Concerns around "fabricated intelligence" underpinning published articles

[Scirocco]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/idf-investigates-claim-jewish-chronicle-published-stories-based-on-fabricated-intelligence

There are concerns that the stories may have been planted as part of a disinformation campaign.

There’s a lot of fabricated stories about Israel. Plenty in the Guardian and BBC.

Have you a link to further information on this?

Am I understanding this right :
IDF are investigating a Jewish newspaper for making up stories that were not true. And most of them are about things Hamas have done according to them ?

I’m surprise that idf is willing to investigate this and they wouldn’t get so much benefit ?(I mean idf have made up a few fake stories about hamas as well)

Isn't that the same 'misinformation' Netanyahu used to sabotage the hostage deal?

Ronen Bergman reported an IDF official said: “It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to understand what a report like that does to the heart of every hostage’s father, mother and wife. That is downright abuse, and only supposedly to validate narrow and selfish political calculations.”

If confirmed, to lie about such things and cause such harm seems cruel and to show a real lack of consideration for the hostages and their families. It also risks reputational damage to a respected publication, at a time when honesty and accuracy in reporting are so important.

Netanyahu yet again being exposed as the fraudulent liar that he is.

The problem with lying to gain support for a situation that is being mishandled, is that there is then the additional complication of trying to contain the lie, and that level of control in my opinion is impossible.

Maybe it’s better to behave like a capable and decent human being in the first place. If you have to lie to cling on to your job then you aren’t up to it.

Interesting that the IDF is openly calling out these fabrications by the Jewish Chronicle.
It speaks to the extent of the discord between the Political and Military wings in Israel.

The Jewish Chronicle does have a history of being sued, though usually it's just Libel.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/jewish-chronicle-pays-damages-over-claims-councillor-invited-anti-semitic-activist-to-event/

https://angusschofield.medium.com/the-jewish-chronicles-sorry-history-of-lawsuits-rulings-and-criticism-c21539debfd4

So Hamas aren't as bad as the idf portrayed then. Wow

They're a proscribed terrorist organisation who have perpetrated terrible things and expressed no remorse about those terrible things. The concern is that there may have been fabricated articles causing more distress, including to families of hostages, and attempting to manipulate public opinion among readers as part of a 'disinformation campaign'. Hopefully the investigation will get to the truth of the matter.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/crisis-at-jewish-chronicle-as-stories-are-withdrawn

Yeah, sorry but I don't believe the management team at the JC. They are trying to blame a single journalist.

However these stories played a part in dehumanising Palestinians and acted as a shield/justification for the disproportionate force used to destroy Gaza and it's inhabitants.

Saying oops, sorry we didn't do our due diligence is not good enough. Even I as a reader check the background of journalists and presume that a lot of ex military still have ties to intelligence, so read any articles they write with that in mind.

Even a journalist at the Israeli +972 magazine said this:
It seems that by firing Elon Perry JewishChron is hoping to put this whole affair to bed, as if decisions weren’t made at the very top to employ a fake journalist, publish nine fake articles without verifying sources, and use the paper [as] an active agent in a pro-Bibi influence op,”
Here is Ben Reiff article on this:
https://www.972mag.com/jewish-chronicle-elon-perry-netanyahu-intelligence/

Interesting that the IDF is openly calling out these fabrications by the Jewish Chronicle.It speaks to the extent of the discord between the Political and Military wings in Israel.

What are you talking about? The JC is a British newspaper.

I do think the paper has long been a bit of a basket case tbh.

Hadley Freeman and Jonathan Freedland -both well-respected journalists - have both publicly cut ties with the JC this morning.

The JC is a British Newspaper which hired an ex IDF soldier now a "journalist" who wrote articles containing fabrications that were beneficial to the Political wing in Israel led by Netanyahu.

I talk about discord as many senior IDF members have come out recently expressing that the war in Gaza is not going well militarily (in terms of casualties and stated objectives) and arguing for a ceasefire.

Netanyahu was able to cite these articles in the JC in support of his desire to continue fighting.

I highly doubt that fabricated articles in the JC are influencing Israel's military strategists. In fact the Guardian article linked to in the OP pretty much says this.

Shame you don't apply that same scrutiny when pro-Hamas websites and twitter accounts get posted on here.

"Shame you don't apply that same scrutiny when pro-Hamas websites and twitter accounts get posted on here."

Shame you don't deal with the subject in hand before jumping to whataboutery.

There's a huge difference between posters sharing questionable links on mumsnet to a national media outlet fabricating stories.

@Dulra

Indeed.

I am curious to know what the poster deems as pro-Hamas.

I haven't seen anyone posting pro-Hamas content.

Lots of pro-Palestinian and pro-humanitarian content, which for the umpteenth time is not the same thing.

I consider something to be pro-Hamas if they express support for Hamas. HTH.

@psifreeze

Happy to take a look if you can provide any source where posters are posting pro-Hamas content.

Again, if it's pro-Palestinian, we obviously don't include that.

A lot of them get deleted and I'm not going to trawl through old threads for your satisfaction but off the top of my head I've seen links to Mint Press News, Electronic Intifada, Press TV, The Cradle, Candice Owens (more of a common or garden antisemite than explicit Hamas supporter but still), and the twitter accounts of scum like umyaznemo and ejmalrai.

An important distinction is that anyone can have a Twitter/X account but an actual newspaper should be applying certain standards to their content. It's concerning that articles like these could be published in a paper like the Jewish Chronicle.

Look, this is disappointing but the JC is (imho) a pretty "out there" publication which is a bit like the Telegraph on steroids. It's disappointing because at a time like this there is just no need to exaggerate what Hamas is doing, or antisemitism, etc because the truth itself is so awful. This just provides ammunition to those individuals who are unwilling/unable to acknowledge that Jews and Israelis are suffering, and who are rubbing their hands together in barely disguised glee at this. Some people don't even seem to realise (as above) that it is a British paper, not an Israeli one, while others are seriously suggesting that it might have had an impact on Israel's military strategy- I mean, come on.

Of course newspapers and journalists should act with integrity. The JC is not the only media outlet to have been in trouble for missteps of one kind or another. The BBC has had to issue a handful of apologies over its coverage of this conflict alone. Let's get some perspective here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgnn153zg1o

A veteran Israeli journalist tweeted, “It was clear to me that this was a leak from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which is manipulating the foreign press … to further tear apart Israel’s divided society and save Netanyahu from the intensifying protests.”

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/fake-stories-help-netanyahu-keep-gaza-war-raging/