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Securing financial and political support is pivotal for Israel because of the illegitimacy of its statehood status on the global map. One method for this purpose is Hasbara, literally meaning “explanation” (Wikipedia). However, in practice, it is an umbrella operation of “public diplomacy” to manipulate all information concerning Israel’s brand and to manage all the activities helping shape global opinion in Israel’s favor, a big part of which consists of grey and black propaganda (techniques/colors, RTE), and victimhood campaigns.
These types of propaganda have negative connotations based on their objective. It selectively presents facts to develop a particular perception, uses weaponized language to elicit an emotional instead of a rational reaction, and steers people in a direction that is not necessarily compatible with their own interests or wishes, but to benefit the perpetrator.
Besides using disproportionate military power against the civilian population of Gaza, Israel invested widely in psychological warfare as well. After Hamas’s Oct 7 attack, Israel formally set up a “legitimization cell” by assigning the task to a whole military unit (972 magazine) to collect relevant intelligence utilized for Hasbara. Following is a brief overview of some of the tools and techniques employed in the propaganda used during the genocide in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023.
False Equivalencies & False Dichotomies:
-It is war, Hamas/Palestinian against Israel are equally liable..
- Israel has the right to defend itself, needs to defend itself against (its own) oppression/threats, us vs them.
Straw Man & Ad Hominem:
-The argument against Israel’s wrongdoing is against all Jewish people and Anti-semitic in its nature.
-Atrocities reported by Palestine or individual civilians are staged by Pallywood[as in Hollywood, Al-Shabaka], fake or made up.
-Civilians, including children, targeted journalists(197, since Oct 7, CPJ, aljazeera) and aid workers, accidentally get killed, or they are Hamas agents, or both.
Victimhood, Appeal to Pity, Shooting and crying:
-It is the only Jewish state; we have no choice but to support it.
-Hamas is using Palestinians in Gaza as “human shields, hence we have no other option. Also, because resistance groups are an existential threat to us, the same as the Nazis or ISIS.
Discrediting and Casting Doubt:
Constant efforts to deny the occupation and oppression of civilians in Gaza. Mass starvation and famine are called staged, created, well-manipulated photos, virtual realities. Painting local journalists on the ground as biased towards Palatine based on a conflict of interest.
Hasbarists block access to information, propagate selective interpretation of Israel’s point of view and distort and fabricate facts. No independent media is allowed in the area, while the local journalists are targeted for killing.
In one report, CNN was found to have a pro-Israel cell inside its bureau that filters and appropriates any news report concerning Israel and Palestine.
The word Palestine is prohibited from being used in the newsroom(Al Jazeera), loaded and dehumanizing language is used to describe Hamas’s (bombs, missiles, terrorists, numbers killed), but neutralized or humanized for Israel’s (airstrike, families, babies beheaded).
Information provided by journalists and humanitarian missions is framed wrongly.
-Campaigns against UNRWA employees as being involved in the Oct 7 attacks, to urge 10 major countries to stop funding UNWRA.
-False portrayal of a journalist as a member of Hamas’ military wing to falsify their reporting (recently, Al-Sharif’s portrayal as a militant, who in his posthumous message testified, “I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”
-To hide its war crimes, Israel builds narratives to blur the difference between military and civilian worlds together, and converted Gaza into one big military target where everyone is a combatant and everything is destroyable, and significant civilian centers are power targets(“matarot otzem”)
Long before the war, their society was desensitized by being infused with excessive disdain through the information about atrocities against Gaza’s civilian population, painting them as not just an enemy they are fighting back with, but the terrorists, animals and sub-humans who deserved to be killed and destroyed.
Digitally developed Hasbara continuously manipulating social media by using bots and trolls to spread disinformation at high volumes, AI-generated content for fake videos and audio, and the use of personalized search algorithms to tailor messages to specific individuals utilizing techniques like to mock the ‘enemy’ through name-calling and loaded words, emotional appeals & glittering generalities for jewish community, and misuse of statistics for generating fear and caste doubts to cloud judgment and bypass rational thought.
It is crucial to counter Hasbara today because misinformation hides Israel’s criminal activities in the Middle East and against all humans in the end without any consequences.
