The world of misinformation

It’s truly astonishing how easily history is rewritten to suit people’s personal rhetoric, and the impact of bias on the value of life.

Israel is still trying to enjoy the fact that it celebrated its 75th year as an independent Jewish state this week (14 May) in spite of internal conflict and 1 468 rockets launched at it from a terrorist organisation in Gaza between 9 and 13 May. It has phenomenal reason to do so.

It’s a country that has gone from a desert to an oasis, from a country with nothing to a country that is on the international map for high tech, as a start-up nation, and an economic giant.

However, instead of recognising that in 1948, the United Nations (UN) gave the go-ahead for the establishment of what is now the only democracy in the Middle East, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is trying to have the Jewish state unseated from the very same organisation.

Abbas is demanding that the UN oust Israel because it won’t grant Palestinians a state of their own. And his distorted view of the establishment of Israel is that the Nakba (so-called catastrophe) is what he commemorates when Israel celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut.

Simplistically, the truth is that the UN gave the go-ahead for two states, one for Jews and one for Arabs, but the Arab nations insisted the Arabs in Israel leave and come back to take over both. Only, the war of independence didn’t end the way they wanted it to.

Abbas compared Israel to Nazis in his UN speech, which is antisemitism at its best, but it was not the first time he has done this. And way too many people just accept this putrid behaviour.

Abbas plays to his audience, distorting history to suit his own story by using this downtrodden, underdog personae.

It was great to know that 32 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ukraine stayed away from this commemoration and Abbas’s talk. Ten of the 32 countries were European Union member states, and three were African. It’s a relief that so many won’t be hoodwinked by this fake history.

If it wasn’t so devastating to witness so many others buying into these lies – like our very own Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, and other members of our government – it would be laughable.

But it goes deeper than that.

Do you recall that this time last year, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the crossfire while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the West Bank? The death of this veteran Al Jazeera journalist made huge news, and there was a dispute about who shot her.

However, on the anniversary of her death, Israel Defense Forces chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari apologised for her death, saying there was a “high possibility” she was shot by an Israeli soldier.

“She was a journalist, a very established journalist,” Hagari said. “In Israel, we value our democracy and in a democracy, we see high value in journalism and a free press. We want journalists to feel safe in Israel, especially in war time, even if they criticise us.”

I respect the fact that he did this, even though there has never been proof as to who shot her. One death is too many.

Interestingly, she wasn’t the only journalist killed last year. She was one of 68 journalists killed around the world, according to the International Federation of Journalists’ latest report. Of these, the report maintains that only 11 were killed accidentally.

Eleven were killed in Mexico; 12 in Ukraine; six in Tanzania; two in Syria; two in Yemen; two in Gambia; two in Somalia; four in the Philippines; five in Pakistan; seven in Haiti; and four in Colombia. I could go on…

The point is, do you have any idea what happened to all these other journalists? Perhaps in their own countries, a big deal was made about them in the media, but we certainly didn’t hear about them. Were there international investigations into their deaths as they were into Abu Akleh’s death?

These numbers are horrific, and no death is acceptable, especially when journalists are killed doing their job as messengers of the truth. We should be making a big deal out of each of these deaths but not selecting just one and making it a conduit for further hatred of Israel.

Abu Akleh’s death, I believe, was abused and turned into a political football instead of actually using this tragedy to pay tribute to a journalist who did a great job and died doing just that.

But then, that’s the story of Israel haters and their venom against the Jewish state. They’ll use whatever they can to skew the Israeli-Palestinian narrative. So, when you look at the situation in the region – and that isn’t to say that Israel does no wrong – it’s never what these people say it is. In fact, the real history is so often lost in the hateful rhetoric and misinformation put out there, so much so that it becomes hard for those who aren’t in the know to actually see the truth.

How does the fact that 1 468 rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel get lost in translation? How does the fact that 1 139 of these actually crossed into Israel get ignored? How come the fact that 290 of all the rockets (one in five) launched actually landed in Gaza, injuring those living there, isn’t made known?

Simple, it’s because it doesn’t play into the narrative of all Palestinians being innocent victims and doing no harm. Israel haters don’t want you to know that there are real Palestinian terrorists who do mean harm and truly want to rid the world of the Jewish state. They’ll go to whatever lengths they can to make the world believe them.

I’m truly grateful that most of the world isn’t taken in by them.

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor