Hamas
New Israeli report alleging ‘systematic and intentional rape’ by Hamas relies on debunked Western media reports
The contents of the Israeli Association of Rape Crisis Center’s paper alleging “systematic” Hamas rape derive largely from discredited second-hand testimonies and debunked media reports. Among its most heavily cited sources is a dubious NY Times article that triggered a staff revolt at the paper. Western media outlets are hyping a new report by the Israeli government-affiliated “Association of Rape Crisis Centers” (ARCC) which maintains that Hamas combatants carried out a campaign of “systematic and intentional” rape on October 7. […]
The post New Israeli report alleging ‘systematic and intentional rape’ by Hamas relies on debunked Western media reports first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post New Israeli report alleging ‘systematic and intentional rape’ by Hamas relies on debunked Western media reports appeared first on The Grayzone.
‘Elite’ IDF brigade ‘too scared’ to go back into Gaza
Givati Brigade refuses to return to service, reports Israeli newspaper
Image blurred intentionally
Soldiers of an ‘elite’ Israeli military brigade have refused to go back into Gaza, according to Israeli paper Haaretz.
So heavy have been the Givati Brigade’s losses to Hamas’s guerilla tactics, that the group of troops are ‘too scared’ to return to service in Israel’s genocide of Palestinian civilians.
The soldiers told their commanders that they were too traumatised to return to the field and were afraid for their lives. Haaretz said that the IDF command is unsure how to react to the refusal.
According to IDF figures, around six hundred of its troops have been killed or severely wounded in Gaza since the start of the ground invasion but Israeli media, collating figures from the country’s hospitals, estimate numbers in the thousands and Hamas’s media outfit releases videos showing its successful guerilla attacks on Israeli tanks, infantry and fortifications almost daily.
According to human rights group Euro-Med Monitor, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed and severely wounded well over 100,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, imposing famine on hundreds of thousands more and bombing schools and hospitals. Israel has been put on trial for genocide and has been ordered to protect Palestinian lives, but has intensified its assault and is now regularly bombing and shelling Rafah, the tiny enclave it ordered Palestinians to move to as a safe haven, before what is expected to be a ground assault that will cause an even greater and completely avoidable humanitarian disaster.
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Israel’s UNRWA ‘tunnel’ smear collapses as ‘Hamas’ gear revealed as solar power kit
Yet another risible propaganda video falls apart almost as soon as it’s published – but ‘mainstream’ media parrot lies without checking
Israel’s appalling – and woefully inept – propaganda has been exposed again after the Israeli military showed reporters around what it claimed was a ‘Hamas tunnel’ under the Gaza HQ of UN aid agency UNRWA.
A video published by Fox News of the tour revealed green boxes on the walls of the supposed ‘tunnel’ – but as former diplomat Craig Murray pointed out, the boxes are not supposed ‘terror’ equipment. Instead, they are solar power converters kept in a cellar to keep them cool as they process energy from solar panels above – and the wires leading from them into the UNRWA building were there to send the converted electricity up into the HQ, as you’d expect:
Despite the ease of checking what the IDF claimed – and the IDF’s long record of ridiculous lies and smears – the so-called ‘mainstream’ media have tamely parroted the lie:
Israel’s attempts at propaganda have routinely been exposed almost as soon as they were uttered – from claims that five hundred refugees sheltering at the Al Ahli hospital were killed by a Hamas rocket, to lurid atrocity propaganda about beheaded babies and severed breasts, to the burned bodies supposedly murdered by Hamas in the 7 October raid that were killed by Israeli military missiles, shells and bullets, and everything in between.
Just as routinely, western governments and media continue to regurgitate the lies without fact-checking, or just as likely in full knowledge that they are lies – and stubbornly ignore even the Israeli military’s admission that it killed ‘immense’ numbers of Israelis during the Hamas raid, despite this being freely discussed by Israeli media.
Israel has long wanted the end of UNRWA for the organisation’s support for Palestinians’ right of return to lands stolen from them. The arrogance that seems to underpin the lazy shoddiness of Israel’s propaganda attempts shows no sign of abating.
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Labour ‘set to suspend’ Rochdale candidate despite grovelling apology to Israel supporters
Labour in chaos, accused of ‘throwing’ campaign to avoid fallout if they lose to Galloway
Labour has been accused of throwing the Rochdale by-election to minimise political damage, after rumours that it is about to suspend its candidate Azhar Ali over his social media posts about the 7 October raid, despite a grovelling apology.
Ali’s posts accusing Israel of complicity in the Hamas raid were leaked to hostile press, triggering an abject apology to ‘the Jewish community’:
Ali’s claim that Egypt said it informed Israel of the raid well before it happened is entirely true. However, his willingness to stand for a party led by Keir Starmer, who has supported Israel’s ‘right’ to commit its war crimes against the Palestinians has already seen videos posted of him being ordered to leave doorsteps during his attempts to campaign. Such has been the contrast with the reception given to Workers Party GB leader George Galloway, a firm supporter of the Palestinians, that Galloway’s odds to win the by-election have been slashed from 16-1 to 2-1.
Suspending Ali would effectively end Labour’s campaign in the by-election, with no possibility to stand another candidate less than three weeks before polling day. Cynics have pointed out that the political fallout from exiting the election would be less damaging than Galloway beating Ali in a fair fight and accused the party of engineering the default. What is clear, however, is that Labour is once again in complete chaos.
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Author of debunked NYT ‘Hamas r@pe’ report to share stage with Hillary Clinton
The reporter behind a discredited NY Times investigation alleging systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7 will appear alongside Hillary Clinton and key Biden foreign policy functionaries at a Columbia University event justifying Israel’s assault on Gaza. Jeffrey Gettleman, the author of the New York Times’ discredited “Hamas mass rape” story, is set to share the stage with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an upcoming panel on “conflict-related sexual violence” which will feature several other high-profile State […]
The post Author of debunked NYT ‘Hamas r@pe’ report to share stage with Hillary Clinton first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post Author of debunked NYT ‘Hamas r@pe’ report to share stage with Hillary Clinton appeared first on The Grayzone.
Video: South African minister shows how to deal with pro-Israel smears and spoilers
Naledi Pandor treats attempt to shore up Israel’s atrocity narrative with the contempt it deserves
Naledi Pandor
South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor gave a lesson, in how to respond to the attempts of supporters of Israel’s Gaza genocide to shore up or regurgitate Israel’s long-discredited atrocity propaganda, that put UK politicians and media to shame.
As a white South African politician tried to shame her for pointing out that Israel’s claims of beheaded babies and rape-mutilations by Hamas during its 7 October raid, Pandor fired straight back, pointing out that the claims have been discredited by a wide array of investigative journalists, survivors, the Israeli press (and even the IDF and Israeli police), as a video first posted by journalist Suleiman Ahmed shows:
In fact, not a single Israeli claim has held water so far – even the claimed death toll has changed drastically and the Israeli media are freely discussing the ‘immense’ number of deaths inflicted by the Israeli military on their own citizens during the raid, with hundreds and potentially most of the victims killed by so-called ‘friendly fire’.
Well done Ms Pandor. South Africa continues to do the decent world a huge service after the success of its damning genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice.
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Israel ‘runs sick AI propaganda ad’ on streaming service: ‘Come visit beautiful Gaza’
Israel has been running a sick AI-generated ‘ad’ on US streaming service Hulu, showing Gaza as a lush beach resort full of five-star hotels – a grim contrast with the reality of mass slaughter and levelled buildings inflicted by Israel on Gaza’s civilians.
The video, posted to social media platform TikTok by user ‘leftoftheprojectorpod’ and highlighted on Twitter by journalist Mario Nawfal, claims to show “what Gaza would look like without Hamas” – a complete inversion of a reality in which Israel has intentionally flattened most homes, hospitals and schools, killing around 35,000 people and wounding, often maiming, double that number:
The text of the video reads:
Come visit beautiful Gaza. With its stunning beaches and charming boardwalks, you can stay in one of our 5-star hotels and get a taste of the best in Middle Eastern food. Embrace the vibrant nightlife of the city. And experience a culture rich in tradition. This is what Gaza could have looked like without Hamas.
Other users of the service said that the video was really run on the streaming service:
It's real. Zionists made a bunch of AI clips of Gaza and blamed Hamas as the reason it's a leveled concentration camp instead of some tourist trap. Shame on Hulu. They would never do this for Russia which means they know what they're doing. pic.twitter.com/OpMIhCXuui
— Justin is tired! (@ThatGuyYus) January 27, 2024
The content of the propaganda video is as accurate as Israel’s claims that it is adhering to international law in its slaughter of innocents – and its attempts to pin the blame for the bombing of hospitals and the mass killing of its own citizens on Palestinian resistance.
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Uni ‘urgently investigating’ pro-Israel professor who told Greenstein ‘all Jews should be gassed’
Justin Stebbing says he was clearly speaking ironically in attack on left-wing, pro-Palestinian Jew Tony Greenstein – but went on to say Greenstein would have been ‘thrilled’ to murder all Jews during WWII
A professor at Imperial College is being ‘urgently’ investigated by the university after sending emails to left-wing Jewish pro-Palestinian activist Tony Greenstein about ‘gas[sing] all Jews.
Greenstein is a Brighton-based human rights campaigner who received a suspended sentence last year in a farcical trial for criminal damage to an Israeli-owned weapons factor when no damage occurred and who has been further targeted by anti-terror police for saying he supports the struggle of Gazans for freedom. He told Skwawkbox that he didn’t know who Stebbing was when he first received an email, from a personal email address, linking to discredited claims of mass rape and mutilation by Hamas and saying that Stebbing ‘agree[d] with you [Jews] should all be gassed‘.
Greenstein reported the incident to police as hate speech, but then realised Stebbing is an academic and, assuming his email had been hacked, contacted him on his university address to let him know. Greenstein said he was astonished when Stebbing wrote back – from his official email – to attack him further.
Stebbing retorted that he was being ‘ironic’ when he made his comment – but claimed that Greenstein would have been ‘thrilled to gas all Jews’ if he had been alive during the Second World War:
“My e mail was pure irony, but as always here the response to the crime is blamed. I have zero doubt that in WW2, you ,would have been thrilled to gas all Jews. That was the point I was making.”
The email headers showed that the email was genuinely from an Imperial email account. Greenstein accordingly sent a complaint to the university, which received an email acknowledgment.
Skwawkbox contacted Prof Stebbing about his emails to Greenstein. He responded:
The reason I wrote to Tony Greenstein was him contacting several senior colleagues accusing them of being doctors for genocide. He was of course aware he had just written that e mail and would and should have understood my e mail as being ironic in that context. We have had previous contact. Tony Greenstein knew that he’d written that so would have understood the context and this affects the meaning of what I wrote and it was clear, as I’d said, I was being ironic.
On Stebbing’s allegation that Greenstein had previous contact with him, Greenstein said:
They were doctors opposing a BMA statement calling for a ceasefire and accusing Israel of having broken international law including his colleague at Imperial. Yes I accused them of being Doctors 4 Genocide. There was an article in the Jewish Chronicle (see below) naming them. However Stebbing wasn’t named and I didn’t contact him. So it’s a lie that we have had previous contact. I’ve searched my email and his name doesn’t come up and it’s an unusual name so I would see immediately.
All these doctors say they have resigned from the BMA which is a good thing. Good riddance as Ghada Karmi said.
He added:
I emailed Stebbing to let him know that someone was clearly impersonating him. You could have blown me down with a feather when he responded saying that I was wrong. He wasn’t being impersonated. It was him. An ultra Zionist lunatic.
An Imperial College spokesperson told Skwawkbox that it was ‘urgently investigating this case involving a Visiting Professor’:
There is no place for antisemitic or hateful behaviour of any kind at Imperial. We are urgently investigating this case involving a Visiting Professor.
The International Court of Justice is expected to give a decision on South Africa’s application under the Genocide Convention for an order to Israel to stop its slaughter, which has killed and maimed more than a hundred thousand Palestinians, mostly women and children, as well as 117 journalists and more than 150 United Nations staff.
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Israeli army gassed my son ‘like Auschwitz,’ mother of slain Israeli soldier says
An outraged Israeli mom has sparked an uproar after accusing the Israeli army of deliberately gassing her son to death while he was being held in a Gaza tunnel. Now she says the Israeli military had her son’s gravestone removed after her critical message went viral. His killing follows a pattern of Israeli military attacks on Israeli captives in Gaza, raising questions about the existence of a friendly fire policy to prevent prisoner swaps. The mother of a now-dead Israeli […]
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Video: released Israeli women say Hamas treated them like ‘queens’
Testimony of mother and daughter Hin and Ajam highights dishonesty of Israel’s already-discredited lies to the ICJ
Israel’s statements to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday were a fabric of already-discredited lies about supposed atrocities that even Israel’s own records make impossible – and completely ignored the many deaths caused by Israeli forces among their own people during the 7 October resistance raid.
At the centre of Israel’s lies was a litany of ‘atrocity porn’ of rapes, mutilations and beheaded babies – again, already debunked and contradicting the evidence – but the testimony of an Israeli mother and daughter, interviewed on TV after they were released by Hamas, undermines even further Israel’s lurid lies. Hin and Ajam told their Israeli TV interviewer that they were treated like ‘malkot’, queens – and that this is how Palestinian men treat women generally:
Unsurprisingly, this has not been shown on UK ‘mainstream’ TV. Hin and Ajam are not unique. Numerous women survivors of Israel’s ‘friendly fire’ and released hostages have told how they were treated courteously and well – and even that their captors put their own bodies between them and IDF bombs to protect them.
By contrast, under Israel’s ‘Hannibal directive’, Israeli forces killed hundreds of their own citizens with missiles and tank shells, a number that the IDF itself described as ‘immense’.
It is to be hoped that the ICJ judges are not as ignorant as the insulting Israeli statements take them to be.
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