Johann Soufi
Translated from French
📣 The new report by @FranceskAlbs
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2.
Francesca Albanese, you know her.
The UN Special Rapporteur on 🇵🇸, she has already documented the
"anatomy" of the genocide, its colonial dimension, the economy and the
complicities that facilitate it.
This time, she shows how truth becomes a target.
3.
The thesis of his report is simple: destroying the truth is also part
of the destruction of the people 🇵🇸.
Because the perpetrators of a genocide want to control its narrative:
eliminate witnesses, incite hatred, protect the culprits, etc.
4. @FranceskAlbs identifies three practices that reinforce each other and facilitate genocide.
1️⃣. The elimination of journalists 🇵🇸.
2️⃣. Censorship and propaganda 🇮🇱.
3️⃣. The relaying of this propaganda in Western media and online. 📺📱
5.
1️⃣. ELIMINATE THE WITNESSES
Gaza is the deadliest conflict ever recorded for journalists.
An Israeli soldier, quoted in the report, assumes: "If someone writes an
article or works on a laptop, it's as if they were carrying a
Kalashnikov."
6.
These attacks did not begin in October 2023.
More than 20 Palestinian journalists had already been killed beforehand.
The assassination of the journalist 🇵🇸/🇺🇸 Shireen Abu Akleh, in
2022, foreshadowed, for example, the violence and impunity that we know
today.
7. F. Albanese recalls the figures.
✔️ Nearly 300 journalists killed, including about 70 killed in retaliation for their professional activity
✔️ More than 400 injured
With, sometimes, "double-tap" strikes to kill the journalists and rescuers who rush to the scene.
8.
Israel justifies these strikes, labeling these journalists as
"combatants." A legitimization unit would even have been set up as early
as 2023.
⚖️: a journalist remains a civilian. It is up to the attacker to prove
that he was participating in the hostilities.
👉 ihl-databases.icrc.org/fr/customary-i
9.
For Albanese, Israel inverts the rule: journalists killed are labeled
"terrorists" or "Hamas agents," without disclosed evidence, often right
after their death.
Behind it, the intent to persecute an entire sector: more than 150
journalists' homes destroyed.
10. Families too are threatened, sometimes targeted.
Wael Al-Dahdouh (@AJEnglish) lost his wife, two children, his grandson, then his eldest son, a journalist.
"I knew I was being targeted, but I never would have thought they would go after my family."
11. More than 100 journalists arrested, around thirty still detained.
Beatings, sometimes rapes. @FranceskAlbs reports
what would have been said to one of them: "If you write something,
[...] we will assassinate you, your wife and your children, in your
bedroom."
12. Attacks against journalists are not enough; the tools must also be destroyed.
From October 7, 2023, the Tower that housed seven media outlets is destroyed.
Then the telecommunications, up to an almost total blackout. Without a network, nothing more can be verified or broadcast.
13. 2️⃣. CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE.
Regarding information, Netanyahu speaks of a “battle for the truth.”
In Israel, military censorship has hardened: prior authorization required for any “security”-related subject.
Independent media are sanctioned, @haaretzcom at the forefront.
14.
Since October 2023, foreign press has, in fact, been banned in Gaza,
except when integrated into the army or on organized visits. @AJEnglish is banned from Israel.
And meanwhile, Israel pays for campaigns on X and YouTube to reach Western audiences.
15. Worse: some media 🇮🇱 incite to genocide.
Palestinians are called "Amalek," "cancer," or "cannibals" who "must be eradicated." "There are no innocents" in Gaza.
🗣️ Direct and public incitement to genocide is a crime.
16. 3️⃣. WESTERN MEDIA. And us? 📺📻📰 @FranceskAlbs received 62 contributions analyzing Western media, including in France.
No French media outlet 🇫🇷 is cited in his report.
💡But for each practice that follows, ask yourself: Have I seen it in France?
17. First, the vocabulary. 🤐
Internal guidelines from @nytimes have leaked: caution with the terms "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," "occupied territory."
"Palestine" to be used only "in very rare cases."
18. Albanese then denounces the fake news and accusations 🇮🇱 relayed without verification by these media outlets.
The "beheaded babies," the Hamas HQ under the hospitals, @UNRWA infiltrated: accusations relayed without any verification.
The corrections, far fewer…
19. Another example?
The expression: “Human shields.”
176 times in the NYT, 81 times at the BBC.
How many on @LCI or @BFMTV?
It's one of the main 🇮🇱 rhetorical devices, including before the @CIJ_ICJ, to justify its indiscriminate attacks.
20. The work of the UN, the ICJ, the @CourPenaleInt?
Underreported, attacked, or presented as "controversial."
More than 100 times, @BBC presenters have dismissed the accusation of genocide, without citing the genocidal statements of Israeli leaders.
21.
When the facts are undeniable, they erase the author, minimize the
crime.
According to the study cited in the report, Israel's responsibility is
omitted or minimized in 83% of the BBC's relevant headlines. “Hind
Rajab, 6 years old, found dead in Gaza.”
Found dead…
22. F. Albanese also speaks of an "unequal distribution of empathy."
The word "barbarian" is almost always reserved for violence against Israelis.
Count how many times you've heard it in France, and about whom.
23. Finally, the platforms.
At Meta, X, and Google: posts deleted, accounts suspended, "shadow banning." (This thread will probably be too 🤐)
Palestinian voices are disappearing.
The official Israeli narrative is amplified.
24. F. Albanese has a word to describe this entire process: "mediacide."
A genocide does not destroy only human beings. It also destroys the evidence that makes this destruction visible.
Without witnesses, impunity becomes easier.
25. F. Albanese calls on the media to "stop whitewashing propaganda by giving it a journalistic form."
Because "justice depends on the survival of the evidence elements."
Gaza's journalists have done their part, at the cost of their lives.
The French media, have they?
26. The full report (in English and French) is available on the United Nations website. 🇺🇳
🔗 documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/
