth? Are you so certain of your truth that you would allow it to be used as a rationale for further violence?

Where do you stand on a peace? Is it peace for all or just for some? What would you like to see happen to the hostages? What is your view point on what should happen to Hamas post peace?

Are you saying that the videos of beheaded babies, children blown into bits, children with their legs hanging by a thread is all fake and all made up by AI?

When you ask how you know what is the truth, how did you know what the truth was about the holocaust? How do believe that happened but not this? I'm not denying the holocaust before anyone comes at me. Use your same critical thinking and listen to the facts and evidence presented to you to see the truth. The genocide of the Palestinians is very much real. It's happening and in real time. If you ever wondered why everybody stood silent during the holocaust and allowed it to happen well now you know why don't you. Have you ever thought about what you would do if a genocide ever happened in your life time? Because the answer is you're doing it now. This is for everyone to answer.

Excellent post.

There is so much hate stirring going on. People posting and shit-stirring who don't have any basic understanding of the region. Posting outright misinformation and dismissing facts because all they want is to stir up more hate.

Peace comes from making connections and both sides being ready to accept painful truths. Ensuring that what is posted is accurate and fact checked.

I will also say that Israel used to be really bad at social media. An accusation would be posted, Israel would immediately apologise, the world would be outraged and then a couple of days later Israel would say "Hang on, we've had a chance to check into this now, and it really wasn't us, here is the evidence". Too late of course, because by then news had moved on and all people remembered was the initial report. There were plenty of doctored images and edited video being posted online by Palestinians. But that is all airbrushed aside.

www.aldurah.com/the-al-durah-incident/background/pallywood/

This time Israel IS on top of the social media and they need to be. And now people say that makes them evil.

There is propaganda on all sides of any situation. The truth will be somewhere in the middle.

When this war is over, which I hope is very soon, with all hostages released and Hamas relegated to history, there will be an enquiry and investigations.

Israelis are not happy with the government as it is and will be demanding answers. I am pretty sure that Gazan Palestinians aren't happy with Hamas either.

Those investigations will not being back the dead or the appalling loss of life. But since none of us have any influence on what happens, and nor do any of us have the full facts, we only have images released by both sides, we should hold judgement and not inflame things further.

If this thing tips over into a wider war then every single person who has fanned the flames of hate will be complicit.

Excellent points, @Towerofsong .
It's important to try to ascertain facts and not fan the flames of hatred. It's so depressing to witness.

@whatswrongwiththeworldddd

Not really comparable. That was a pre-social media age where reporting was different.

My greatest concern is that unverified stories are being used online to justify further violence and abuses. By engaging so emotively with images and reporting that is unverified, people are buying into a divisive narrative that has real world consequences. I would suggest treading carefully lest you cost someone else their life on a false premise.

If you think that killing 12,000 people is the answer to destroying hamas you have gotten it very wrong. These children will grow up hating Israelis more than Hamas did.

Also worth noting that it's hard to get verified sources with information on Gaza because Israel murdered a lot of the journalists and won't let more in.

Exactly. Israel are preventing true verified independent sources from reporting. So what choice do the Gazans have? They only have social media.