RSS
Al Jazeera Promotes Inflammatory Documentary Claiming an IDF War on Gaza Hospitals
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
There’s a destructive rumor that Israel and the IDF are committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Qatari-owned propaganda machine Al Jazeera has often perpetuated this false narrative.
Time and time again, the network ignores evidence, employs questionable “journalists” on the ground in Gaza, and leaves out important context when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Al Jazeera’s video, “Gaza: The War on Hospitals,” has garnered upwards of 175,000 views on YouTube since it was published on June 1, 2024.
Its main narrative is that Israel is deliberately “targeting and bombing” health facilities and killing health workers in order to a) collapse the health infrastructure in the Strip, and b) expel Palestinian civilians from the northern Gaza Strip, even if that means many of them are killed along the way.
Coincidentally, Qatar has hosted Hamas leaders and has been a financier for Hamas activities in Gaza, so Al Jazeera and Hamas are interconnected in a strange web of funds and agendas.
Here are several points — out of many — that must be debunked.
1. Al Jazeera claim: Today’s “expulsion” of Gazans from the northern Gaza Strip and anywhere else in Gaza over the last 10 months by the IDF is a “Nakba” repeat.
Why it’s false: The IDF’s intent is not to “expel” Gaza civilians or to massacre them. Hamas terrorists plant themselves in civilian areas purposely. The IDF warning civilians to leave for their own safety is not a “threat” or a method of “ethnic cleansing” — it is for their own benefit. By doing so, the IDF also loses its element of surprise and puts its soldiers in more danger.
In every ceasefire-hostage deal discussed, there was never a question of whether Gazans would remain in Gaza. This is just a temporary maneuver because, just as in each area the IDF has fought in, getting civilians out of a war zone is crucial to minimizing deaths.
2. Al Jazeera claim: Bombing and targeting hospitals is a “major war strategy” of the IDF.
Why it’s false: This is insinuating a strategy by the IDF to target civilians for some sort of nefarious purpose. Throughout the film, there is a major emphasis on Israel bombarding residential areas and medical facilities without any context, or mention of the fact that hostages were being held inside hospitals, and nearly no mention of a Hamas presence. But as previously stated, Hamas operates in hospitals, schools, mosques, and within residential areas. This is exactly the reason why the IDF warned civilians to evacuate the area.
3. Al Jazeera claim: Hospitals are systematically targeted, and the IDF targeted and killed sick people and families on their way to al Ahli Hospital and the Jordanian field hospital, and struck ambulances.
Why it’s false: This claim can be discredited with one fell swoop, as HonestReporting has previously exposed Al Jazeera interviewee Ghassan Abu Sitta as a limelight-lover who spreads conspiracies about Israel to the media.
In at least one instance on January 17, the IDF provided evidence opposing the claim that the Jordanian field hospital had been shelled and how civilians could have been caught in crossfire.
4. Al Jazeera claim: There is no definitive proof that Hamas is/was operating in any Gaza hospitals.
Why it’s false: When Hamas is finally mentioned more than halfway through the film, there is a denial that there was a Hamas presence at all in these hospitals. The IDF did not reveal its sources or how it knew for sure that hospitals like al Ahli or al Shifa were being used as Hamas command centers, but it did reveal what media-friendly evidence it could. IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a press conference back on October 27, 2023, that the rest of the evidence was shared with the international intelligence community, which corroborated its authenticity. In this video of a France 24 audio-recorded interview, a British doctor who worked at Al-Shifa hospital revealed that there were parts of the hospital used for “non-medical purposes.” HonestReporting also did its own investigation into Al-Shifa Hospital to verify the credibility of evidence that Hamas operated out of it.
5. Al Jazeera claim: The Al-Ahli hospital incident on October 17 was an IDF strike.
Why it’s false: In the early hours after the explosion, many publications, including Al Jazeera, among others, reported false casualty numbers and attributed blame to Israel without waiting for the facts to emerge. Sure enough, Human Rights Watch delivered an initial report of its findings, as well as French military intelligence. Both stated that the casualty figures were wrong, and that it was actually a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket that fell in the hospital’s parking lot, not an IDF strike on the hospital itself. But nearly a year later, Al Jazeera chooses to stick to its propaganda … unlike any reliable news source.
The film concludes with the following claim: Israel deliberately targets civilians “in what to many is a disproportionate form of collective punishment.”
The truth: In an urban environment like the Gaza Strip, where Hamas and PIJ position themselves in the midst of residential areas and humanitarian zones, the IDF’s mission of protecting civilians becomes enormously complicated and challenging.
While the IDF aims to minimize the loss of civilian lives and goes to great lengths to achieve this, the harsh reality of war and Hamas’ embedding in the civilian population sadly makes this unavoidable. Yet, as urban warfare expert John Spencer has said, the IDF has gone above and beyond in its methods to minimize harm to civilians.
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 Al Jazeera Promotes Inflammatory Documentary Claiming an IDF War on Gaza Hospitals first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In its latest salvo against the Jewish state, the United Nations (UN) condemned Israel for executing retaliatory strikes against the Houthi terror group in Yemen.
“The Secretary-General condemns escalation between Yemen and Israel,” Stéphanie Tremblay, a UN spokesperson, said in Thursday statements on behalf of UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about intensified escalation in Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming. The airstrikes reportedly resulted in numerous casualties including at least three killed and dozens more injured” Tremblay added.
