How Propaganda and Diversion are Used to Craft a Narrative Regarding the Israel-Palestine Conflict
On Dec. 5, 2023, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. This decree came after months of social and political discourse following military organization Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, resulting in an estimated death toll of 1,200 people.
The narrative surrounding this attack and the overall history of Israel’s occupation of Palestine has frequently been twisted. Propaganda, extremism, diversion, and misinformation are all too common in discussions surrounding this issue. Most especially, Zionists and defenders of Israel use these tactics to craft a biased, carefully controlled narrative, one which exercises massive influence on politics, economics, and the social landscape. The House of Representatives new resolution is a dangerous one — one aiding the flourishing of this narrative and one that enables a harsh rewriting of history.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared Israel as a “nation-state of the Jewish people'.” According to the country’s Law of Return, any Jewish person in the world can claim citizenship in Israel. In 2018, a bill was passed in Israel establishing the right to self-determination as “unique to the Jewish people” and not to all Israeli citizens. These examples, among many more, demonstrate how the state of Israel presents itself: as a Jewish country, where Jewish people live and that all Jewish people have a right to. This very often leads to a harmful conflation, one that equates Israel with Judaism, and Israelis with the Jewish people as a whole. The result of this conflation comes with another, one seen commonly in political discourse: one that equates Zionism to the support of the Jewish people, and anti-Zionism with antisemitism. The state of Israel and its policies do not represent every Jewish person — but this is a distinction rarely made. Instead, it is ever so common to see Zionists claiming antisemitism every time a criticism of Israel or a support of Palestine is shared. These weak conclusions can quickly lead to the silencing of anti-Zionist or pro-Palestinian voices, pushing the Zionist narrative, one often littered with propaganda.
Some of this propaganda comes in the form of the discourse surrounding Hamas. The terrorist resistance group was formed in 1978, 39 years after the creation of Israel, as a form of further opposition against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. For many people, the Oct. 7 attacks were an eye-opening introduction to the nearly 80-year-long conflict.
From this starting point, many saw Hamas as the main aggressor and Israel as the victim, completely disregarding the history of the conflict. Often painted as a group whose only goal is to harm the state of Israel, the discussion surrounding Hamas labels it as “evil” and “satanic.” The fact that the occupation of Palestinian land and violence perpetrated against its inhabitants was present and rampant long before Hamas’ inception rarely gets the same attention. The demand for people to condemn Hamas and immediate mention of it in discussions critical of Israel draws away from the root of the issue. President John F. Kennedy said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Hamas’ acts of terrorism do not exist in a vacuum. They are the product of the incessant abuse of the Palestinian people. On the other hand, Israel’s acts of terrorism come as a form of senseless violence against civilians in occupied lands. There is no justification for the cruelty of the Israeli state, yet excuses continue to be made and false narratives continue to dominate.
Media bias is a hidden thing most of the time. Most American news outlets have reported with a Zionist bias, not encompassing the whole situation. Sources representing the Palestinian side of the conflict are few and far between, often including journalists on the ground in Gaza with limited resources and exposure. Even with those limited sources, this side of the conflict is misportrayed, underreported, and often manipulated. The full narrative is complicated, something many just don’t want to face or deal with. As a result of this, people pick and choose what they want to consume and believe. But real understanding always comes with education, and many are not doing their part in that regard. This conflict is more than one of politics and power. It is a fight for the rights of human beings and for the end of oppression worldwide. A quote from the great Palestinian thinker Edward Saïd sums it up: “For our own sakes, we must rise above Zionism’s bankruptcy and continue to articulate our own message of peace with justice. If the way seems difficult, it cannot be abandoned. When any of us is stopped, ten others can take his or her place. That is the genuine hallmark of our struggle, and neither censorship nor base complicity with it can prevent its success.” This is a situation teeming with bias and convolution, but it is our responsibility as onlookers and residents of the world to see through it and discern the truth.
