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Media’s Casualty Is the Truth as it Spreads Three Damaging Lies About Gaza
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
“The first casualty of war is the truth.”
The late Republican senator Hiram Johnson (CA)’s immortal observation has come to mind more than a few times with regard to the media’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Actually, a more accurate rendering of the statement during this war would be, “most of the casualties of war are the truth.”
For the truth was not the first victim when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on that morning on October 7; raping and kidnapping festival-goers as the sun rose in the sky, and burning families alive in their homes within the formerly tranquil kibbutzim near the Gaza border.
In fact, the gruesome truth was there for everyone to bear horrified witness to as Hamas terrorists proudly documented their wicked actions using cell phones and body-worn cameras.
But truth has since taken a back seat in the reporting of Israel’s response to the attack and Hamas’ genocidal aims, with several glaring lies still being peddled by the media, twisting the public’s understanding of the war.
The media appears determined to paint Israel as a pariah state, eagerly spreading the most damaging misinformation and stubbornly refusing to correct themselves even when confronted with undeniable evidence to the contrary.
The ‘Genocide’ Ruling That Wasn’t
Perhaps the most damaging of all the mistruths still being promoted by the press is the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s interim ruling in January on a case brought by South Africa that accused Israel of genocide.
As we pointed out at the time, organizations such as the United Nations and Human Rights Watch led the way in misinterpreting the ruling, falsely claiming that the court had decided that the allegation of genocide in Gaza by Israel was “plausible.”
Next to jump on the misinformation bandwagon was the international media, uncritically parroting the claims of politically-motivated human rights organizations instead of consulting legal experts to report the ruling accurately.
Months later, Joan Donoghue, head of the ICJ at the time, set the record straight.
Appearing on the BBC current affairs show HARDTalk in April, Donoghue expressed relief at the opportunity to explain the ruling’s effect — and, in doing so, exposed months of media negligence, including by the editorial team of the very program on which she was being interviewed.
“The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court,” she clarified. “It then looked at the facts as well. But it did not decide — and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media — it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.”
Despite Donoghue’s clear and public clarification, the “plausible genocide” lie continues to be promoted by numerous media outlets — demonstrating ignorance at best and naked bias by journalists at worst.
Just this week, The Guardian failed to remove the error from an opinion piece by a UK Member of Parliament, Zarah Sultana, which called on the UK’s newly-elected government to suspend arms sales to Israel.
No, MP Sultana and @guardian, the ICJ did NOT find Israel in breach of the genocide convention, as you can see the former ICJ president admit here: https://t.co/p36CTENXTO pic.twitter.com/I29DWHdXS0
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 17, 2024
The Famine That Never Happened
We recently addressed what can only be described as a campaign of disinformation surrounding the issue of food aid being delivered to the Gaza Strip.
But let’s go back to the beginning of this lie. Merely two weeks into the war, claims of starvation in the enclave were already being sounded. Oxfam, for example, alleged that “clean water has now virtually run out,” while stating that a “staggering 2.2 million people are now in urgent need of food.”
Since then, there have been almost daily headlines describing “catastrophic levels of hunger” in Gaza, with a population facing “imminent famine.”
Arab media outlets helped furnish this shaky narrative with questionable accounts of individual Palestinian children with preexisting and often life-threatening medical conditions supposedly dying from “malnutrition,” which are then reprinted wholesale by the Western media without editors or journalists ever bothering to probe a little deeper.
HonestReporting has repeatedly called out the media for continuing to allege a famine despite a paucity of evidence, and as further data is published that proves the opposite.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) walked back on a widely-publicized March briefing after uncovering several flaws in the original data, leading them to amend their initial claims. Ultimately, the IPC concluded that they cannot consider the situation in Gaza a “famine.”
The Beginning of a New Lie
HonestReporting launched a new fight this month to stop a fresh, equally damaging lie from taking root and eventually being reported as fact.
The discredited letter in The Lancet medical journal, which sensationally and without a shred of evidence, claims the Gaza death toll could be higher than 180,000, has been making the rounds.
This is how false info spreads:
1. @TheLancet publishes claims of 186,000 deaths in Gaza.
