In an Instagram post, Edward Snowden said: "Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been the result of media lies." 

Noam Chomsky has explained how liberals use language to control information by limiting acceptable opinions, creating an illusion of free thinking that reinforces the system's assumptions, and controls the scope of the debate. 

This is what international media houses like CNN, BBC, ABC and MSNBC are doing while the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians happens in real time. Max Blumenthal, editor of TheGrayzoneNews wrote on his X page:  

“CNN went 2 hours today without showing any video of Gaza destruction, and did not include a single non-Jew in studio for 1.5 hours. The network made sure everyone in studio was a committed Zionist.”

Users of Instagram and Facebook say they have fallen victim to "shadow banning" and the shutting down of pro-Palestinian accounts on social media. Shadow banning is a method of discreetly blocking a user's content from specific online community areas, making the ban inconspicuous to the user. For instance, comments from shadow-banned users on a blog may be visible only to the sender but not to others.

This practice limits the visibility and impact of alternative voices that contest dominant narratives and false information. In South Africa, the strongest pro-Palestinian lobby group, Africa4Palestine’s Instagram account, has been shadow-banned. 

Misleading information during moments of high tension

A news outlet recently made journalist Zweli Mbhele apologise for encouraging critical thought with regard to media consumption. In his apology, he stated: "My views were intended to point out the need to be mindful of unverified reporting within the media, especially during such times." He was addressing the unverified claims that Hamas had decapitated babies and burnt others. These lies were subsequently debunked the next day by ethical journalists. 

This is similar to what was done during the illegal war on Iraq and reminiscent of the false incubator story, which the media failed to verify. Tom Regan from Christian Science Monitor said:  

“Too bad it never happened. The babies in the incubator story is a classic example of how easy it is for the public and legislators to be misled during moments of high tension. It’s also a vivid example of how the media can be manipulated if we do not keep our guards up.”

When lies such as babies being beheaded are internalised, it becomes easier to justify actions like dropping 6 000 bombs on Gaza, cutting off essential resources and believing that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. It becomes easier to convince gullible people that Israel knows exactly where Hamas is hiding.

Journalist Dan Cohen,  revealed how the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) used him as a human shield during attacks on unarmed Palestinian protesters. Mainstream media amplify IOF propaganda. However, no one questions why the IOF suddenly knows the precise locations of Hamas members (in schools, universities, mosques, churches, hospitals, newsrooms, ambulances, homes) after failing to detect them breaching fences just a week ago. This raises doubts about the "human shield" justifications. 

There has been little interrogation of Israel's targeting and killing of paramedics and civil defence workers in Gaza or the fact that they have killed 1 000 children in under 10 days. These are war crimes.

Avoiding criticism of a controversial position

Even journalists like Piers Morgan refused to condemn the killing of Palestinian children. Mainstream media journalists are struggling to ask questions about the claim that "Israel, an occupying power, is defending itself". According to prominent influencer, Mohamed Hijab in a debate with Piers Morgan, "to claim that Israel, the occupier is defending itself is as absurd a notion as to claim that the rapist is defending itself from its victim… Israel is the Occupier, and an Occupier by international law means they are already in an offensive posture. How can you self-defend when you are an Occupier?" Hijab maintains that this is a motte-and-bailey logical fallacy, which is an argumentative move that people make to avoid criticism of a controversial position.

Dr Gabor Mate, an infant Holocaust survivor, renowned author, and physician, states that in his teens, he became a Zionist because it was liberating to believe in the Zionist dream. Then he found out that to make the "Jewish dream a reality, they had to visit a nightmare on the local population… There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish State without oppressing & expelling the local population (Palestinians) which is what they did in 1947 with the British empire’s protection…It is the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st Century… the disproportion of power, responsibility and oppression is so markedly on one side that if you take the worst thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, it still will not meet the Israeli repression, killing and dispossession of Palestinians".

Despite the efforts by many media outlets to blame the Palestinian victims for their resistance, there is a growing body of strong, ethically committed and fearless journalists challenging disinformation. Some of them have been mentioned here.

Selective humanity

For me, two individuals have stood out. During a live interview, with Israel's ex-prime minister, Naftali Bennett, Sky News anchor Kamali Melbourne, asked: "What about those (Palestinians) in hospital who are on life support and babies in incubators whose life support and incubators will have to be turned off because the Israelis have cut the power to Gaza?"

Bennett, shouted at Melbourne, describing the Palestinians as Nazis and made it clear that Palestinian civilians were not a matter of concern to him when he said: "Are you seriously going to keep asking me about Palestinian civilians? What is wrong with you?"

Melbourne successfully exposed the selective humanity and racism practiced in some quarters and backed by the actions of some countries like the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada and Australia. 

Countries like France and Germany have banned pro-Palestinian rallies. Axel Springer, a giant German broadcaster that owns Politico, told its staff that it is their duty to support Israel.

German-Jewish writer Fabian Wolff criticised the country's media for its overt pro-Israel bias, saying: "The German media’s approach is not centred on Jews or how to best combat antisemitism. It's more about making Germans feel good about themselves and feeding into a German superiority complex."

No choice

UN bodies and human rights organisations have highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, stated on a SkyNews interview: "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

In an interview with Israel's former foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, US television personality Marc Lamont Hill effectively gets Ayalon to concede that Israel plans to punish Palestinians in Gaza for the actions of Hamas collectively. This, as Hill points out, is a violation of international law and describes the choice that the Israeli government is giving 1.1 million Gazans: Palestinians must move to the south and help their oppressor to carry out a second Nakba/ethnic cleansing. 

As Israel tells people to move to the south and then bombs the safe routes, I cry out in warning: "Dear Palestinian, Israel has presented you with a choice, ethnic cleansing or genocide? The Israeli government is actively executing both options! You don’t have a choice. You never have. It was always expected that you would die quietly."

Dr Quraysha Ismail Sooliman is a National Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

This article was first published by news24 on 19 October 2023. 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.