Denial of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
In
An Israeli legislative proposal approved by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs aims to impose five-year prison sentences for individuals found denying the events of or supporting the October 7 attacks.[3]
Background
According to the
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, malign actors, "In accordance with the disinformation playbook" have purposefully decontextualized their reporting to "falsely claim that Haaretz corroborated the false theory that the IDF committed mass killings of its own people." According to Shayan Sardarizadeh, BBC Verify's disinformation expert, the "denialist narrative" that “it was Israel that killed its own civilians on 7 October, not Hamas,” has "sadly become prominent online."[5] However, accusations of incidents of friendly fire by IDF soldiers and kibbutz security teams against civilians attempting to flee or captured and brought into Gaza during the October 7 attacks, were reported later.[6][7]
Spread
Emerson Brooking from the
The claims were found across the internet, including on the Reddit subforum 'LateStageCapitalism' and on publications critical of Israel like The Electronic Intifada and The Grayzone. They have also been popularized by right-wing Holocaust deniers like Owen Benjamin and far-right conspiracy theorists. The claims are based on cherry-picked evidence to push misleading narratives.[1] A Telegram instant messaging group, that had also shared content and conspiracies relating to foreign policy and the Covid-19 pandemic, had nearly 3,000 people on it in January 2024 that pushed content and conspiracies blaming the attack on Israel.[8]
In March 2024 the Israeli firm CyberWell, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor, analyze and combat antisemitism on social media, reported that the company had found about 135 separate posts that had been viewed by more than 15 million users that denied the October 7 attacks. The company found that the identified posts were almost half from Twitter, with others posted to Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.[9]
Denial claims
This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2024) |
Jennifer V. Evans has tied the denialism surrounding October 7 to Holocaust denial.[4][1] According to Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post,a small but growing group denies the basic facts of the attacks, pushing a spectrum of falsehoods and misleading narratives that minimize the violence or dispute its origins."[1] Dwoskin writes that some scholars and experts have compared denial of the events on October 7 to Holocaust denialism.[1]
CyberWell reported that there were six key narrative trends around the denial of the sexual violence during the October 7 attacks, such as claims of no rape survivors having come forward, survivors and first responders were lying, and Israelis were the perpetrators.[9] In an interview during a pro-Palestine rally, Piers Corbyn political activist and brother to politician Jeremy Corbyn stated that Israel funds Hamas and had allowed for the hostages to be taken during the attacks, he also claimed that there were no children killed during the attacks and those involved were crisis actors.[10]
Responses
Legal action
On February 5, 2024, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs approved a bill aimed at penalizing denial of the October 7 attacks, imposing up to five years in prison for such acts. The bill, initiated by Yisrael Beiteinu MK Oded Forer, is aimed at individuals who deny the occurrence of the massacre or attempt to justify, praise, or support the acts carried out during the event.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Washington Post. Archived from the originalon 2024-01-21. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ Ynet (2024-01-22). "Denial of Hamas' October 7 massacre spreads in US". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
- ^ a b "Israeli Ministerial Committee approves imprisonment for denying Oct. 7". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-02-05. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
- ^ Times of Israel. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ "How Media Outlets Like Haaretz Are Weaponized in the Fake News Wars Over Israel and Hamas". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
In accordance with the disinformation playbook, malign actors have sought to hijack and manipulate the reputation and credibility of long-established news sources. In order to establish an "authentic" grounding for atrocity denial and conspiracy theories, it is unsurprising that influencers would seize on an established Israeli outlet like Haaretz, to co-opt its credibility and misrepresent its reporting. Haaretz has reported on two instances where sources told reporters that in the midst of the massacres, IDF forces firing at Hamas terrorists may have also hit, not confirmed killed, some civilians. Malign actors have exploited this reporting, published with no context, to purposefully decontextualize it and falsely claim that Haaretz corroborated the false theory that the IDF committed mass killings of its own people. This disinformation was then shared by others – some perhaps acting with good intentions, but creating misinformation nonetheless. According to the BBC's Sardarizadeh, the denialist narrative that "it was Israel that killed its own civilians on 7 October, not Hamas," has become appallingly widespread online.
- ^ Breiner, Josh; Peleg, Bar (2024-02-22). "Israeli Nova partygoer was misidentified as Hamas terrorist on October 7 and killed by Israeli forces". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
- ^ "Families of 13 people killed in October 7 Kibbutz Be'eri firefight demand probe". The Times of Israel. 6 January 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ Greyman-Kennard, Danielle (January 22, 2024). "Holocaust denial finds new life in Oct. 7 revisionism". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ a b "Social media watchdog warns of trending denial of October 7 sexual violence". The Jerusalem Post. March 5, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ Greyman-Kennard, Danielle (2023-11-02). "Israeli kids killed on October 7 were actors, claims Jeremy Corbyn's brother". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2024-03-22.