February 26, 2024
Anti-war Israeli activists, holding banners, gather at the Paris Square near the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house to demand an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza on February 23, 2024 on West Jerusalem. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]
by Motasem A Dalloul
The occupation state of Israel has a propaganda machine that reproduces lie after lie in order to generate sympathy around the globe. For more than 75 years, it has generally succeeded in gaining the sympathy of the Western world and the full support of its leaders, as well as the leaderships of many other countries, including Russia, China, Japan and India.
From the very beginning, this propaganda claimed that the state of Israel was created in “a land without a people, for a people without a land”, one of Zionism’s earliest myths. The intention was clearly to dismiss the history of Palestine and its people, and cover up the massacres and atrocities carried out to purge the land of the people who in reality lived there — and had done for centuries — and pave the way for the Zionist settlers.
The indigenous Palestinians were basically divided into three groups: those who were able to hold on to their homes and land; those driven out of their homeland at gunpoint and are still deprived of their legitimate right to return; and those displaced within historic Palestine who have, since 1967, been subjected to a brutal military occupation in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
The so-called “peace process” since the early nineties which saw the creation of the Palestinian Authority, has been a sham.
Legitimate resistance to the occupation has been met with death and destruction on a massive scale over many years. Even non-violent protests, such as the 2018 Great March of Return, have been met with indiscriminate killing and brutality.
In all of this, the occupation state has lied to justify its aggression against the Palestinians and disguise its atrocities. In this it has been aided and abetted by mainstream media owned and controlled by Zionists.
In a cruel inversion of the truth, the Palestinians have been portrayed as the aggressors, while the occupation state — whose military occupation is, by default, an aggressive position — is portrayed as the victim. With political, diplomatic and military protection from world powers, especially the US, Israel has been able to act with impunity, treating international laws and conventions with open contempt. It must have thought that such blind support from world leaders would last forever.
Gaza Civil Defence: Starvation threatens 700,000 citizens in northern Gaza Strip
However, the rise of social media has laid bare the brutality of the occupation state and its disregard of the international community and international law, for the whole world to see. Global awareness has prompted a growing consciousness of the illegality of the apartheid state and its aggression against the Palestinians. So much so, in fact, that many supporters of the occupation state have turned against it.
According to Israeli journalist and commentator on Arab affairs for Israel’s Army Radio, Jackie Khogy, this has placed Israel alongside Russia on the international index of violations. He also pointed out, reported Yedioth Ahronoth, that it is placed lower than China.
Khogy quoted a foreign diplomat as telling him that the image of the occupation state is today at its lowest ever level, highlighting its “childish behaviour” over regional issues. Israel, said the diplomat, is still playing the victim card, despite killing 30,000+ Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October.
Well-known Israeli columnist Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz that it was difficult to find a state whose behaviour sees it hauled to The Hague twice in the space of a couple of weeks.
READ: Blinken faces scrutiny for genocide definition discrepancies
When I asked on X if any supporters of Israel had changed their minds, one person responded by saying that that is exactly what he had done, because “Now, I know they are monsters.” When another was told by her boyfriend “the harsh truth” about the occupation state after she had been brought up on its “lies” she concluded: “Only sociopaths could support the parasitic state now.”
“Before 7 October,” wrote yet another, “my impression of the region was that it was an equal fight — two nations arguing over same holy land.” So, I was mostly indifferent, added Sammy Rose. “This was not my battle. But now that I see the truth, I am questioning EVERYTHING I thought I ever knew, especially about us here in the West.”
In cities across the world you will now see thousands of people marching for Palestine.
Shows of support for Israel are tiny in comparison. Anti-occupation activists have even acted on the ground by, for example, asking Jordanian officials to airdrop food aid to Gaza.
It is clear, therefore, that the occupation state has lost the world. Yes, it still has supporters, including world leaders and media, but the evidence suggests that the vast majority of people are sick and tired of Israel. Indeed, its violence sickens them, and the more that Israeli propaganda tries to justify genocide, the more that people understand the lies and deceit that have gone on for decades, with the complicity of Israel’s allies in Western capitals. Now even that support base is weakening, though. Israel’s clock is ticking; it is losing the propaganda war; and not even its lies can save it.
