Uncovering Media Misinformation About The Gaza Genocide

Thad Baltimore

29 Nov 2023

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The US empire is continuing its psychological warfare campaign by conducting a mass mobilization of resources and waging a propaganda offensive to protect its interests in the Middle East.

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

-Malcolm X

Mainstream media’s reporting on Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians is a case study of imperialist tactics of misinformation and war propaganda.

The goal is to manipulate us into going along with Israel’s U.S.–supported ethnic-cleansing operation in Gaza. It also creates confusion about the Israel-Palestine question, so that you opt out of taking a position with excuses like; “this is an age-old conflict,” “who knows who’s right or wrong here,” or, “it’s too complicated to get into.”

The strategy of misinformation includes; omitting historical context, demonizing and blaming victims of oppression, obfuscation, distraction, hypocrisy and outright lying. These are elements of false narratives designed to shape the way we think about events. They offer a one-sided framing favorable to the warmongering, racist, weapons industry interests of establishment power.

The following is a list of key falsehoods being presented to Americans daily by government supervised news outlets:

Falsehood #1: Israel has the right to defend itself

The self-defense claim is repeated every time Israel commits yet another massacre against Palestinians. However, the claim Is disingenuous when used out of context and as justification for Israel’s disproportionate response and innumerable war crimes against the Palestinian people.

It sounds fair and reasonable since the right of self-defense applies to every nation, which is why it’s never publicly challenged. It implies that Israel was attacked without provocation, that Israel had nothing to do with how it all started.

A ‘who-oppressed-who-first’ historic analysis is required here, but is deliberately left out of mainstream coverage. Israel cannot claim self-defense from a threat emanating from its illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories.

The forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes at gunpoint, the destruction of homes and farmland, denial of basic human rights, and a 16 year blockade causing severe food insecurity and malnourishment for Palestinians, are among the provocations that would negate Israel’s claim of self-defense.

Palestinians are the party actually exercising the right of self-defense.

According to Craig Mokhiber, an international human rights attorney who recently resigned as director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Israel cannot claim self-defense to justify acts that are prohibited by international law.” This includes Israel’s disproportionate attacks and collective punishment of Palestinians.

The self-defense claim Is used as justification for the nearly four billion dollars in economic and military aid given annually to Israel by the U.S. A fact that makes the U.S. government a co-belligerent in Israel’s barbaric attack against a defenseless people.

It’s also an example of the one-sided framing of the conflict. Notice how the phrase, “Palestinians have the right to defend themselves” is never uttered.

Falsehood #2: Treating the conflict as if it only began on October 7th

Beginning a conflict at a point most favorable to the establishment narrative is another misinformation tactic of the empire.

As with falsehood #1, establishment media’s out-of-context narrative deliberately ignores precipitants to the Palestinian breakout from occupied Gaza on October 7th, treating it as if it occurred out of nowhere.

Firstly, It eliminates discussion about the violent establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba or catastrophe. It ignores the ongoing Palestinian resistance to the over 75 years of illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. It ignores the Palestinian struggle to restore their homeland and their right to self-determination.

Related to this is the media’s obsessive focus on Hamas using one-sided terminology and framing favorable to a pro-Israel narrative such as, ‘the Hamas’, ‘Hamas attack’ or ‘Israel-Hamas war’. The emphasis is misleading since there are other armed groups such as Islamic Jihad, fighting for Palestinian freedom.

On the other hand, it avoids terms like Nakba, colonization, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and even historic Palestine. Off-limits for establishment media is any terminology that might point to the decades of suffering endured by Palestinians.

A more accurate framing of the conflict would be; ‘the Israeli-U.S. War Against Palestinians.’

Falsehood #3: The dehumanization of Palestinians

On October 9th, 2023, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant announced the siege on Gaza to fight against “human animals”. This type of dehumanizing language is typical of colonial governments and is meant to justify the collective punishment of civilian populations. It conditions public perception into accepting the idea that all Palestinians, including women, children, the elderly, and sick are getting what they deserve.

None of this is new. Colonized people who've been oppressed for decades, out of desperation, will inevitably revolt against the colonizers in large-scale violent uprisings. The colonizers then label the rebels as barbaric terrorists and launch a massive attack on the entire indigenous population, basically to terrorize them collectively.

In her book, Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, author Caroline Elkins describes Britain’s response to the 1952-1960 armed uprising by Kenya’s Kikuyu people. The actual military title of the rebels was Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) but was popularly referred to as the Mau Mau rebellion.

The mass armed rebellion by the KLFA followed decades of British imperialism marked by atrocities and dispossession. In response to the uprising, Britain portrayed members and leaders of the Mau Mau as terrorists, barbaric, subhuman savages for daring to fight for the return of their land and freedom.

Britain suspended civil liberties in Kenya and detained nearly the entire Kikuyu population of 1.5 million people. Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were forced to move or were interned in concentration camps. Though some of the detainees were KLFA members, most were civilian victims of the collective punishment imposed by the British.

Britain’s violent response to the unsustainable system it created, resulted in the death of over a hundred thousand Kenyans from exhaustion, disease, starvation, and documented horrific acts of physical brutality.

“People are more readily perceived as inferior by nature when they are already seen as oppressed.” Barbara Jeanne Fields

The effectiveness of dehumanization is not only accomplished through words. The widely documented cruelty of Israel towards Palestinians creates a perception of Palestinian inferiority, which becomes a tragic self-perpetuating cycle of perceived inferiority and oppression. It allows a vastly superior army to make no distinction between Hamas and civilian populations. Thus, the bombardment and blockade of hospitals and the targeting of ambulances and medical personnel becomes fair game.

