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Questionable Haaretz Reporting Used to Demonize Israel
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
One of the most prevalent issues with coverage of the current war between Israel and Hamas is the spread of inaccurate reporting and misinformation.
As seen with the Al-Ahli Hospital explosion and other similar instances, inaccurate reports help to fuel a narrative that whitewashes Hamas’ terrorist actions while simultaneously condemning Israel for acts that it did not commit. This false narrative then takes off on social media, and quickly becomes an accepted fact for many people.
Two instances of seemingly inaccurate reporting that have spread in both the mainstream media and online are the reports that the IDF Spokesperson announced that Israeli strikes against Hamas would emphasize “damage and not accuracy,” and the claim that some of those killed at the Nova music festival were killed by an Israeli military helicopter and not by Hamas terrorists.
Both of these claims were initially reported in the Israeli daily, Haaretz.
“Damage and Not Accuracy”
On October 10, three days after the horrific Hamas terror attack in Israel’s south, the Haaretz daily blog reported a number of statements made that morning by the IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, in a briefing to military reporters. One of these statements attributed to the spokesperson was that, for the IDF, “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”
From an analysis of the text of Rear Admiral Hagari’s statement that morning, it appears that this is not an exact quote but a paraphrasing of his words.
The actual quote is “between accuracy and the scale of damage, right now we are busy with what generates maximum damage” (emphasis added). It was said in the context of the spokesperson’s remarks on Israel’s bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza and the armaments that Israel had at its disposal to complete this task.
The statement was made during the initial stage of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas for its brutal slaughter on October 7 and was not a declaration of how Israel would conduct itself throughout the war.
Despite the nuanced context of the statement, the Haaretz paraphrasing was soon picked up by a variety of international media organizations and has been used to support incorrect observations about Israel’s conduct in this war.
On that same day, Haaretz’s English website featured a report that quoted the Gaza Health Ministry’s accusation that Israel was conducting indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. The report continued in the next paragraph, “On Tuesday morning, the IDF reported having dropped hundreds of tons of bombs in attacks on the Strip and said that ‘the emphasis is on damage, not precision.’”
This leaves the reader with the incorrect impression that the Hamas-run Ministry’s accusation is in line with the IDF’s stated method of warfare.
Also on October 10, The Guardian reported that “Speaking on Tuesday morning, IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari made the startling admission that ‘hundreds of tons of bombs’ had already been dropped on the tiny strip, adding that ‘the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.’”
Here too, the underlying message appears to be that Israel is indiscriminately bombing Gaza in its fight against Hamas.
One month later, in his column for The Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor claimed that the IDF’s assertion that it tries to avoid civilian casualties and is only focused on military targets is at odds with Rear Admiral Hagari’s earlier statement “that the ’emphasis’ of the IDF’s reprisal was ‘on damage and not on accuracy.’”
Only by dissecting the original quote from its proper context could this assertion appear to have any validity.
This decontextualized paraphrasing of the IDF Spokesperson’s comments on October 10 has also been used by Vox and Al Jazeera to insinuate that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza might be tantamount to genocide (an absurd and dangerous allegation).
Aside from the mainstream media, this paraphrasing of the spokesperson’s original comment has also made its way onto social media, where it is used as a cudgel by opponents of Israel to delegitimize the Jewish state’s fight against Hamas.
Despite the fact that the IDF spokesperson’s comments on the morning of October 10 were poorly paraphrased in the initial Haaretz report — and Israeli officials have continually asserted that Israel does not target civilians — this modified quote has continuously appeared out of context in both the mainstream media and online as a means of questioning the morality of Israel’s military strategy and disqualifying its legitimate war against Hamas.
The Israeli Helicopter at the Nova Festival
On November 18, Haaretz published a piece by Josh Breiner on the ongoing investigation into the atrocities of October 7, including the massacre at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im.
As part of his report, Breiner wrote that “According to a police source, the investigation also indicates that an IDF combat helicopter that arrived to the scene and fired at terrorists there apparently also hit some festival participants.”
