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For 11 days in May of this year, the world watched in horror as Israel’s missile onslaught on the civilians of Gaza went into full swing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this latest barrage on the strip resulted in the killing of 278, including 66 children, 39 women,…

How Israel’s Hasbara Went Belly-up in the Face of Global Protest International Relations, War/Peace • July 8, 2021 • Nizar K. Visram For 11 days in May of this year, the world watched in horror as Israel’s missile onslaught on the civilians of Gaza went into full swing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this latest barrage on the strip resulted in the killing of 278, including 66 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly people, and the wounding 9,000. Nearly 17,000 residential and commercial units were smashed, displacing over 90,000 people. Israelis targeted and caused widespread damage to some 30 health facilities, seven hospitals, and 11 primary care clinics, in addition to Gaza’s only COVID-19 testing facility, killing its director. Other facilities destroyed were two Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance stations and a clinic caring for mothers and infants. The bombing also resulted in electricity outages affecting the functioning of medical facilities, while causing damage to the water and sanitary infrastructure, including wastewater networks and the seawater desalination plant. An industrial area, employing 1,500 people, was targeted repeatedly, causing an estimated loss of $20 to $25-million. When it was under bombardment, fire fighters were called in. When they arrived, they were also targeted, leading to more fires and more damages. Gaza, Test-Site for F-35s Gaza, a tiny strip of land with a population of 2 million ended up becoming even more “uninhabitable” than before, according to the United Nations report. Some 80 Israeli jet fighters were deployed in the operation, including the most advanced F-35s that Israel received from the US. These most advanced fifth-generation fighters were used on Gaza because it served to test F-35 fighters and their pilots in real war action, using Gaza homes as targets. It was the baptism of fire for the US Lockheed Martin’s F-35, the production of which Italy also participates in. This is how Israel went into extensive attacks on Gaza, characterizing it as “self-defense.” When facing a barrage of questions, the Israeli standard reaction is, “What would you do?” and then they shift the blame: “We didn’t kill their children, they made us do it.” When that ploy fails, they switch gears by crying, ad nauseam, “anti-Semitism”, hoping to put the adversary on the defensive. Their propaganda machine operates at full throttle, trying to obscure the truth through disinformation, misinformation and decontextualization. Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus misled international media outlets into publishing false news that the Israeli military was preparing a ground invasion of Gaza. Later, it was revealed that this was a deliberate ploy intended to bring Hamas out into the open for easier targeting. When asked, Conricus claimed it was an “honest” mistake. They even posted an old video from Syria, claiming it was from Gaza. It showed a rapid firing of rockets from what looked like an apartment building in Gaza, thus trying to “prove” that Hamas was using civilians as human shield. The tactic failed because the same video had been posted on YouTube back in December 2019, indicating that it was filmed in a northern Syrian city. Such attempts by Israeli hasbara (a Hebrew term meaning public relations efforts to defend a state’s interests) to whitewash their war crimes and spin the narrative of Gaza went belly up in the face of global protest, following graphic images of massive destruction and the shattered bodies of children in Gaza. International Solidarity With Palestine In response, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the cities of Livorno and Milan (Italy); London, Birmingham, and Liverpool (UK); Adelaide and Sydney (Australia); Frankfurt and Berlin (Germany); and Paris (France). In London, approximately 180,000 people turned out, making it the largest pro-Palestine protest in British history. In the US, thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, condemning the US administration’s funding of the Israeli regime. They called for sanctions against Israel, demanding the US government allow the International Criminal Court (ICC) to carry out investigations into Israeli war crimes. Such demonstrations also took place in the African streets of Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, and South Africa. In the US Port of Oakland, dockworkers refused to unload an Israeli ZIM-operated cargo ship, forcing the vessel to spend over two weeks out at sea, unable to dock. It was part of an international picket movement at port cities around the world. Similarly, Italian dockworkers in the ports of Livorno and Genoa refused to load the cargo after discovering that it was a shipment of high-precision weapons and explosives bound for the Israeli dock of Ashdod. Dockworkers in the South African port city of Durban also refused to offload cargo from an Israeli container ship belonging to Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping, ...

How Israel’s Hasbara Went Belly-up in the Face of Global Protest – Socialist Project