Israel’s tsunami of lies, fabrications and intimidation

Nearly a year on, how is Israel’s propaganda war going? I have written before about its propaganda failures. So many stories have turned out to be bare-faced lies or obvious distortions. Where, in the past, Israeli propagandists were seen to be slick and professional, this no longer applies.

The same trends continue. Israel has targeted journalists in Gaza, killing at least 111 since last October. International reporters are denied entry to the enclave. Critics are smeared as antisemitic when no such charge could be remotely justified. Protesters are collectively denounced as only being pro-Hamas.

What we have seen over the last 11 months is ever more aggressive pile-ons against anyone who dares to hold Israel to account even mildly. The assault on UNRWA is relentless, but again with smears rather than evidence. Take EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. In response to his mild criticisms, the Israeli foreign minister posted a horrendous image of Borrell, the Iranian supreme leader and an octopus, borrowing a classic antisemitic meme. Not classy at all.

Since May, the International Criminal Court and its prosecutor Karim Khan have topped the list of targets for the online Israeli attack dogs. The abuse against Khan for daring to push for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders is off the charts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Khan was turning the institution into a “kangaroo court” — this from a man determined to trash the Israeli judicial system.

The abuse against Khan for daring to push for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders is off the charts

Chris Doyle

Media outlets also get attacked. The BBC is a favorite. An Israeli group with a long history of obsessive attacks on the BBC produced a vacuous and methodologically dubious report into its coverage. For example, it complained that the BBC had associated Israel with war crimes four times more than Hamas. Is that surprising, with Israel having killed more than 40 times more people and having forcibly displaced 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population? Still, the right-wing press gave it top billing as an independent academic paper.

Certain Israeli claims just do not get challenged. When kicking off yet another invasion of the West Bank in August, Israeli officials claimed Iran was behind a wave of attacks there. It is not impossible, but where was the evidence? Israeli actions — even bombing water towers — are all in self-defense, we are told.

Deliberate disinformation is a staple. The Israeli killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American activist shot dead near Nablus this month, is a clear example. Israel claimed she was shot by accident at the height of protests, when in fact — as a Washington Post investigation determined — the killing took place more than half an hour after the protests had died down and there was no threat to the soldiers. And since a British humanitarian safe house in Gaza was bombed in January, Israeli officials have offered six contrasting versions of what happened.

Even the Israeli army is investigating how misleading information found its way into two publications, Bild and the Jewish Chronicle. That the army is doing this relates to its ongoing clash with the Israeli prime minister and its efforts to demonstrate that it was Netanyahu’s office that was responsible. The disinformation was hardly subtle and looked bizarre at the point of publication, though the usual bevvy of credulous anti-Palestinian influencers bought it hook, line and sinker. Bild alleged that the Israelis had discovered Yahya Sinwar’s secret strategy on a laptop in Gaza. Anyone with any knowledge of Hamas would immediately register extreme caution. It was determined this was nothing but the thoughts of a mid-level Hamas operative.

The Israeli killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the American activist shot dead near Nablus, is a clear example

Chris Doyle

A so-called journalist, Elon Perry, wrote some pieces for Britain’s Jewish Chronicle. Yet no evidence of any previous journalistic or academic experience could be found. His “in-depth account” of the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was found to be dubious. Worse was his story, seemingly fabricated, that Sinwar intended to smuggle hostages out of Gaza to Iran. The Israeli press shattered the credibility of these articles, quoting numerous security sources trashing their veracity. The Jewish Chronicle kept the articles online for days, demonstrating its cavalier attitude to the truth and accurate reporting.

Too many take Israeli statements at face value, as if it is a good-faith actor. One notable case is when Israeli spokespeople cite information obtained from interrogation. Firstly, who knows what was obtained and what was said? Secondly, Israel has been using widespread torture, including sexual abuse, so how reliable are any such statements? At least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since last October, indicating the ferocity of the torture.

Is this tsunami of Israeli lies, fabrications and intimidation working? If so, that would be terrifying. What is curious is that, while it seems to intimidate political leaders and media editors, the general public have not bought into the spin, as opinion polls show. People can see the propaganda for what it is against the backdrop of a decimated Gaza. It is the world leaders who seem to fear the harsh headlines and the cowardly editors who are not prepared to stand up for the truth out of fear of a barrage of attacks if they do.

• Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech