During the Passover weekend, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached the border with Israel and carried out a variety of violent activities in what they call the “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.”
We’ve seen quite a bit of mishandled coverage, so here are the main myths and facts so you can better understand the situation and also speak up when you see inaccurate or biased media.
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Myth: This is a non-violent “protest” or a “march.”
Fact: It is none of the above.
#GreatReturnMarch in #Gaza is another great show of #Palestinian non violence. (Via Reuters) pic.twitter.com/dIDWw4uRv2
— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) March 30, 2018
Despite its official name, which has been widely repeated by the media, this is not a “protest” nor a “march” by any commonsense or dictionary understanding of the words.
- Picturing something like a picket parade on Capitol Hill? Think again. From the beginning we saw significant violence which would not be tolerated by any country.
- According to the IDF and multiple videos, the violence began with burning tires, slinging rocks, throwing molotov cocktails and other varieties of firebombs. The correct word for this type of activity is a “riot.”
- The violence quickly escalated to live gunfire on the IDF. Firing on a country’s army is typically called an “act of war.”
- Under the cover of live fire and the smokescreen from burning tires, armed terror organizations were attempting to breach the border and cross into Israel with weapons. That is called an “attempted infiltration.”
Moments ago, IDF troops thwarted an infiltration attempt by three terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip. The terrorists approached the security fence and attempted to infiltrate Israeli territory. In response, IDF troops targeted the terrorists with tank fire pic.twitter.com/unGS1x79Hg
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 30, 2018
For proper context, it is tremendously important to imagine how the United States or any European state might respond to such violence on its borders, or direct gunfire on its army.
Terminology matters, and journalists should call these events what they are. The all too common headline, “Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in border protests,” communicates a very different understanding than the more accurate, “…killed in attempted infiltration of Israel,” or “…in confrontation with Israeli army.”
Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in Gaza border protests: Gaza medics https://t.co/yyuuNIxk0J
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 30, 2018
Myth: Israel is shooting innocent civilians.
Fact: Of the estimated 30,000 people present, as of this time of writing, 17 have been confirmed dead. Of those, at least 10 are confirmed as active fighters of Hamas, Global Jihad, or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, all designated as terror organizations by the United States, the European Union, and others. (All 17 have been confirmed as young men of military age).
The individuals so far confirmed as terrorists include the following:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 31, 2018
Hamas has even publicly taken credit for five of the above individuals.
Myth: Israel is shooting people in the back or while they are running away.
Fact: The information on deaths and injuries out of Gaza comes ultimately from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Ministry of Health is, in turn, fully controlled by Hamas.
Repeating unsubstantiated claims by Hamas would be like repeating claims by Islamic State: no journalist should do so without clarifying the dubious reliability of the source.
Other sources of information include highly edited snippets from camera-phones on the scene. In most cases, the viewer has no way of knowing any relevant context, for example: what the subjects of the videos may have been doing before the video began, or what activities are occurring around them.
At least one video showed a Palestinian apparently being shot from the opposite direction of where the IDF was located, indicating that the event was most likely staged. While this is probably not the case with all the videos, it should certainly argue for caution regarding the reliability unverified videos in general. See this Twitter thread:
*Note: since publishing this article it seems Jacob Magid deleted his original Tweet which contained the relevant video. We have located the video and uploaded to YouTube at this link. Twitter thread below.
https://twitter.com/JacobMagid/status/979814637716860930
Rubbish. How does the IDF shoot a guy in the right leg when the left one is facing the fence and the right one is facing his prayer buddies. This video SCREAMS Pallywood.
— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) March 31, 2018
I’m not aware of bullets that can circle around a person. But maybe I’m just ill informed.
— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) March 31, 2018
Myth: “Land Day” really just advocaties peaceful co-existence.
Fact: The core demand of “Land Day” protesters is that all of Israel should be “returned” to Palestinians. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, emphasized in a speech on Friday that:
The March of Return affirms that our people can’t give up one inch of the land of Palestine.
Historical inaccuracies aside, this is a demand for an end to the world’s only Jewish state. Journalists should be clarifying this critical point.
Myth: These events are spontaneous and grass-roots based.
Fact: Israel’s Minister of Defense says the Hamas terror organization has invested $15 million dollars to organize this violence. Though Hamas has not confirmed the figure, it is well established that Hamas generally spends huge sums on promoting violence.
- Funds have been used to: bus thousands of civilians into an area that Hamas has turned into a combat zone, to attempt a variety of terror attacks, and to attempt border incursions under the cover of the riots that they, themselves, have organized.
- The investment of $15m dollars in this kind of violence should be measured against Gaza’s need for basic infrastructure, electricity, medical facilities and more. Every journalist should be asking the question: how does Hamas have so much money available for violence, but so little available for the basic needs of the people living under its rule?
Myth: Injury figures cited by Gaza health officials are reliable.
Fact: Gaza health officials are employed by Hamas and lack credibility. While most news services failed to qualify the figures or make an attempt of independent verification, CNN, to its credit, acknowledged this caveat:
However, there appears to be a disparity in the number of Palestinians injured by live bullets. Manelis said only “a few scores were hit by live ammunition,” while the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 758 people were injured.
In addition, the high number of alleged injuries could include virtually anything from suffering shock, inhaling smoke or teargas, or even grazing one’s knee. For Hamas, the higher the number of claimed injuries, the greater the PR value and the claim of disproportionality aimed at the IDF.
Myth: This is a conflict pitting the IDF vs. Palestinian civilians.
Fact: Israel has emphasized repeatedly that it has no conflict with Palestinians in Gaza: but only with Hamas and related terror organizations that are mounting violent attacks against Israelis.
One particularly chilling example: the IDF recounts that Hamas sent a seven year old girl to breach the border into Israel, and abandoned her within the line of fire (presumably in the hope that she would be killed for PR purposes). At significant personal risk, Israeli soldiers entered the line of fire, recovered the girl and returned her to her parents without harm.
Meanwhile, rioting Palestinians in Lebanon were turned away from Israel’s borders in clashes with the Lebanese army.
As far as we have seen so far, none of these stories have received coverage in the mainstream international media.
Anyone who truly cares about Israelis or Palestinians should expect and demand accurate media coverage of these events. Hamas is harming Palestinian civilians while simultaneously using them as cover to attack Israel. By granting PR victories to Hamas, the media actually play a direct role in encouraging further violence.
Furthermore, citizens of any country should consider what dangers they may face at home when terrorists see that their violence is excused, covered up, and rewarded with PR victories. Encouraging terror anywhere endangers innocent people everywhere.
If you see biased or inaccurate media coverage of these events, take action and demand fair coverage from your media. Let us know by informing us through our Red Alert page.
Featured image: freevector.com and Flash90/Sliman Khader, with modifications.
