One reply I get time and time again is: “Of course there’s a genocide in Gaza, I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” It sums up the problem in a nutshell. Let’s unpack. Firstly, this is untrue unless they’ve actually been to Gaza recently (like I have). What they’ve “seen with their own eyes” is stuff on social media. There are problems here. 1) There’s no way to easily verify anything you see on social media, but especially not from a war zone, and doubly especially not from a war zone where media is tightly controlled by Hamas. You don’t know what happened before or after the clip or photo you’re seeing. You have no context at all and no way to gain any. 2) There are no “journalists” in Gaza. A constant complaint is that the IDF won’t let journalists in. So who, then, do you think the “journalists” we see on social media are? That’s right! They’re Hamas’ PR team. They are not reliable. Al-Majd are Hamas’ Stasi: enforcers against opposition to Hamas. They make sure no dissent is allowed. 3) War zones are terrible places. Terrible things happen to innocent people in war zones. It’s the tragedy of war. There will be legitimate footage of terrible things having happened to innocent people. This does not mean that anyone can draw any conclusions about intent, legality or context of the terrible thing that happened, or even that any adults (and even some children - Hamas use child fighters) killed were innocent (no matter what they say). Hamas famously suppress fighter fatalities (I’ll drop the evidence in the replies). 4) Some of the terrible things people have seen actually happened in Syria or elsewhere, or aren’t even the results of war, and sometimes aren’t even real. I’ve seen footage of dead children killed by Assad’s forces; children with disabilities in Gaza presented as victims of war; and some appalling fake injuries using either dolls, make up or computer editing. Now ask yourself: if it’s as bad in Gaza as they say, why are Hamas faking images? 5) Also ask yourself how so many incidents are able to have cameras on the spot at the time of air strikes? It’s because Israel gives warnings. They warn civilians to evacuate from areas before they strike. They make phone calls and send texts warning civilians to get out in a hurry. This means Hamas knows exactly where the bombs are going to fall and can be ready to collect the footage they need to make the results look as bad as possible. Conclusion: It’s a disinformation campaign designed to generate emotional reactions at the most appalling footage of what war really looks like. War is not something most people are familiar with. Of course they’re going to be appalled at the results, and once an emotional reaction has been achieved, it’s very easy to attach a desired narrative as strong trauma responses suppress rational thinking in the brain. People haven’t seen the war “live-streamed on their phones”. For the overwhelming most part, they’ve seen the curated and staged footage that Hamas wants them to see.
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