“This is a Zionist Model”: Atrocities Propaganda Is Another Weapon in Israel’s Genocide Kit Against Palestine

“Through its propaganda, Israel is aiming to break Palestinian souls, to break us as human beings.” These were the words of one of the speakers at the webinar, “Palestinian Feminist Voices: Atrocities Propaganda and Gendered Disinformation”, that Noor, Take Back The Tech (TBTT) and GenderIT hosted on March 14. These discussions illustrated the weaponisation of atrocities propaganda and gendered disinformation that, amidst the inhuman murder and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel is employing to target every one of over 14 million Palestinians around the world. Six Palestinian feminist activists – human rights defenders, academics, researchers and content creators – shared how they are experiencing and consistently challenging Israeli atrocities propaganda on the internet, and highlighting Palestine’s history and decades of settler colonialism and theft of their land.

Moderated by Islam Al Khatib – a Palestinian researcher working with Noor, and co-facilitated by GenderIT’s editor Hija Kamran, the webinar aimed to explore the impact of weaponisation of social media platforms and advanced technology like artificial intelligence by Israeli propaganda machinery on Palestinians around the world, especially Palestinian women.

During the discussion, Fairouz Salameh, a master’s student in Birzeit University, and who has experienced her share of Israeli violence first hand, said, “We need to understand how Israeli propaganda works. It doesn’t stop at the media, [rather] it’s also on an individual level via oppression. They terrorise women because they know what it means to be a woman in Palestinian culture.” She added that one of the strategies for this is to threaten women with a body search by a male recruit of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). “This is a Zionist model.”

Terrorising Palestinians and those who stand for the liberation of Palestine is one of the strategies of violence of the Zionists as they carry out one of the worst genocides in the recorded history of the world. And looking at this history, it is abundantly clear that much like in every violence, gendered bodies become a tool of oppression of entire communities. As Orouba Othman, a PhD candidate at the Birzeit University in the West Bank, said during the webinar, “Sexual assault as weapon of violence has been there throughout the colonial history.” She shares that this was the case during Nakba in 1948 when rape was used as an Israeli weapon to push Palestinians out of their homes. The choice was to give up their home or the women of the house will be raped. The same is happening in the current genocide as well where the Israeli sexual violence is manifesting in various forms and feeding into the online propaganda aimed to dehumanise those being oppressed.

It doesn’t stop at the media, [rather] it’s also on an individual level via oppression. They terrorise women because they know what it means to be a woman in Palestinian culture.

Orouba says that Israel considers Palestinian women’s bodies as “accessible”, as if “they have the right to violate their bodies.” Referring to the photos and videos of Israeli soldiers holding underwear of Palestinian women they had just attacked, killed or bombed out of their homes, she adds, “The propaganda and dehumanisation of Palestinian women is being normalised through digital media."

Gendered impact of a genocide

As the genocide continues, the gendered impact of this violence is not assumed anymore, rather it’s happening right in front of us. Orouba refers to a comment from an IOF soldier who said that shooting pregnant Palestinian women means killing two Palestinians. Not only has Israel killed over 30,000 men, women and children in the past six months, but it specifically wants to target foetuses, reflective of how the annihilation of Palestine is a necessary strategy of the settler coloniser state of Israel. In addition, Dr. Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian researcher, artist, activist and author, shares that there are at least 50,000 pregnant women who are struggling due to the lack of proper healthcare during the crucial times as Israel bombarded all hospitals in Gaza, leaving no place for them to seek healthcare or a safe place to deliver the baby. This is supplemented by many young girls and women consistently struggling to keep up with their menstrual health as needed facilities and basic amenities such as sanitary napkins or simply access to water to wash menstrual cloths have been destroyed by Israel.  This is the gendered violence that very often is not considered in light of other severe repercussions of genocide.

Of course the implications of bombs dropping on residential areas are long lasting on everyone who survives them – psychologically, physically, socially, mentally, physiologically. The loss of friends and family, loss of limbs, loss of home and resources, loss of sense of safety and security, of belongings – all of this will take generations over generations to overcome, if at all.

This is not all, however. The Israeli agenda is not only the murder of Palestinians; it transcends all international laws and conventions of war and genocide that bar the aggressor party from attacking journalists and aid relief agencies. Israel’s strategy is to target anyone who does not stand in line with its genocidal agenda and actions with their unconditional support. It has killed at least 95 journalists and media workers as of March 21, 2024, and consistently bars aid workers to assist the victims and survivors of its violent attacks.

It’s worth exploring how companies are complicit in dehumanisation of Palestinians through disinformation.

The March 14 webinar was led by Palestinian women human rights defenders and activists who have been putting their labour tirelessly into educating the world about Israeli violence and the genocide it is committing in front of our eyes. They contribute this labour even when they owe nothing to the world that has consistently failed them and their people. As a result, they have faced violent attacks offline and online as well as being subjected to corporate censorship on social media. Where most speakers have consistently reported their social media accounts being shadow banned or taken down by tech corporations, this censorship pales compared to direct physical violence that other speakers have experienced: one of the speakers was arrested by IOF and subjected to its violence in captivity and was released as part of the exchange negotiations in December 2023, while another speaker has lost over 22 members of her family in Gaza as a result of Israeli bombing.

