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Gaza propaganda war escalates on the internet
The Battle of the Blogosphere has seen both sides in the Gaza conflict use hoax videos to show the ‘beastly’ behaviour of their enemies
The war between Israel and Hamas is being fought not only on the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza and in the southern Israeli towns targeted by Hamas missiles. It is also raging on the internet.
And the Battle of the Blogosphere - in which pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian scribblers fire salvos at each other in a bitter war of words - is increasingly helping to shape people's view of the conflict.
As the Israeli military spokesman Major Avital Leibovich said, explaining why Israel had set up a YouTube page: "The Blogosphere and the new media are basically a war zone [in a battle for world opinion]."
It is fitting, then, that the famous first casualty of war - truth - should have been so swiftly slain and laid to rest online.
This month, both sides have posted hoax stories and misleading videos in order to demonise their opponents. Pro-Palestine bloggers have, for the past 10 days, been widely disseminating an amateur video purporting to show the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on civilians in Gaza.
It makes for horrific viewing. Palestinians with their limbs blown off lie slumped on the ground. Others are clearly dead. The soundtrack - sirens, shouting, groans - is almost unbearable.
One blogger said this "raw" carnage "enrages me". He went on: "I wish for Israel nothing but destruction." Another said the footage was evidence of "the terror of the Jewish state". France 2, the respected French public broadcaster, showed the footage on TV.
However, the video does not show the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in the current war in Gaza; it shows the aftermath of an accidental explosion of Hamas's own weaponry at a rally in a Gaza refugee camp in September 2005.
As the BBC reported on September 23, 2005, the explosion of a truck carrying Hamas rockets occurred at a militant rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 15 Palestinians and injuring many more.
Some eagle-eyed bloggers noticed that the recent widely emailed video claiming to show the bloody work of "IsraeHELL" actually came from this tragic accident.
France 2 made a humiliating apology. "There was an internal malfunction in the checking of information," it said on January 5. Some bloggers have also apologised; others remain silent.
Pro-Israel bloggers are in no position to gloat, however. For the past 72 hours, they have been sharing with each other - and the world - a video that purportedly shows Hamas murdering guests at a wedding party in Gaza in 2007 for the 'crime' of singing and dancing. It is evidence, says one Israel supporter, that Hamas militants are "animals".
"Hamas kills innocent Palestinians because they were singing," says one blogger. Another said the "rare video" showed "gunmen murdering people at a wedding".
In her blog at the Spectator website, Melanie Phillips, under the headline 'Believe it', said that the video showed "Hamas mowing down and murdering a Palestinian wedding party for no other reason than there was music and dancing".
It doesn't. It shows an incident that did occur - Hamas did break up a wedding party in northern Gaza in August 2007 - but no one was murdered.
According to a Reuters report of August 11, 2007, 20 people were injured and four were arrested for questioning. The Jerusalem Post reported on August 13, 2007 that five guests were detained "for several hours", but there was no killing.
They were detained not for singing and dancing, but because they were leading members of Fatah. The breaking up of the wedding party occurred at a time of heightened tension between Hamas and Fatah, when Hamas had banned fireworks, celebratory gunfire and overly noisy gatherings.
Does that justify what occurred at the wedding? No. But nor is it justified to misrepresent this incident as a rampage by "animals" who murder people for listening to music. Melanie Phillips appears to have removed her link to the video; but she hasn't issued an apology yet. ·
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Israel is a nation state. Hamas is a recognized terrorist organization which, through terror and death, took complete control of Gaza from Palestinian "government" police in 2005. Hamas does it's best to take the aid intended for the people of Gaza for itself. It hides in, and fires its weapons from civilian homes and institutions. Their fighters often dress as civilians. It fired 6,300 rockets into Israel since 2005, causing death, destruction, and many injuries. Have you seen those pictures? How long would your Government tolerate constant rocket fire into civilian towns, damaging schools, factories, homes and lives, before it finally fights to try and stop it? Hamas continues to refuse to ever recognize the existence of Israel. It's purpose is to fight Israelis and Jews until Israel is destroyed without compomise. They will not talk to Israel about peace. Israel knows that it's virtually impossible to completely wipe out Hamas in Gaza. But it finally had to do something to protect itself, as any nation would. Israel tries its best to pinpoint military targets, while Hamas shoots rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas. Unfortunately, many Gaza targets are in civilian areas, which is as Hamas intends it to be. Israel telephoned and faxed 1/4 million Palestinians in their homes before bombing such "mixed" targets so they could evacuate and not be killed. Israel also avoids bombing a building when its inhabitants climb on their roof instead of evacuating. Israel didn't use airborne bombs or artillery in previous attempts to get terrorists out of Palestinian areas, at great cost and with poor results. That was several years ago. They simply can't do it "half way" any longer. If you compare how the US and its allies attack terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, you would see that Israel is even more careful about civilian areas than we are. War is horrible and to be avoided. But when there's no other choice, this is what happens. In reality, Hamas is an arm of Iran and Syria, and receives their money and smuggled weapons from them. Now that Isreal is withdrawing from Gaza, Hamas militants are already in the streets, rounding up members and sympathizers of Fatah. Palestinians in Gaza who sympathize with the more moderate Fatah are now being shot in the legs and getting their eyes poked out by Hamas fighters. It's not a pretty picture from any point of view. Who can stop this lunacy?
The topic of Gaza war propaganda on the Internet is a worthy topic. And I realize that misinformation exists on both sides. Myself, however - like a growing number of Americans am finding the Palestinian side much more compelling. This doesn't even take any detective work...just following up on what is only reported on MSM as numbers dead. The indisputable facts are that we see Israel bombs dropping (so they can't claim this is Hamas) and the Israelis can only claim they don't mean to hurt innocent people, but Hamas, according to Israelis, apparently drink blood and eat their own children for sympathy. Sorry, but the first defense is pathetic, and the second is science fiction. We Pro-Palestinian bloggers have the credible statements of the UN and Red Cross, and witness Israel's banning of western reporters. But furthermore, we have available to us decades of documentaries and photos to understand the background of this conflict, and many of us are growingly outraged at the injustice and US Support, just for starters.
I hope the battle over the internet continues, and although sometimes truth will be elusive, I believe that is why we have 'fact checkers'. The MSM is so quiet - it is disgusting. Americans deserve to know what their government is supporting, and I believe if Americans understood better-then somehow, our representatives will be forced to represent us... all the way to the top. I feel America has been grossly betrayed, and our foreign policy is nothing short of treasonous, unfair, risking national security and security of all inhabitants of the Middle East... including Israelis.
All my newsgroups - soccer, breakfast, boats are filled with this cr*p. Everybody is taking sides. None of us can *do* anything. With a following wind everyone involved will kill each other and we can all get on with our lives. There is no other solution. Maybe I've had a 'care' bypass?
Both videos show criminal behaviour by Hamas, in the first case criminal negligence, in the second the selective application to political opponents of a presumably illegal ban on 'overly noisy gatherings'. The complete misrepresentation of the former carnage as the actions of the Israel is not the same as the misrepresentation of the latter as involving deaths when 'only' 20 people were injured. Its apples and oranges. The primary common factor being Palestinians being hurt by Hamas.
No matter how discomforted we may feel about the death toll in Gaza, we shouldn't allow our liberal guilt to make objective analysis the first casualty of reporting on events.