This one sentence then became the basis for an article by Business Insider, which was subsequently promoted by Yahoo News.
.@BusinessInsider has responded to our complaint by adding an editor’s note that an Israel Police statement has been added to the story, which it attributes to @haaretzcom.
That’s not good enough. Bottom line: it’s still an inaccurate and damaging story. https://t.co/ZLzfEqSY3Y
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 21, 2023
The claim that some of the casualties at the Nova festival had been killed by Israel was also picked up by anti-Israel news outlets such as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Press TV, the Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network, and Electronic Intifada.
Then, this story was further blown out of proportion on social media by those seeking to absolve Hamas of its crimes by claiming that the deaths at the festival were largely the result of indiscriminate fire by the IDF and not Hamas terrorists.
This story even went so far that the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement blaming the IDF for the entire Nova massacre and a representative of Hamas claimed on Sky News Australia that “Israeli jets” killed “1,400 people” at the music festival.
In response to this false narrative, the Israel Police released a statement in response to the original Haaretz article wherein it clarified that “Contrary to the publication, the police investigation does not refer to the activity of the IDF forces, and therefore no indication was given of any harm to civilians caused by any aerial activity at the site.”
Despite the fact that the Israel Police has disavowed it, an unverified claim made by an anonymous source in a Haaretz article is enough for many to whitewash Hamas’ crimes while directly implicating Israel in a massacre of its own citizens.
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 Questionable Haaretz Reporting Used to Demonize Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Top Diplomat Urges Lebanese People to Break Free From ‘Iranian Occupation’
Funeral ceremony for former Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, outskirts of Beirut, Feb. 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has called on the Lebanese people to break free from “the Iranian occupation,” pushing Israel’s northern neighbor to weaken the political and military influence of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah.
“The images from Nasrallah’s ‘funeral’ now precisely reflect the historic crossroads where Lebanon stands: The continuation of the Iranian occupation in Lebanon, through Hezbollah — or liberation from Iran and Hezbollah and freedom to Lebanon,” Sa’ar wrote in a post on X, referring to long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli military strike in September. His funeral was held in Lebanon on Sunday.
“The choice is in the hands of Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Sa’ar added.
The Israeli diplomat’s comments came as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told a visiting Iranian delegation on Sunday that the country was “tired” of external conflicts playing out on its territory, asserting that Lebanon is not a battleground for others and hinting at a possible break from Iranian influence.
“Lebanon has grown tired of the wars of others on its land,” Aoun told the Iranian officials, according to a statement released by the newly appointed president’s office. “Countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.”
The images from Nasrallah’s “funeral” now precisely reflect the historic crossroads where Lebanon stands:
The continuation of the Iranian occupation in Lebanon, through Hezbollah – or liberation from Iran and Hezbollah and freedom to Lebanon.
The choice is in the hands of… pic.twitter.com/6aDBZCsfYV— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) February 23, 2025
Iranian officials met Aoun during their visit to Beirut for the funeral of Nasrallah, former leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, which fought a year-long conflict with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war that ended in a November ceasefire. Nearly five months after his death in an Israeli airstrike, Hezbollah buried Nasrallah in a mass funeral meant to showcase political strength despite the group’s weakened state following the war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Nasrallah on Sept. 27 last year in an airstrike as he met commanders in a bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs, delivering a major setback to the Islamist group amid an Israeli offensive. The campaign went on to decimate much of Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities through air and ground attacks.
Hezbollah’s losses from the war with Israel were further compounded by the fall of its ally, Bashar al-Assad, in Syria, which had long served as a vital supply route for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon under Assad’s rule.
During Sunday’s high-level meeting, Aoun said Lebanon wanted “the best relations with Tehran, for the benefit of both countries and people.” According to Aoun’s statement, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf extended President Masoud Pezeshkian’s invitation for Aoun to visit Iran.
