Denial of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel

In The Washington Post in January 2024, journalist Elizabeth Dwoskin says that the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel was among the most well-documented terrorist attacks in history, including evidence from smartphone and GoPro cameras of attacking Hamas militants. Dwoskin states that conspiracy theories exist stating that the attacks did not occur at all, or that they were false-flags. ^{[1] [2]} Some Jewish leaders and researchers^{[ who? ]} have compared denial of the Hamas-led attacks to Holocaust denialism. ^[1]

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 October 7 attacks. ^[3]

Background

See also: Israel–Hamas war and Misinformation in the Israel–Hamas war

According to the Washington Post , the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel was among the most well-documented terror attacks in history, including "a crush of evidence" from smartphone cameras and GoPros of attacking Hamas militants. By January 2024, there was a small, but growing group that denied basic facts of the attacks and spread falsehoods and misleading narratives that minimized the violence that occurred or disputed its origins. ^{[1] [4]}

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, malign actors, "In accordance with the disinformation playbook" have 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." ^[5] However, accusations of 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 reported later. ^{[6] [7]}

Spread

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] 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. ^[8]

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. ^[9]

Denial claims

Jennifer V. Evans has tied the denialism surrounding October 7 to Holocaust denial. ^{[4] [1]} According to Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post,a small but growing group denies the basic facts of the attacks, pushing a spectrum of falsehoods and misleading narratives that minimize the violence or dispute its origins." ^[1] Dwoskin writes that some scholars and experts have compared denial of the events on October 7 to Holocaust denialism. ^[1]

Responses

Legal action

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. ^[3]

See also

• Misinformation in the Israel–Hamas war

References

1. 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. Ynet (2024-01-22). "Denial of Hamas' October 7 massacre spreads in US". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
3. "Israeli Ministerial Committee approves imprisonment for denying Oct. 7". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2024-02-05. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
4. 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.
5. "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.
6. 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.
7. "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.
8. Greyman-Kennard, Danielle (January 22, 2024). "Holocaust denial finds new life in Oct. 7 revisionism". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
9. "Social media watchdog warns of trending denial of October 7 sexual violence". The Jerusalem Post. March 5, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.