After the October 7 massacre, the international community was shocked by the harsh atrocities committed by Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians who participated in the massacre.
Hamas has been compared to ISIS and the Nazis, which has given Israel a broad international support and credit for acting in Gaza to topple Hamas and bring the abductees back home.
The Israeli advocacy found a sympathetic ear, since most members of the international community could not support the Palestinian side that committed these inhumane atrocities.
Hamas and the Palestinians were in trouble. How will they be able to correct the world consciousness that now classifies them in one line with the Nazis and ISIS? Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority realized that in order to win this war they would have to use the card that the Palestinians have been using for years – the card of consciousness to smear Israel’s legitimacy in the world.
Although the incitement to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews continues unceasingly in Arabic, in the ears of the international community there is a different melody.
In recent months, senior officials of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, used statements of ‘reverse advocacy’.
This advocacy is based on one simple method: the use of terminology in which all the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th and testimonies of abductees who returned from captivity are used to accuse Israel.
What is the Palestinian reverse advocacy?
The Palestinians use core concepts from the Israeli narrative of October 7 and turns it into a Palestinian narrative.
Hamas is attentive to the Israeli public pain points and recognizes the international reaction to the Israeli narrative after October 7.
In December 2023, Hamas used the symbolic date, October 7 as the day the attack on Gaza began, “the day the attack on our people began”.
This is how the murderous organization tries to obscure the symbolic date of the horrible massacre it carried out against Israel – and makes the date symbolic for the Palestinians – as “the day Israel attacked the Palestinians”.
Also, the organization calls the terrorists detained by Israel, as detainees, saying that among them are women, elderly and children (similar to the description of the Israeli abductees who were held by Hamas and released) “and they are subjected to the most terrible conditions”. Hamas recognizes the humanitarian motive that also influences international public opinion and uses this to its advantage. He calls those prisoners, among them terrorists with blood on their hands, as detainees who “disappeared”, as a kind of kidnapping of “innocent Palestinians” by Israeli forces. Hamas takes his brutal attack, turns it over and presents itself as a victim:
- Israel attacked from October 7th on (using October 7th as a symbolic date, like 9/11 only in reverse- smearing the Israeli narrative).
- Calling the arrest of terrorists and Hamas supporters’ “disappearance” or kidnapping – turning the narrative so that Israel kidnaps Palestinians as opposed to the kidnapping of Israeli citizens held by Hamas.
- Hamas presents false information that Israel keeps women, elderly people and children in extremely difficult conditions
This was propagated after hostage deals were held, in which Israeli women, elderly and children were released from the hands of Hamas. Hamas recognizes the effect of combining women, elderly people and children to build a new narrative: Israel is “the aggressor”, kidnapping women, elderly people and children.
Moreover, Hamas officials use the word “Nazi” in their statements to describe Israel and its actions – in order to break the comparison of Hamas to the Nazis and turn the equation so that Israel is compared to the Nazis.
In his January 2024 speech, Hamas official Usma Hamdan made sure to use the terms “Nazi aggression” and the “war of extermination” that Israel is waging, to describe what is happening in Gaza.
Additionally, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the office of Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, said that the “series of daily killing crimes” of the IDF in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria is a comprehensive “war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.
Palestinian officials from the PLO and Hamas use the terms “extermination” and “Holocaust” to strengthen the influence on public opinion that Israel is committing a “Holocaust” to the Palestinian people. They try to create awareness among the international community of “How can the Jewish people, who went through the Holocaust, perpetrate a Holocaust on other people?” Moreover, the Palestinians want to create “guilt feelings” because following the Western support for Israel a holocaust is being carried out against their people.
In January 2024, Hamas started a campaign on social media using female terrorists imprisoned in Israeli prisons for its counter propaganda. He published various posts in which the “Palestinian women prisoners” are described as experiencing abuse in the prisons and that they are “in danger”. Moreover, Hamas detailed the “abuses” that Palestinian women suffer in Israeli prisons: “Severe beatings and torture, a shameful (physical) examination” and more.
The cynical use of humanitarian motifs that fort on the emotional strings of the international community -plays into the hands of the Palestinians when they come to clear themselves from the guilt of October 7th massacre and make Israel the “bad guy” in the story.
The PLO and Hamas officials are united in their efforts to change the discourse regarding the war in Gaza. Although for the Palestinians, Hamas is the one who brought the “achievement” of a lawsuit against Israel at the ICJ by South Africa – the PLO is trying to align with this blood plot regarding “genocide” and fail Israel in the international arena. This activity of the Palestinian Authority is added to its long-standing activity to fight Israel: using the international community to eliminate Israel’s legitimacy in the world.
a shameful (physical) examination. ” Credit: @daffamedia
This article was originally published in ynet news.