In a televised address at Nasrallah’s funeral in a Beirut stadium, current Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared his refusal to let “tyrant America” control Lebanon.
The United States helped broker the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire after almost a year of fighting. The conflict, which Hezbollah launched in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas during the early days of the Gaza war in October 2023, resulted in thousands of deaths in Lebanon and widespread destruction across the country’s south.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
Though Israel has largely withdrawn from the south, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in the area, as Israeli leaders seek to reassure northern residents that they can return home safely.
Tens of thousands of residents in northern Israel were forced to evacuate their homes last year and in late 2023 amid unrelenting attacks from Hezbollah, which expressed solidarity with Hamas amid the Gaza war.
The meeting between Iranian officials and Aoun took place even though regular flights between the two countries had been suspended.
On Feb. 13, Lebanon banned flights to and from Iran after Israel accused Tehran of using civilian planes to smuggle cash to Beirut to Hezbollah and warned of possible military action against such flights. In response, Iran barred Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in the country, stating it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its own flights could resume in Beirut.
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X, Meta Approved Antisemitic and Anti-Muslim Ads Targeting German Voters Before Election, Study Finds
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X/Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
The nonprofit group Ekō has released research showing that the social media platforms X and Meta approved advertising featuring hate speech against Jews and Muslims that was geared toward users in Germany in the lead-up to the country’s federal elections on Sunday.
The organization submitted 10 German-language ads intended to reach German voters before the election. Meta approved half of the proposed ads while X allowed all 10. Ekō canceled all approved ads before they could appear on the sites.
The five approved for publication on Meta referred to Muslim immigrants as a “virus,” “vermin,” “rodents,” or “rapists” and advocated for them to be sterilized, burnt, or gassed. Another Meta-approved ad called for arson attacks against synagogues in order to “stop the globalist Jewish rat agenda.”
“Our findings suggest that Meta’s AI-driven ad moderation systems remain fundamentally broken, despite the Digital Services Act (DSA) now being in full effect,” an unnamed spokesperson for Ekō told TechCrunch. They added that “rather than strengthening its ad review process or hate speech policies, Meta appears to be backtracking across the board.”
Meta spokeswoman Lara Hesse provided a statement to TechCrunch in response to Ekō’s findings, noting that “these ads violate our policies. None of them were published and our systems detected and disabled the advertiser’s page before we became aware of this research.”
The statement argued that “our ads review process has several layers of analysis and detection, both before and after an ad goes live. We’ve taken extensive steps in alignment with the DSA and continue to invest significant resources to protect elections.”
Ekō’s report said that all of the ads “broke Meta and X’s own policies, and several may have also breached German national laws. Meta rejected five ads on the basis that they may qualify as social issue, electoral or politics ads, but they were not rejected on the basis of hate speech or inciting violence.”
In addition to green-lighting the five ads allowed by Meta, X approved and scheduled five more, according to the study. These labeled immigrants as rodents and said that Muslims were “flooding” Germany in order “to steal our democracy.” Another ad used an antisemitic slur and accused Jews of lying about climate change to sabotage European industry. This ad also included an AI-generated image which featured sinister men at a table surrounded by gold bars with a Star of David behind them.
Researchers used OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion to create the AI imagery included with each ad. One image featured immigrants crowded into a gas chamber while another showed a synagogue on fire.
One X-approved ad specifically targeted the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), accusing the center-left party of wanting to allow 60 million Muslim immigrants into the country. One more ad allowed by X urged for the killing of Muslim rapists and claimed that leftists sought “open borders.” While Meta took as much as 12 hours to approve the submitted ads, X scheduled the ads instantly.
The Sunday election saw an 83.5 percent voter turnout, the highest level seen since Germany reunified in 1990. The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) won with 28.6 percent of the vote. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in second with 20.8 percent. X owner Elon Musk had previously endorsed the populist-nationalist, anti-immigrant party, saying in a livestream on his platform that “only AfD can save Germany, end of story, and people really need to get behind AfD, and otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany.” SPD came in third with 16.4 percent of the vote, followed by the Green Party with 11.6 percent.
