Zionist control over Western mainstream media (MSM) no longer works as well as it used to. Social media have not just broken through the barriers, they also reach recipients much faster than newspapers and TV, and they have become more credible. This is clear in the coverage of the destruction and carnage that the Israeli “Defence” Forces (IDF) are perpetrating in Gaza. All quarters of the Western MSM reiterate the same refrain, as though reading from a dictated script. It consists of several components:
One: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Under this heading, Israel is entitled to carry out wave after wave of bombings deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza.
Two: The Hamas attack against the Israeli settlements in the vicinity of Gaza was “unprovoked.” The point of this is to erase 75 years of uninterrupted Israeli provocation of a people under occupation.
Three: The Palestinian fighters who attacked the settlements perpetrated atrocities against civilians such as beheading babies and raping women. Although such claims were immediately debunked, the MSM line was echoed by Western officials in their knee-jerk rush to Israel’s side, proclaiming their unqualified support for it, and turning a blind eye to three-quarters of a century of injustice against the Palestinians.
Grassroots opinion is much more objective, balanced, and nuanced. Much of the credit for this goes to social media which, for decades, have been relaying news and images of the crimes the IDF has been perpetrating against Palestinian civilians. In recent weeks, social media have circulated images that the Western MSM assiduously keeps from its viewers. An example are the horrifying reports and pictures of an assault by a gang of Israeli settlers against three Palestinians in the West Bank. The settlers stripped, bound and blindfolded their victims, then subjected them to hours of abuse, which included extinguishing cigarettes on their bodies, urinating on them, and kicking, beating and stomping on them with incredible savagery. Afterwards, the attackers posted photographs of the brutalised victims on their social media accounts.
Meanwhile, in the world of the pro-Zionist Western MSM, you find totally different stories that the media repeat like parrots. These tell of alleged attacks carried out by Palestinians. Of course, in their case, there is no need for corroborative evidence, photographic or otherwise. The point is to cover up the crimes committed by Israel and to prepare the ground for many more to come.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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