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Denial of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel

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On October 7 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups attacked Israel, killing 1,180 Israelis, including 797 civilians, of whom 36 were children, 3,400 wounded, and 251 Israelis taken hostage in Gaza. Israeli women and girls were subject to rape, mutilation, and sexual violence. This attack was well-documented by the perpetrators who live streamed the attacks on head-mounted GoPro cameras, but conspiracy theories quickly proliferated claiming that the attacks were fabricated, exaggerated, or that they were false-flags.

As with Holocaust denial, a variety of strategies are used to attempt to discredit or downplay the extent and severity of the violence on October 7 2023, including disputing the numbers, assigning blame to the victims, casting aspersions on the reliability and motivations of witnesses, accusing Jews of being collaborators in their own slaughter, and claiming that Israel or ‘Zionists’ permitted the attack as a pretext for invading Gaza.[1][2][3][4] Both phenomena are rooted in antisemitism and are intended to serve as justification for antisemitic violence and hatred.[5][6] The Network Contagion Research Institute has stated that “There’s a built-in audience that wants to deny that Jews are the victims of atrocity and furthers the notion that Jews are secretly behind everything”.[7] Gideon Levy has also compared it to Nakba denial.[8] The spread of denialism of the violence on October 7 also coincided with a widespread increase in outright Holocaust denialism across internet platforms, protest movements and parts of the media.[9][10][11][12][13]

The well-documented and widespread sexual violence against Israeli women and girls on October 7th has been the subject of particular denialism.[14][15][16][17][18]

An Israeli legislative proposal approved by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs aims to impose five-year prison sentences for individuals found denying the events of or supporting the attacks.[19]

Background

The October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel was a well-documented terrorist attack. Evidence for the attack includes smartphone cameras, CCTV footage, and head-mounted GoPro cameras of Hamas militants who livestreamed their attack on Israel. However, denial of the attacks – including the spreading of falsehoods and misleading narratives that disputed that Hamas was responsible, or claims that minimized the violence that occurred – began to spread after the attack.[1][20]

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, malign actors spreading disinformation purposefully decontextualized their reporting to "falsely claim that Haaretz corroborated the false theory that the IDF committed mass killings of its own people". According to Shayan Sardarizadeh, BBC Verify's disinformation expert, the "denialist narrative" that "it was Israel that killed its own civilians on 7 October, not Hamas" has "sadly become prominent online".[21] Some incidents of friendly fire by IDF soldiers and kibbutz security teams against civilians attempting to flee or captured and brought into Gaza during the October 7 attacks, were corroborated later.[22][23]

Spread

Researchers see parallels to disinformation surrounding the September 11th attacks, which some fringe groups argue was perpetrated by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Joel Finkelstein of Network Contagion Research Institute stated that "there's a built-in audience that wants to deny that Jews are the victims of atrocity and further the notion that Jews are secretly behind everything." He said efforts to say Israeli was responsible for October 7 are part of a broader strategy by antisemitic extremists to undermine Jewish suffering.[1]

The claims were found across the internet, including on the Reddit subforum 'LateStageCapitalism' and on publications critical of Israel like The Electronic Intifada and The Grayzone. They have also been popularized by right-wing Holocaust deniers like Owen Benjamin and far-right conspiracy theorists. The claims are based on cherry-picked evidence to push misleading narratives.[1] A Telegram instant messaging group, that had also shared content and conspiracies relating to foreign policy and the COVID-19 pandemic, had nearly 3,000 people on it in January 2024 that pushed content and conspiracies blaming the attack on Israel.[24]

In March 2024 the Israeli firm CyberWell, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor, analyze and combat antisemitism on social media, reported that the company had found about 135 separate posts that had been viewed by more than 15 million users that denied the October 7 attacks. The company found that the identified posts were almost half from Twitter, with others posted to Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.[25]

Responses

Emerson Brooking from the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council pointed to Holocaust denial as what may happen to October 7, despite copious real-time documentation of the attacks.[1]

Jennifer V. Evans has also tied the denialism surrounding October 7 to Holocaust denial.[20]

Gideon Levy has compared October 7 denial to Nakba denial, where many Israelis deny the atrocities their country inflicted on the Palestinians during Israel's creation.[8] Levy argues that many Israelis also deny killing of civilians during Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.[8]

Gil Gan-Mor said that both Nakba denial and the denial of the October 7 Hamas attacks must be combated through education.[26]