On Thursday, Israel launched a barrage of missile attacks on Houthi bases in Yemen, provoking international outrage. Israel targeted a major airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, and power stations, locations the Jewish state claims were used by the terror group to sneak in both Iranian weapons and high-ranking Iranian officials.
On Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an airstrike aimed at Ben Gurion airport, claiming that the attacks were carried out in retaliation against Israel’s targeting of Sana’a International airport.
The Israeli strikes followed days of Houthi missile and drone launches towards the Jewish state’s airspace. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked the Jewish state in the year following the Oct. 7 slaughters in Israel. Officials associated with terrorist organization claims that it will continue to attack Israel until the so-called “genocide” in Gaza ceases.
In reference to the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned.”
Israeli officials have long accused the UN of having a bias against the Jewish state. Last year, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel twice as often as it did all other countries. Meanwhile, of all the country-specific resolutions passed by the UNHRC, nearly half have condemned Israel, a seemingly disproportionate focus on the lone democracy in the Middle East.
Weeks following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, the UN adopted a resolution calling for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group. The UN failed to pass a measure condemning the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
In June, the UN put Israel on its so-called “list of shame” of countries that kill children in armed conflict. Israel is considered to be the only democracy on the list.
The post United Nations ‘Condemns’ Israel for Responding to Houthi Attacks, Decries ‘Escalation’ of Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israeli Jets Attack Syria-Lebanon Border Crossings to Stop Arms Amuggling
Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike in southern Lebanon village, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, Oct. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhar
Israeli jets struck seven crossing points along the Syria-Lebanon border on Friday, aiming to cut the flow of weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.
Israeli troops also seized a truck mounted with a 40-barrel rocket launcher in southern Lebanon, part of a haul from various areas that included explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 automatic rifles, the military said.
The commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar, said Hezbollah was trying to smuggle weapons into Lebanon to test Israel’s ability to stop them.
“This must not be tolerated,” he said in a statement.
Under the terms of a Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement, Israel is supposed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon in phases while unauthorised Hezbollah military facilities south of the Litani River are to be dismantled.
However, each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, intended to end more than a year of fighting that began with Hezbollah missile strikes on Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, from Gaza.
On Thursday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon called for Israeli forces to withdraw, citing what it said were repeated violations of the deal.
Israel, which destroyed large parts of Hezbollah’s missile stocks during weeks of operations in southern Lebanon, has said it will not permit weapons to be smuggled to Hezbollah through Syria.
Israel has also conducted attacks against the Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen in recent days and pledged to continue its campaign against Iranian-backed militant groups across the region.
The post Israeli Jets Attack Syria-Lebanon Border Crossings to Stop Arms Amuggling first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at the 9th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on April 16, 2023. Photo: Cover Media via Reuters Connect
Actress Mila Kunis began embracing and feeling proud of her Jewish heritage when she met her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and even more so after having children, she told Israeli activist and author Noa Tishby this week.
“For me, it happened when I met my husband,” the “Goodrich” star, 41, said of her former “That ’70s Show” costar, 46, who she has been married to since 2015.
Although Kutcher is not Jewish, he was a follower of Kabbalah and was frequently photographed visiting the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles when he was married to actress Demi Moore from 2005-2013. Their wedding was also reportedly officiated by a Kabbalah Centre teacher. It remains unclear if he continues to follow Kabbalah. Nevertheless, Kunis joked that Kutcher is Jewish “by choice,” not by lineage, and that his interest in Judaism sparked Kunis to reconnect with her Jewish roots.
“I fell in love with my religion because he explained it to me,” said Kunis, who voices Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series “Family Guy.”
Kunis made the comments while joining Tishby to light candles on Thursday for the second night of Hanukkah. The two joined forces as part of Tishby’s “#BringOnTheLight campaign,” which is an eight-part video series on YouTube dedicated to spreading the message of Jewish resilience, pride and unity throughout the Jewish holiday.
Kunis and Kutcher together have two children — daughter Wyatt, 10, and son Dimitri, 8. The actress was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and moved to the United States at the age of eight. She told Tishby that she did not adhere to any Jewish traditions while growing up. “I always knew I was Jewish but I was told to never talk about,” she said. “I think because I was in a country that didn’t allow for religion.” The “Bad Moms” star added that her children also helped her tap into the religious side of Judaism.
“I was raised culturally Jewish. So for me, it’s a culture,” she said. “And as I had kids, and my kids very much identity with the religion aspect of it, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess we’re doing Shabbat and the candles. And there are so many beautiful traditions.”
“I never lit Hanukkah candles until I had kids,” she further noted.
When Kunis lit the menorah with Tishby for the second night of Hanukkah, they called Kutcher for some help. Both women were unsure if they needed to light the candles from left to right or from right to left, and asked Kutcher for guidance.
Kunis also talked about being raised with a lot of Jewish guilt and superstition. Listing another things that are culturally Jewish about her, she shared, “I have a fear of not having enough food and my fear of somebody being hungry. The worst thing my kids can say to me is, ‘I’m hungry.’”
“Food fixes everything. You’re tired, eat some food. You’re cranky, eat some food,” she joked. “A health person would say, ‘This is unhealthy and you’re doing something wrong.’ And I understand. I’m working on it. But it’s just something that is embedded in me.”
The post Mila Kunis Says Husband Ashton Kutcher And Their Children Helped Her Embrace Judaism: ‘I Fell in Love With My Religion’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.