Dehumanizing messaging adversely affects all of our perceptions. Consider U.S. Congress’ unwillingness to condemn Israel’s bombing of predominantly civilian sites in Gaza, compared with their haste to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian voice in Congress, simply for pro-Palestine speech.

Falsehood #4: Framing the conflict as if Israel and Hamas/Palestinians are equally matched combatants at war

This is a false equivalency tactic intended to give the impression that the Palestinian resistance is on the same level militarily as Israel. Its goal is to get people to disregard Israel’s overwhelming military superiority. It hides the fact that the Israeli government has the upper hand, is the bully in the room, and more importantly, is the aggressor who initiated the conflict.

Moreover, the misleading framing leads one to overlook Israel’s greater responsibility to comply with international law, its greater responsibility for compromise and conciliation, and its greater responsibility, along with its U.S. accomplice, to create peace in the world.

The false equivalency strategy includes the less obvious moral equivalency element where both Palestinians and the Israeli government are condemned for being co-creators of an intractable, unsolvable conflict. This pretense falls away quickly considering the impunity granted to Israel for any action it takes, whereas, the Palestinians’ fight for freedom is condemned as something criminal.

There is no comparison between the two parties. Israel is a prosperous, technologically advanced, military superpower, armed with nuclear weapons and supported by massive amounts of annual aid from the U.S. government. On the other hand, the much weaker Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups possess no standing army, navy, or air force.

Israel dominates, while Palestinians are mounting a resistance to domination. One colonizes, the other is colonized. One is able to shut off the other’s food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel, while the other cannot reciprocate. To equate the two is absurdly unjust.

Falsehood #5: The ‘Human shield’ accusation, as in; “Hamas is using civilians as human shields.”

This is another often repeated accusation for excusing attacks resulting in civilian casualties. The argument made is that the civilian casualties are the fault of Hamas or other Palestinian armed factions because of their use of “human shields.”

The term, “human shields”, also referred to as “human shielding”, is defined under international law, and describes the deliberate use of civilians to deter attacks on a military target. The use of civilians as human shields is a violation of international humanitarian law. However, even if a “terrorist” group were using human shields, it still does not absolve combatants, In this case, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), from their obligation under international law to avoid losses of civilian lives and damage to civilian objects.

Those defending Israel’s massive attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are claiming that Israel is not at fault for its disproportionate military offensive. Instead, they argue that it’s the fault of Palestinians themselves, specifically their use of “human shields.”

The Israeli government's allegation that Hamas forces use hospitals to shield military activities is not new. In his book, ‘Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom’, historian Norman Finkelstein, documents the spurious claim along with the numerous high-tech massacres Israel periodically inflicts on Palestinians and in which similar claims were made.

Detailed investigations following Israel’s previous assaults on Gaza, conducted by Amnesty International, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and others, have found no evidence of Hamas deliberately using civilians as “human shields.”

Moreover, Israel’s human shield allegations are repeated by mainstream media without providing evidence to corroborate them. Israel’s claims are never challenged by mainstream news reporters.

The human shield accusation allows the Israeli government, U.S. leadership, and mainstream media to justify indiscriminate airstrikes and other collective punishment assaults on what are clearly predominantly civilian targets in Gaza.

Falsehood #6: Israel is fighting anti-semitism and protecting Jewish people

This claim relies on two fallacies. It falsely frames the conflict as a religious one, and it conflates anti-zionism with anti-semitism.

The state of Israel is a zionist, ethno-nationalist, settler-colonial project. Its occupation of Palestine required the removal of people from the land, in this case, Arabs — who are also a Semitic people, by the way.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has maintained a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and Palestinian land for the of benefit Jewish Israelis, while restricting and denying the basic rights and freedoms of Palestinians. This is solely based on race. This is a crime against humanity qualifying Israel as an apartheid state.

All of the above stokes the inevitable violent uprising as seen on October 7th.

How exactly does any of this keep Jewish people safe?

Jewish activist groups are challenging the exploitation of Judaism to justify Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians. On October 27, a huge Pro-Palestine protest rally organized by Jewish Voice For Peace shut down New York’s Grand Central Station. A growing number of Jewish people are making it clear that the wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza is not to be done in their name.

The claim of fighting anti-Semitism and protecting Jews hides behind a thin veil of phony religiosity. It’s a smokescreen for what is actually a cruel system of land theft and violent racial oppression.

Falsehood #7: The call for a “Humanitarian Pause.”

The call for a “humanitarian pause”, being made by the Biden administration, demonstrates that Imperialism has no new tricks. The phrase is a variation of the old, “humanitarian intervention” ploy. It’s an example of how the U.S. foreign-policy establishment deceives the public by putting benevolent sounding cover on its hegemonic activities.

The phrase, “humanitarian pause”, comes across as a half-ass substitute for not doing the right thing—demanding a ceasefire. The phrase is being employed to counter growing global support for a ceasefire.

It’s also hypocritical. What exactly is “humanitarian” about pausing a bombing campaign for a few days, in a limited area of the Gaza Strip, to pass out medical supplies or whatever, before resuming bombing?

The Biden administration’s support for temporary humanitarian aid to mitigate a genocide in progress, while continuing to provide military assistance to Israel, is not humanitarian at all. It’s hypocrisy and an insult to our intelligence.

The above are examples of a misinformation campaign being passed off as journalism by the empire’s narrative managers. We are witnessing a genocide and ethnic cleansing in progress and the U.S. government and mainstream media are complicit.

Thad Baltimore is a Black empowerment writer focused on how systems of injustice are maintained through the collaborative efforts of government, the ruling class and mainstream media. He can be reached at: www.tbaltimore.com/black- af.

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