Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Watch: Debunking Israel's "Mass Rape" Propaganda
Ali Abunimah
06 Dec 2023
Screenshot of Electronic Intifada video

 

Originally published in The Electronic Intifada.

This is a deceptive campaign based not on evidence but an appeal to racist notions that Palestinians are inherently violent and cruel.

Israel and its proxies have launched a new media blitz, reviving unverified claims that Hamas fighters perpetrated mass rapes of Israeli women during its 7 October military operation.
Despite blanket coverage, Israel does not claim to have identified any specific victim of such crimes, nor produced any videos or forensic evidence corroborating that they took place.

On The Electronic Intifada livestream we dissected this propaganda campaign and showed how it is being fronted by operatives close to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Watch the video above.

We explain how this is a deceptive campaign based not on evidence but emotional manipulation, outlandish claims, distortion and an appeal to racist notions that Palestinians are inherently violent and cruel.

It fits in with a long history of colonizers portraying colonized or enslaved people as savage brutes predisposed to sexual violence against white or settler women.

As the Jim Crow Museum observes, the longstanding “brute caricature portrays Black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive and criminal – deserving punishment, maybe death.”

“The ‘terrible crime’ most often mentioned in connection with the Black brute was rape, specifically the rape of a white woman,” the museum adds. “At the beginning of the 20th century, much of the virulent, anti-Black propaganda that found its way into scientific journals, local newspapers and best-selling novels focused on the stereotype of the Black rapist.”

These stereotypes justified state violence against, and control of, Black people and “soothed white consciences.”

There’s a similar and equally sinister dynamic to Israeli propaganda now targeting Palestinians. Its purpose is to demonize them and soften up public opinion to tolerate or support Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

On Monday, Hamas condemned Western media for going along with “misleading Zionist campaigns that promote lies and baseless allegations” including the claims of rape and sexual assault by its fighters.”

The resistance group added that the latest campaign is “part of a series of lies propagated by the Zionist propaganda machine” which has consistently made false claims such as “the beheading of children, the targeting of revelers at the concert in the settlement of Re’im and not the least of which is the lie of using al-Shifa hospital for military purposes.”

 

Ali Abunimah is the Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine and One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

Palestine
Israel

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: The Beirut Jokebook, June Jordan, 1982
25 June 2025
“What did the Arab lady say to the Israeli tank?”
x
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
The Tactical Failure of Israel/U.S. Attacks on Iran Is Leading Both to a Strategic Disaster
25 June 2025
The U.S.
21st Century Wire Global Affairs
HARVARD REPORT: The Hidden Numbers Behind Gaza’s Real Death Toll
25 June 2025
A recent report prepared by Garb Yaakov, a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and published on The President & Fell
Progressive International
"Their aim is silence — ours is truth"
25 June 2025
Statement from the Sovereign Media collective, a new coalition of anti-imperialist media organizations, on the Israeli regime's assault on jour
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Tell Congress, No War on Iran!
18 June 2025
If Trump asks congress for approval to wage a war on Iran, he will probably get it. 
Black Alliance For Peace
The Middle East is On Fire Because Israeli and U.S. Imperialism Lit the Match
18 June 2025
Decades of U.S.
Sean Matthews
Arab Officials Say There is a Strong Likelihood US Will 'Directly' Join Israel in Attacking Iran
18 June 2025
Three informed Arab officials, in touch with both the US and Iran, tell Middle East Eye that the White House appears to be moving closer to 'ba
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Aid Queue Massacres Continue in Gaza as UN Warns of Mass Starvation
18 June 2025
Israeli occupation forces shot and killed several Palestinians on Sunday morning across various regions of the Gaza Strip, as the humanitarian
Nora Barrows-Friedman
US and Israel Turn “Aid” Centers Into Slaughter Zones
11 June 2025
Nowhere is safe in Gaza.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Another Massacre at Rafah Aid Center as Gaza Death Toll Mounts
04 June 2025
Gaza health officials report mass casualties as Israeli forces shell humanitarian aid distribution points.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio June 27, 2025
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 27, 2025
    27 Jun 2025
    In this week’s segment we hear about a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
  • Gerald Horne
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne Discusses His Book "The Capital of Slavery: Washington DC 1800 - 1865"
    27 Jun 2025
    Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Dr. Horne is a prolific…
  • Peace treaty signing
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Congo and Rwanda Agreement Will Benefit the West at the Expense of the Congolese People
    27 Jun 2025
    Maurice Carney is the Executive Director of Friends of the Congo. He joins us from Washington to discuss the ongoing crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda’s continued intervention…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    War Propaganda, State Controlled Media, and the End of African Stream
    25 Jun 2025
    African Stream's Pan-African, anti-imperialist journalistic perspectives made it the target of a state that colludes with corporate media to spread war propaganda.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    POEM: The Beirut Jokebook, June Jordan, 1982
    25 Jun 2025
    “What did the Arab lady say to the Israeli tank?”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us