Denial

Note - the following post is a response to a LinkedIn exchange I recently had with a woman who was a trainee at the Wordsworth Trust with me in 2013, and who now works as a nurse, after she reposted the following message from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre denying that Israel is starving the people of Gaza:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simon-wiesenthal-center_hamas-activity-7354304202954711041-G7ah?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAWdMLIBFCkFJgREyKr_a_P31rHWGrPwYNE

How could she do it?

Does she not know that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has a long history of misrepresentation and false claims?

Does she not know that the Centre's LinkedIn page contains a host of misleading posts about the provision of food aid to Gaza?

Does she not know that it falsely accused German journalist Jakob Augenstein of anti-Semitism over columns he had written that criticised Netanyahu and his policies?

Does she not know that it has even accused Michael Blume, the former commissioner of anti-Semitism in Baden-Württenberg, of being an anti-Semite?

Does she not know that it labelled the Obama administration's abstention on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's illegal settlements as the worst anti-Semitic incident of 2016?

Does she not know that it supports Donald Trump, despite Trump's own history of anti-Semitic comments?

Does she not know that it promoted a hoax about Iran forcing minorities to wear certain clothing?

Does she not know that the Centre has been accused of having a political agenda that "includes public hate-mongering of Muslims, regular appeals to a neofascist form of Zionism, and relentless provocations to religious war in Israel/Palestine"?

Or does she not care?

Does she not care about the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza killed, burned or maimed by Israel's bombs?

Does she not care about the rampant spread of diseases in Gaza?

Does she not care about the destruction of nine out of every 10 homes?

Does she not care about the 90 per cent of Gaza's population that has been displaced?

Does she not care about the attacks on schools?

As a nurse, does she not care about the children who are being starved, or Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza's healthcare system?

Does she not care about the Palestinians being shot as they queue for food?

Does she not care about the Palestinian health workers who have been killed, imprisoned or tortured by Israel?

Does she not care about the at least three Palestinian health workers who have died in Israeli custody?

Why does she say that she is "proud" to support a state behaving like this?

Or is this all "Hamas propaganda"?

Does she not know about former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant calling Palestinians "human animals"?

Does she not know about Benjamin Netanyahu's comparison of the Palestinians to Amalek, a biblical nation that the Israelites are commanded to exterminate?

Does she not know about the true character of the current Israeli government?

Does she not know about the routine incitement to genocide made by public figures in Israel?

Does she not know that an increasing number of genocide scholars, including Israeli ones such as Omar Bartov, have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?

Does she not know that human rights organisations, including Israel's most prominent human rights groups, B'tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have come to the same conclusion?

Or are these individuals and groups "Hamas propagandists"?

She says she wants the hostages freed - so why does she support continuing a war that puts their lives in danger?

She lectures me about Palestinians who oppose Hamas - is she unaware of the Israelis who oppose Netanyahu and his far-right government, or who want an end to the war?

She tells me she has Jewish ancestry and is concerned about rising anti-Semitism - does she not consider that the assertion that all Jews must support everything Israel does fuels anti-Semitism?

How could she do it?

Wouldn't you expect a former Wordsworth Trust trainee to embrace critical thinking?

To question a post that so clearly contradicts the reality in front of our eyes?

To not fall into a misinformation bubble?

To not insult her own and everybody else's intelligence?

How could she be like this?

Like Alex Jones calling the murdered children of Sandy Hook "crisis actors"?

Like Donald Trump supporters, fuelled by his lies about the 2020 election result, violently attacking the US Capitol Building on 6th January 2021?

Like Richard Hall secretly filming survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing?

And if she can fall for misinformation, is any of us immune?