“Our findings, alongside mounting evidence from other civil society groups, show that Big Tech will not clean up its platforms voluntarily,” the Ekō spokesperson said. “Meta and X continue to allow illegal hate speech, incitement to violence, and election disinformation to spread at scale, despite their legal obligations under the DSA.”
The report from Ekō stated that “at the core of the problem is these platforms’ toxic business model – one dependent on digital advertising revenue and fueled by engagement, no matter the cost.” The report explained that the websites’ systems “are built to maximize attention and revenue, creating little incentive to curb hate speech, disinformation, or incitement of violence.”
According to research released last month by the Anti-Defamation League, 6.2 million people in Germany “harbor elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes,” totaling 9 percent of the population and positioning the European nation with one of the lowest levels of antisemitism globally.
The post X, Meta Approved Antisemitic and Anti-Muslim Ads Targeting German Voters Before Election, Study Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Documentary About Former Hamas Hostage Abducted on Oct. 7 Wins Two Awards at Berlin Film Festival
Brandon Kramer and Lance Kramer in front of the Berlinale Palast holding the Berlinale Documentary Award for “Holding Liat” on Feb 22, 2025. Photo: Berlin International Film Festival
A documentary about a woman who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, and has since returned to Israel won the annual Berlinale Documentary Award and also an Ecumenical Jury Prize on Saturday at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
“Holding Liat” was directed by Brandon Kramer and produced by Darren Aronofsky, Lance Kramer, Yoni Brook, Ari Handel, and Justin Gonçalves. Aronofsky is an Oscar-winning director whose credits include “Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream,” and “The Whale.”
The Berlinale Documentary Award is accompanied by a prize money of 40,000 euros ($41,907), which is split between the director and producer of the winning film. Winning the award also means the film will advance and take part in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature. “Holding Liat,” which is in both English and Hebrew, received a standing ovation when it made its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 16.
The American film revolves around Liat Atzili, a civics and history teacher kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, and held captive in the Gaza Strip until she returned to Israel in the first ceasefire and hostage-release deal in November 2023. Her husband, Aviv Atzili, was murdered by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, during which they killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Brandon began filming “Holding Liat” shortly Liat’s abduction, first talking to her family members and unaware how his film would end and what Liat’s fate would be. A Washington, DC-based filmmaker, Brandon and his brother Lance co-founded Meridian Hill Pictures, which produced “Holding Liat.” They are related to Atzili and their documentary also highlights her parents Yehuda and Chaya, who were born in the US and made a number of efforts to secure their daughter’s release from captivity, such as meeting with politicians and other influential figures in the US.
“This isn’t a film that we wanted to make,” Brandon said upon accepting the award on Saturday. “After our relatives, Liat and Aviv Atzili, were taken from their home on Oct. 7, my brother Lance and I felt a responsibility to pick up the camera and document the family’s unique experience. We witnessed up close a family wrestling with different points of view on how to return their loved ones, hold onto their values, and seek a more peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians. In a complicated and polarized moment, telling a nuanced story about one family, navigating their differences, their grief, and their empathy felt universal and urgent to share. Documentaries can help us find each other’s humanity and the shared language of cinema can contribute to peace.”
“Holding Liat” was not the only documentary about the hostages featured this year in the Berlin International Film Festival. “Letter to David,” from Israeli director Tom Shovel, is about hostage David Cunio, an actor who was also abducted by Hamas from the Kibbutz Nir Oz and is still being held captive. Cunio starred in Shoval’s award-winning debut feature film, “Youth,” which was shown in 2013 at the Berlinale and focused on the relationship between brothers and, ironically, revolved around a kidnapping. “Letter to David” made its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 14.
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival took place from Feb. 13-23.
The post Documentary About Former Hamas Hostage Abducted on Oct. 7 Wins Two Awards at Berlin Film Festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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