2. Media republish the false figure, ignoring the author’s prior justification of terrorism.
3. Israel is blamed for countless deaths that didn’t happen.https://t.co/rZmDKxjFP3 pic.twitter.com/Czc9daYP7m
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 8, 2024
Some media outlets jumped on the figure, producing sensationalist, click-bait headlines about the mass killing of Palestinians. However, the quick effort to counter The Lancet’s disinformation has had an impact.
The figure is not being quoted anymore in news articles in reputable mainstream media outlets, and HonestReporting is actively calling out the publications that do.
That’s how we’ll win the fight against media misinformation: by responding quickly and loudly across all platforms and publicly shaming news organizations that get it wrong.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media’s Casualty Is the Truth as it Spreads Three Damaging Lies About Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi terrorist group in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said three people were killed.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that in addition to striking the airport, it also hit military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib on Yemen’s west coast. It also attacked the country’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two people were killed in the strikes on the airport and one person was killed in the port hits, while 11 others were wounded in the attacks.
There was no comment from the Houthis, who have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the attacks that Israel will continue its mission until it is complete: “We are determined to sever this terror arm of Iran’s axis.”
The prime minister has been strengthened at home by the Israeli military’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army’s strategic weapons.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were also reported by Al Masirah TV.
Tedros said he had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff detainees and to assess the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa … the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” he said in a statement.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues were safe.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel‘s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel‘s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people.
The post Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Photo: Alchetron.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.
The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,’” CAIR said in a statement.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.
On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.
“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.
Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.
Following Lew’s repudiation, FEWS NET quietly removed the report on Wednesday, sparking outrage among supporters of the pro-Palestinian cause.
“We ask FEWS NET not to submit to the bullying of genocide supporters and to again make its report available to the public,” CAIR said in its statement.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has been repeatedly accused of inflicting famine in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Despite the allegations, there is scant evidence of mass starvation across the war-torn enclave.
This is not the first time that FEWS Net has attempted to accuse Israel of inflicting famine in Gaza. In June, the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected claims by FEWS Net that a famine had taken hold of northern Gaza. In rejecting the allegations, the FRC cited an “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Meanwhile, CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the onset of the Gaza war last October.
CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the Oct. 7 atrocities. The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage across southern Israel.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
The post Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
The international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack on Israeli soccer fans that took place in Amsterdam last month has joined many voices in lambasting a Dutch court for what they described as a mild punishment for the attackers.
“These sentences are an insult to the victims and a stain on the Dutch legal system,” The Lawfare Project’s founder and executive director Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Wednesday. “Allowing individuals who coordinated and celebrated acts of violence to walk away with minimal consequences diminishes the rule of law and undermines trust in the judicial process. If this is the response to such blatant antisemitism, what hope is there for deterring future offenders or safeguarding the Jewish community.”
On Tuesday, a district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men for their participation in the violent attacks in the Dutch city against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The premeditated and coordinated violence took place on the night of Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov 8, before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch soccer team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The five suspects were sentenced to up to 100 hours of community service and up to six months in prison.
The attackers were found guilty of public violence, which included kicking an individual lying on the ground, and inciting the violence by calling on members of a WhatsApp group chat to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. One man sentenced on Tuesday who had a “leading role” in the violence, according to prosecutors, was given the longest sentence — six months in prison.
“As someone who witnessed these trials firsthand, I am deeply disheartened by the leniency of these sentences,” added Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project. “The violent, coordinated attacks against Jews in Amsterdam are among the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe. These light sentences fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes and do little to deliver justice to the victims who are left traumatized and unheard. Even more troubling, they set a dangerous precedent, signaling to future offenders that such horrific acts of violence will not be met with serious consequences.”
The Lawfare Project said on Wednesday that it is representing over 50 victims of the Amsterdam attacks. It has also secured for their clients a local counsel — Peter Plasman, who is a partner at the Amsterdam-based law firm Kötter L’Homme Plasman — to represent them in the Netherlands. The Lawfare Project aims to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world through legal action.
Others who have criticized the Dutch court for its sentencing of the five men on Tuesday included Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum; Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell; and The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
The post Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.