Scream the Lies, Whisper the Truth: Israel’s Publicity Playbook
Studying the patterns of history, it becomes clear that the truth always exposes itself eventually. Lies are unravelled by evidence, even if it comes too late. Often, the lies are known lies that the powerful tell to stir up outrage and thoroughly villainise the oppressed enough to justify ‘retaliation’. Once their brutal oppression is underway and obscene amounts of devastation have been inflicted on the oppressed, the colonising state can then reveal that the premises on which they founded and framed their violence were, in fact, less than true. This has been the truth for quite some time worldwide, but in this article, we will be looking at Israel’s rendition of this age-old trick in the events since the fabled October 7, 2023.
In the past 100 days alone, Israel has:
- misrepresented the details of October 7 and revised its version of events multiple times, while still using the date as a checkmate when confronted with any enquiry about their wrongdoings.
- gone from outright denying the bombing of hospitals and blaming shelling on Hamas misfires, to admitting bombing hospitals and justifying doing so by claiming Hamas had secret tunnels beneath the buildings.
- hired actors to pretend to be Palestinian and imitate footage emerging from Gaza in order to distort perceptions of the reality on the ground.
- lied about the treatment and situations of hostages by Hamas
- among many other entries in an impressive list of contradictions, backtracks and arrogant admissions…
Most of the atrocity propaganda has been proven to be false and wildly exaggerated, used as a means to stir up anger and outrage at barbaric inhumanity, and thus justify the massacre of innocent Palestinians.
Once the damage has been done and sufficient hatred has been fed to enough of the population, Israel quietly chooses a moment of their convenience to flip the narrative and admit an alternate version of the ‘truth’ they once told. The cost of this is deadly. Lies and violence are used to destroy Palestinians’ image as well as their lives.
The question is:
When a ‘state’ has been trying to conduct the same mission for over 75 years, that is to expand the land that they have stolen and evict the natives from this land,
And they have a history of brutalising, expelling and massacring natives to do so,
As well as a history of lying and revising history to cover their tracks,
And they have well-known affiliations with the governments of other states as well as large media outlets,
And then continue to brutalise and destroy innocent lives in an attempt to ethnically cleanse and steal land,
And then… they tell you how it happened and who is guilty,
Why do you believe them?
Thank you for reading. This article is part of a series. Read the first article here, and follow this list to see all articles.
This series is intended to counter the inhumane media coverage of the current genocide in Palestine, and growing distractions from the movement to end occupation. My articles are written in the hopes of simplifying, humanising, and rationalising the discourse around this topic.
In the interest of contributing to traffic, I am attempting to write as many articles as possible. As stated, I do not aim to provide in-depth historical/political academic analyses of these matters, but to discuss these in a conversational manner.
For this reason, the articles in this series do not contain extensive references, but this does NOT mean that the information cited is baseless. Kindly reach out in the comments if there is anything that you would like to read further on or view a source for, and I would be happy to share.
Peace to a land that was created for peace and never saw a peaceful day. Peace to your martyrs and survivors, and peace to your blessed land. We pray for your ultimate victory, recovery, joy and peace. In your honour, Palestine, we will mourn for the dead and fight for the living.
Stand on the right side of history. Stand for truth, justice, and freedom. Stand for Palestine, from the river to the sea…
Said Moses to his people, “Seek help through Allah and be patient. Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah. He causes to inherit it whom He wills of His servants. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous.” (7:128)
