Is Al-Jazeera a news agency or a propaganda mouthpiece? This weekend, the state-funded Qatari outlet published accusations that the Israeli army had conducted a campaign of rape inside al-Shifa Hospital, where they are currently battling Hamas’ entrenched leadership and terrorism forces. Not only did this amplify the waves of criticism of the IDF’s campaign in Gaza, it escalated pressure on Israel’s allies to force the IDF into at least a stall.
However, the Jerusalem Post noticed this morning that the report had disappeared from Al-Jazeera’s site and archives. Although the news agency has yet to formally retract the story, both their personnel and Hamas have denounced it as a fabrication. And the reason why is, well, *chef’s kiss* perfect:
After more than 24 hours of letting the story run freely, Qatari mouthpiece Al Jazeera deleted the page featuring their former story, which accused Israeli soldiers of allegedly perpetrating rape against women during the IDF’s latest excursion against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who barricaded themselves inside the former hospital-cum-terror headquarters at Shifa Hospital.
Though the Qatari mouthpiece hasn’t yet officially referred to the retraction, all content related to the allegation has been reportedly deleted.
Al Jazeera columnist and former director Yasser Abuhilalah also tweeted, admitting that, “It was revealed through Hamas investigations that the story of the rape of women in Al-Shifa Hospital was fabricated… The woman who spoke about rape justified her exaggeration and incorrect talk by saying that the goal was to arouse the nation’s fervor and brotherhood,” adding critically that “As if more than thirty thousand martyrs, ninety thousand wounded, about a million displaced people, and comprehensive destruction were not enough!”
The story didn’t penetrate American media, which seems surprising in retrospect. Maybe US media outlets learned a lesson from the Al-Ahli propaganda story after all. However, this one ran wild on social media, and eventually got picked up on sites aimed at radical-progressive readers. And that was the point — to run wild, especially in anti-Semitic circles as well as pro-Palestinian communities, in order to blunt the truth of Hamas’ grotesque and brutal terrorism of October 7, its war crimes ever since in locating military operations in Shifa and other civilian infrastructure, and its genocidal ambitions.
Only this time, the propaganda worked too well. Once the Palestinians who had made their way north again heard these claims, they ran back south, complicating logistics for Hamas and — worse yet — making Hamas look impotent. Suddenly, this fabricated claim was no longer as useful as it seemed:
The fake testimony went viral, with many expressing their rage at Israel and at what they deemed Arab failure to protect the honor of Palestinian women, even asking where Hamas and the resistance had gone.
However, Israeli news blogger Abu Ali Express also reported that the viral fake testimony also had unexpected reverse ripple effects, leading many Gazans to flee their homes in the northern Gaza strip southwards, which may explain the unusual event of a Hamas investigation into the details.
So the story backfired on Hamas, and just like that, Al-Jazeera sent it down the memory hole. And they did so without even a notice to their readers and viewers, not even to alert them that their “eyewitness” flat-out lied in her testimony. Instead of following journalistic norms on false reports, they simply made it into An Unstory.
And that rather neatly answers the question I first posed, no? A news agency would have issued a retraction to mitigate the damage their false report did. A propaganda outfit would hide their embarrassing failures that contradict their preferred narrative. Al-Jazeera has demonstrated its true character.
That doesn’t mean war crimes aren’t being committed at Shifa Hospital. The IDF continues its operation to clear Hamas from the civilian facility, but Hamas is now using patients in the maternity and emergency wards as human shields as they fire on Israeli soldiers:
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday accused Hamas gunmen of firing at troops from Shifa Hospital’s emergency room, maternity and burn wards, as the terror group claimed patients were dying due to the ongoing military operation in the facility.
“Right now, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists are barricading themselves inside Shifa hospital wards. Hamas is destroying Shifa Hospital,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an English-language video statement. “Hamas is firing from inside the Shifa emergency room and maternity ward and throwing explosive devices from the Shifa burn ward. Terrorists hiding around the hospital fired mortars at our forces, causing extensive damage to the hospital buildings.”
And just to underscore their war-crime status, they’re also aiming mortars at Shifa to slow down the Israeli advance:
By contrast, he said, “I repeat: Hamas is firing mortars at Shifa Hospital. Hamas is destroying Shifa Hospital. Hamas hijacked Shifa Hospital and hides behind the sick and injured, waging war from inside Shifa Hospital.”
So what will Al-Jazeera report next to take the heat off Hamas? Well, now they have “first-hand accounts” of “execution-style killings and other alleged abuses by Israeli forces.” And of course we should trust their sources now …
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