A conventional propaganda bias

In today's media-driven culture, truth has become the first casualty. Given the blatant deceptions and erasures of the truth about the Gaza slaughter by the US media in particular and Western media in general, the media's influence on the public consciousness may finally be slipping. In an interview with Israeli television on February 6, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant stated that the 'Hannibal Directive' was implemented by Israeli military on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas and other Palestinian fighters stormed the territory that Israel had illegally annexed.

What if the UNHRC, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, Amnesty International, and the UN released a report exposing Russian war crimes in Ukraine and concluded that Russia was engaging in genocide? All hell would have broken loose, with Western media giving the report extensive coverage. The headlines of newspapers and social media, as well as radio and television debates, would have drawn attention to Russia's genocide. But since it was Israel rather than Russia, nothing of that sort happened. However, the devastating 296-page investigation conducted by the largest and most trusted human rights organisation in the world, Amnesty International, which claimed that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, only garnered little mainstream media attention in the US and Europe.

The Israelis are aware of the fundamental premise behind propaganda that lie spreads far more quickly than the truth. However, we are reminded of the prophetic statement made by the renowned African American civil rights and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth: "I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail," as the carefully crafted propaganda of Israel, faithfully carried out by the Western media, stands exposed. Palestinians living under violent occupation understood the power of truth, and sixteen months of slaughter in Gaza, half of them women and children, revealed the hidden reality and sinful aspect of Palestine's illegal occupation. Gallant stated in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 in February this year that the orders was issued 'tactically' and 'at several places' near Gaza. An English-subtitled video of the interview is accessible on YouTube and has gone viral.

War on truth halted

The Israeli defence minister's admission is the most recent in a string of compelling evidence from journalists in Gaza, including reports from Al Jazeera and Israeli news outlets, that Israeli defence forces killed a large number of their own citizens in "friendly fire" incidents or by enforcing the deadly doctrine- ‘Hannibal Directive’, which aims to prevent Israelis from being captured alive and used as leverage to negotiate the release of Palestinians detained in Israel. In March of last year, Al Jazeera TV, based in Doha, aired a thoroughly investigated report on the events of October 7th. It included professional analysis of the likely application of the Hannibal Directive and refuted Israeli media lies about "beheaded babies" and "mass rape."

The US and Western media, however, disregarded the documentary's meticulous findings, as expected. However, Sojourner's conviction that "truth prevails" in the end is reinforced by Al-Jazeera's succinct, and thoroughly researched report backed by sources and video evidence. This is the first confirmation from a senior Israeli official that the Hannibal Directive was implemented on October 7. However, if one searches online, in newspapers and in TV debates, Gallant's confession has not been reported. The US and Western news media, which has a long history of downplaying the actual horror of the crimes by the Israeli Defence Forces, appear to have completely buried Gallant's startling revelation.

Downplaying the Devastating Deeds

Such a strong indictment by the most prominent human rights group in the world would get extensive, continuous, and widespread news coverage and analysis in a civilised world where morality and ethics are fundamental to social and cultural values. However, there was conventional propaganda bias in the Western media when the mainstream media gave Israel's insane criticisms of Amnesty's report a plenty of space, rather than emphasising on the organization's findings that Israel "has committed genocide against Palestinians."

The public finds it challenging to comprehend the reality of what has happened in Gaza as a result of covert whitewashing. Not to wipe out Hamas but forcing 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza by violence to relocate elsewhere in the region was the covert goal of the sixteen months of full-scale invasion of Gaza. That is what the genocide in Gaza was all about. The extent of panic raised by corporate media is how we are conditioned to identify a major catastrophe. Therefore, for the West, the suffering in Gaza is not as severe as it appears. Otherwise, the human rights and civil rights warriors would undoubtedly have been more outraged.

The Western media never point out that the violent Israeli occupation and oppression that lasted for more than seven decades triggered the Hamas attacks. The Western media does not represent the Palestinian viewpoint. Neither they are factual, nor impartial. Media propaganda, intentional or unintentional, is a systemic problem and not just the work of certain individuals, as media academics have frequently emphasised. Lies spread more quickly and deeply in the digital era, and people frequently embrace them as truth. People may be able to critically assess what the media portrays as objective truth if they can discover a method and the ability to decipher hidden meanings. However, reliable eyewitness accounts can help in thwarting the pernicious propaganda to rescue the intellectual and moral decay of the Western media.

Dr. Sarfaraz Nasir is an independent researcher, based in New Delhi.