Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a satirical cartoon video today ridiculing foreign journalists and their coverage of the Gaza Strip for failing to report that “terror rules Gaza,”—not Israel.
The video opens with a blond broadcast correspondent filming a segment on Gaza, where “the people here are just trying to live quiet lives. There are no terrorists here, just ordinary people.” In the background, a masked Hamas militant is firing a rocket.
In the following scene the naive reporter is filming in front of a tunnel, dubbing it, “Gaza’s underground city, a fascinating attempt by Hamas to build a subway system.”
Next, the journalist is back above ground praising Gaza’s “liberal and pluralistic” society while another masked Hamas member bags and abducts a cartoon Gay Palestinian (he has a rainbow flag) in a sleeveless shirt who is selling fruit.
“Open your eyes about Gaza,” produced by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But the foreign journalists misses everything. “Wait, just a minute,” interrupts a female character, passing the reporter a pair of glasses. Voila! With the special eye-wear the journalist can “see the reality of life under Hamas rule.” Overcome, the reporter has a heart attack and keels over.
The video, produced in English, comes amid renewed focus on the 2014 summer war between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations is set to release a report outlining war crimes in the next few days, which the Palestinian Authority has said it will include in their dossier of charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court. Israel published its own lengthy legal inquiry absolving itself of misconduct under international law during the war on Sunday. A link to that report is on the government website to the right of the cartoon.
Over the past year Israel’s foreign ministry has produced similar cartoon videos about the summer war. The same blond-man-journalist character was also depicted as an activist in the video, “Who Occupies Gaza?” (Answer: not Israel, Hamas occupies Gaza according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). As well the same computerized narrator voice of reason was previously employed in a video called, “There Is No Israeli Siege On Gaza.”
Mentioned this on another thread. I should have known that the eagle eyes of Mondoweiss were on the case.
I watched it without sound and the stupid still burned with white heat intensity. I thought the gay guy getting kidnapped was a lovely touch but where was the honor killing?
It’s really perverse that they believe their cartoon images are more real than reality. Sick.
i started to read it yesterday and thought.. argh — why bother?
Is this cartoon defence more evidence that this is a Mickey Mouse state, or is this fighting fire with fire, and the Ministry of Defence knows it has become the laughing stock of the Western World? We know that Netanyahu has a profound belief that the diplomatic elite will be swayed by crude cartoon images of an Iranian nuclear threat, but can you imagine a serious Western state defending its fundamental values by resorting to cartoon images? Perhaps this is just the last throw of the Hasbara dice: presenting facts has failed so badly that it now needs to give free-rein to fiction, or perhaps the Hasbara budget is just so large that it cannot be spent without resorting to frivolous and grotesque outlandishness, or perhaps – more seriously – the lessons of Streicher and Goebbels have been too well learned – no matter how absurd your hypothesis just keep repeating your accusations and the gullible will believe – but the words alone “terror, tunnels, tyranny, terrorists, rockets, hatred, terror” are so easily contradicted by hundreds of dead children and thousands maimed and made homeless, so now we must have cartoon images to drive home the dreadful reality. Truly pathetic.
This is truly disgusting. Though I can’t say I’m surprised. I remember vividly during the intifada similar tactics were used to paint us as monsters and them the victims.
I find it amusing that Israel resorts to pink washing especially after it was revealed that the shin bet blackmails gay Palestinians into becoming collaborators. I’m on my phone so I can’t link but there were a couple of articles about a special Israeli unit that specializes in electronic espionage and blackmail.
A country which spends billions sending out a whitewashed, cartoon image of itself tells us to ‘open our eyes’? I went to Israel and my eyes were opened – indeed it is nothing like the cartoon videos they produce. As a piece of self-revealing childish attempt at satire this is beyond parody. Look in the mirror, foreign ministry.