"Wikipedia’s editors declared that the Anti-Defamation League cannot be trusted to give reliable information on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and they overwhelmingly said the ADL is an unreliable source on antisemitism. It’s a stunning rebuke to one of the world’s preeminent authorities on anti-Jewish hate and a significant advocate for the rights and causes of American Jews."
#Israel / How Israel Mastered Information Warfare in Gaza – Foreign Policy
Some might still perceive #Hasbara (public diplomacy, explaining, or "welcoming") as having a positive connotation, distinct from outright propaganda. However, this has never truly been the case. In reality, it is far more insidious than one might assume.
Israel's extensive use of information warfare tactics during its barbaric war on Gaza has four-pronged strategy, leveraging social media:
Emphasizing the horror of the October 7th Hamas attack to justify retaliation (included distributing graphic images and videos through paid advertising campaigns targeted at Western audiences.)
Discrediting pro-Palestinian voices and narratives while justifying Israel's bombing of Gaza (included labeling criticism as #antisemitic, using dehumanizing language about Palestinians, falsely accusing media/aid workers of ties to Hamas, and lobbying for content takedowns.)
Limiting information flow out of Gaza by targeting communication infrastructure, killing journalists, internet blackouts and restricting media access.
Rallying Israeli public support by promoting its military's destruction of Gaza targets and purported victories over Hamas through psychological warfare campaigns.
[…] In a polarized social media space, every fact has become contested. It seems that for every investigation into an Israeli airstrike or a firefight, there is an alternative framing of events. When an Israeli airstrike most probably hit a convoy of civilians fleeing on an evacuation route, hundreds of pro-Israel users and accounts pretending they were open source investigators worked to shift the focus to videos of an unrelated side-road explosion for which they blamed Hamas. One such tweet was viewed more than 1.1 million times.
“Right now, we are looking at the possibility of mass starvation and famine in #Gaza. When you make those charges, that is not #antisemitic. That is a reality.”
In Gaza all 12 universities & 356 schools have been destroyed or damaged, 5K students & 250 teachers have been killed, & 625K students haven't attended school in 6 months—but the politicians enabling this atrocity instead condemn Jewish & Muslim students for standing united for justice for Gaza.
These students are not antisemitic, & the anonymous provocateurs spewing antisemitic bile must be condemned. Do not let such bigots eclipse the noble cause for justice our young people are exemplifying.
even Biden himself is calling the protestors #antisemitic - this is purely for Israeli propaganda, easy to see where Biden's loyalties lie, and they aren't for the majority people who voted for him.
Powerful letters by artist Jonas Staal and writer China Melville rejecting their DAAD Artist Residency in Germany this summer, in response to Nancy Fraser’s Albertus Magnus Professorship at Cologne being rescinded. Staal’s:
“I fail to imagine how you, as a representative of a German state institution, feel you are entitled to dictate to Jewish people what they are supposed to think or say about the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
@pvonhellermannn Staal writes so poignantly -
"I am appalled by your #antisemitic narrative that equates the Israeli regime with the global Jewish diaspora. And I do not comprehend how, in consideration of the brutal history and shame of the #Holocaust and mass persecution which saw the killing of Jewish, #Roma, and #Sinti people, as well as #queer people and #communists, you are today actively contributing to a culture in which the oppression of speech of people faced with genocide is normalized."
“With #Passover starting soon, New Yorkers should beware of businesses claiming to offer ‘Passover Specials,’ like car-cleaning services, but are actually charging more for Passover-related services to take advantage of the #Jewish community,” the attorney general’s office wrote. “This is blatantly #antisemitic.”
#Gaza / UN security council passes [a draft] resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains
The UN Security Council voted today (Monday) in favor of a draft resolution including a "demand" for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, which ends in about two weeks, and for the "immediate and unconditional release" of the hostages. 14 countries supported the draft resolution, the United States abstained, since it does not include condemnation of #Hamas - but did not use its veto.
I really am concerned that people in Israel do not understand that insisting on letting Netanyahu run this war is going to come at the cost of delivering the US government into the hands of the fascist Republican Party, which likes to use Christian Zionism to whip up its most fanatical & racist base, but which builds its electoral strategy around intentionally increasing #antisemitic terrorism & scapegoating Jewish Americans. Do they think this is wise? Not care?
Like fascist US ethno-state booster Richard Spencer, who calls himself a "white Zionist" & praises the state of #Israel for being “the most important & perhaps most revolutionary ethno-state."
#US / Israeli Faces Charges After Assaulting a Protestor in NY Who Addressed Him as “genocidal Jew”
An Israeli named Yotam Dankner has been charged in New York with “strangulation, assault and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation” of a protestor named Simon Miler. Dankner claims Miler addressed him using the allegedly #antisemitic slur "genocidal Jew."
Dankner, who is represented by multiple lawyers, expressed surprise at being charged. His lawyer stated: "The DA's office has decided to weigh into the current Gaza-Israeli situation by arresting and charging a private citizen who was insulted by an antisemitic bigot who repeatedly used the antisemitic slur against him."
On social media, Dankner had previously commented on protests against Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, referring to the protesters' ethnicities and genders, presumably in an attempt to delegitimize their criticism.
Dankner was released on bail and awaits trial for the alleged assault on Miler.
Ths idea that saying @israel is an apartheid state is #antisemitic becomes really laughable when you know about ISRAELI-based groups, ngos, and people who also agree with this.
“We should all be calling for an immediate return of the hostages, for Palestinians and Israelis on both sides of the border to be protected, and a swift end to the conflict.”
@rameshgupta Israel is an European settler-colonialist project, a fascist ethnostate. Israel is not the Jewish people. To be against this state is not equal to antisemitism.
On contrary, to claim – exactly what you're doing – that Israel or Zionism equals Jews, however, is #antisemitic.
>> Anti semitic would be against all Semites, which is mainly Arabs nowadays
I see your sleight of hand here 😡
You cleverly "erased" #Jews from the definition of #Semite, which is ANY of the peoples who speak a Semitic language, including in particular Jews AND #Arabs, not "mainly Arabs"
Also, the definition of #antisemitic is not against ALL Semites. It means hostile to or prejudiced specifically against #Jewish people