Law against denial

On February 5, 2024, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs approved a bill aimed at penalizing denial of the October 7 attacks, imposing up to five years in prison for such acts. The bill, initiated by Yisrael Beiteinu MK Oded Forer, is aimed at individuals who deny the occurrence of the massacre or attempt to justify, praise, or support the acts carried out during the event.[19] The Association of Civil Rights in Israel said the law will have a "chilling effect on freedom of speech".[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Dwoskin, Elizabeth (2024-01-21). "How the internet is erasing the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2024-01-21. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  2. ^ Grand, Chip Le (2024-07-07). "The denial and disinformation facing October 7 survivors". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  3. ^ "Too many people are in denial about events of October 7th, says Israeli ambassador". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  4. ^ "You are being redirected..." www.adl.org. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  5. ^ Klompas, Aviva (2024-01-26). "Holocaust Remembrance Means Rooting Out Oct. 7 Denial". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  6. ^ "Denialism in the Wake of the Oct. 7 Massacre". Anti-Defamation League. 2023-12-19. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  7. ^ Dwoskin, Elizabeth (2024-01-21). "Growing Oct. 7 'truther' groups say Hamas massacre was a false flag". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  8. ^ a b c Levy, Gideon. "Israel Has No Right to Criticize Roger Waters and Other Deniers of Hamas' Oct 7 Atrocities". Haaretz.
  9. ^ "Cross-ideological antisemitism and the October 7th attacks". Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  10. ^ "Countering the Denial and Distortion of the 10/7 Hamas Attack | AJC". American Jewish Committee. 2023-12-28. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  11. ^ "UNESCO sounds alarm over artificial intelligence-fuelled Holocaust denial". France 24. 2024-06-18. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  12. ^ "One in five young Americans thinks the Holocaust is a myth". The Economist. 2023-12-07. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  13. ^ Mercer, Andrew; Kennedy, Courtney; Keeter, Scott (2024-03-05). "Online opt-in polls can produce misleading results, especially for young people and Hispanic adults". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  14. ^ Cohen, Michael A. (2024-04-17). "The Rape Denialists". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  15. ^ Scheindlin, Dahlia (2024-03-06). "The Unhinged Denialist Frenzy Around Hamas' Sexual Violence on October 7". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  16. ^ "UN: 'Convincing information' sexual violence committed against hostages in Gaza". BBC News. 2024-03-04. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  17. ^ Stephens, Bret (2024-03-05). "The New Rape Denialism". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  18. ^ Filipovic, Jill (2023-12-21). "When It Comes to Sexual Violence, the Truth Matters". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  19. ^ a b Adamker, Yadi (2024-02-05). "Israeli Ministerial Committee approves imprisonment for denying Oct. 7". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  20. ^ a b Prince, Cathryn (2024-01-29). "Are conspiracy theories about Oct. 7 a new form of Holocaust denial? Experts weigh in". Times of Israel. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  21. ^ "How Media Outlets Like Haaretz Are Weaponized in the Fake News Wars Over Israel and Hamas". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-02-06. In accordance with the disinformation playbook, malign actors have sought to hijack and manipulate the reputation and credibility of long-established news sources. In order to establish an "authentic" grounding for atrocity denial and conspiracy theories, it is unsurprising that influencers would seize on an established Israeli outlet like Haaretz, to co-opt its credibility and misrepresent its reporting. Haaretz has reported on two instances where sources told reporters that in the midst of the massacres, IDF forces firing at Hamas terrorists may have also hit, not confirmed killed, some civilians. Malign actors have exploited this reporting, published with no context, to purposefully decontextualize it and falsely claim that Haaretz corroborated the false theory that the IDF committed mass killings of its own people. This disinformation was then shared by others – some perhaps acting with good intentions, but creating misinformation nonetheless. According to the BBC's Sardarizadeh, the denialist narrative that "it was Israel that killed its own civilians on 7 October, not Hamas," has become appallingly widespread online.
  22. ^ Breiner, Josh; Peleg, Bar (2024-02-22). "Israeli Nova partygoer was misidentified as Hamas terrorist on October 7 and killed by Israeli forces". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  23. ^ "Families of 13 people killed in October 7 Kibbutz Be'eri firefight demand probe". The Times of Israel. 6 January 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  24. ^ Greyman-Kennard, Danielle (January 22, 2024). "Holocaust denial finds new life in Oct. 7 revisionism". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  25. ^ "Social media watchdog warns of trending denial of October 7 sexual violence". The Jerusalem Post. March 5, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
  26. ^ "Why experts are concerned over Israeli bill banning October 7 denial". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-02-07. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  27. ^ https://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-passes-preliminary-reading-of-bill-banning-denial-of-october-7-massacre/. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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