The violence that Palestinians face is extremely nuanced and affects every aspect of their lives. Where the speakers shared the constant anxiety related to the safety of their loved ones still in Palestine – their homeland  – they are also targeted by the biassed and ambiguous policies of social media corporations that have historically sided with the settler colonists and have silenced Palestinians and those who support the liberation of Palestine. So as Palestinian women human rights defenders fight for the rights of others around the world, who fights for their rights as the whole western imperialist machinery with billions of dollars at its disposal works against them and their people?

Media is complicit

Marwa Fatafta, a digital rights advocate and tech policy expert, points at the consistent violation of digital rights of Palestinians as the internet in Gaza is suspended to stop the flow of information in and out of the Strip. She says that Israel has spent millions of dollars on targeted social media ads to normalise its violence: “Systematic use of disinformation to justify the crimes against humanity, like the beheaded babies; allegations of rape and sexual assault against Israeli women,” all to establish that Israeli cruelty against Palestinians is justified.  When such disinformation is debunked, it receives far less media coverage. She emphasises that technology companies are complicit in the dehumanisation of and violence against Palestinians and the Israeli genocide, as they have benefitted from this disinformation through ad revenue. Social media companies have repeatedly silenced Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices on their platforms, while amplifying Israeli propaganda. Marwa says, “It’s worth exploring how companies are complicit in dehumanisation of Palestinians through disinformation.”

Jenan Matari, a storyteller and one of the most active content creators on Instagram educating their communities about Israeli violence, seconds Marwa and adds, “Media also is and has always been a tool of oppression and colonialism, and has been ignored when understanding and addressing atrocities.” She highlights, “We can see stories in mainstream newspapers calling natives of the land in the US as savages and attackers of white women. This is a dehumanisation tactic that we see by colonisers to take over the land. We see this happening against Black people in the US, and same happening in Palestine against Palestinian men.” Referring to journalist Tom Friedman’s New York Times article comparing the Arab world with a jungle and pointing it out as racist, Jenan adds that there have been consistent dehumanising of Arab and Muslim folks in western media, and it continues to manufacture consent this way. The same manufacture of consent also portrays Muslim Arab women as helpless and hopeless beings – always in tears and never furious because of the violence they and their people are subjected to – waiting to be saved from the men around them, where often the role of ‘saviour’ is assumed by Western figures.

This is the same propaganda that is taught in Israeli schools – they don’t teach them about occupation or the history of the land that existed centuries before Israel existed.

“It’s important to see that all of this is connected.” Jenan says that you will not see the education system mentioning the slaughter and violence committed by western colonisers against natives, because it’s purposeful to keep the young generation unaware of this violence from the beginning. “This is the same propaganda that is taught in Israeli schools – they don’t teach them about occupation or the history of the land that existed centuries before Israel existed.”

She says, “When referring to the past human rights atrocities like the Vietnam war and the Holocaust, we often ask ‘how did we let it happen?’. We can’t use that excuse now. All of it is happening in front of us, and we’re letting it happen.”

Jenan says that it’s important to understand that these [media] systems are there to control us, and we can take the control back. “We have the responsibility to play our part in the cause [of a free Palestine] in ways we can, regardless of what our follower count is."

Palestine is a feminists’ issue

As Fidaa Zaanin, a Palestinian feminist and gender studies researcher, argues during the webinar, “People say this is Islamophobia. I don’t see it as such. This is a movement against the liberation of Palestine.” She also calls out the international feminist community for its silence on the violence against Palestinian women, and says that this could have been avoided if the international community’s complicity did not exist.

Fidaa says that feminists should have spoken earlier about the violence against Palestinians killing not just women and children but also men in huge numbers. This violence did not start in October 2023, in fact it has been ongoing over the past 75 years.

Dr. Abusalama shares that her family has been subjected to unfathomable violence with over 22 members of her family murdered by Israel in a single attack, while her family still in Gaza fears for their lives everyday. She says, “This whole emphasis on women and children, while it’s reflective of cruelty, viciousness and inhumanity of the enemy and genocidal capacity of the enemy that we are up against, it shouldn’t let us normalise the killing of our beautiful men.” She points out that this hierarchy of human rights started with the establishment of Israel in 1948. “[Universal Declaration of Human Rights] UDHR’s first line says that all people have right to dignity, and in the same year this massacre of Palestinians and Nakba was taking place,” adding, “Soon after, all these new laws and new world that was supposed to save our humanity and prevent another holocaust, was shaping up, and “never again” was the slogan that kept repeating. And yet we've been seeing Palestinians slaughtered and dehumanised in every possible sense since 75 years.”

To conclude, Fidaa Zaanin emphasises that we must demand accountability for this violence from everyone who is responsible, and must make sure that the violence stops. “We can't let companies, politicians, and media platforms that benefited from genocide off the hook. They can't just act like nothing happened! Hold them responsible.”