During a meeting with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on November 27, Elon Musk said that what shocked him the most in the short film he was shown during his visit to Israel, specifically to the Gaza envelope kibbutzim targeted during the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, was “the visible joy on the faces of those who were killing innocent civilians, including children, infants, and unarmed people in general." He added that Israel, unlike Hamas, tries to avoid killing civilians and does not express joy when they are killed.
Misbar could not review the short film in order to check the scenes it contains, but found Musk’s remarks to be misleading and dismissive of a lot of evidence on Israel targeting civilians and its soldiers and civilians celebrating the killing of Palestinians.
Israel Deliberately Kills Civilians
On November 20, Amnesty International announced documenting two cases that they “can be considered an example of Israeli practices in Gaza, in which Israeli raids killed 46 civilians, including 20 children.”
The organization’s report explains that the two incidents occurred on October 19 and 20, and that the first bombing targeted a church building housing hundreds of displaced civilians, while the second bombing targeted a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located south of Wadi Gaza, the “safe” area that Israel called civilians to flee to since October 13.
Amnesty's investigation concluded that the two raids "either did not differentiate between combatants and civilians or directly targeted civilians or notable figures within the city." They have called for theses incidents to be investigated as war crimes.
48 hours after Musk and Netanyahu met, Israel killed two Palestinian children using live bullets in the Jenin camp in the West Bank. A surveillance camera recording captured the moment when the occupation forces fired on the two children, Adam Al-Ghoul (8 years old) and Basil Abu Al-Wafa (14 years old). The director of the Jenin hospital, where the bodies were taken, confirmed that their injuries to the head and chest confirmed that they were killed intentionally, while a relative of the child, Basil Abu Al-Wafa, said that the victim had no connection to the resistance.
It should be noted that, since October 7, Israel has targeted hospitals, schools, places of worship, and residential buildings, including those located in the south of the Gaza strip, which it has completely besieged since October 9. The strip was cut off from essential supplies like electricity, gas, fuel, water, food, and medicine. Moreover, Israel disrupted the entry of the initial aid shipments by bombing the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. This action put civilians at risk and resulted in the deaths of dozens of wounded individuals in hospitals that had lost power.
Israelis Celebrate Killing Palestinians
Contrary to Musk's statement, a video recently circulated shows an Israeli soldier gifting a house bombing in Gaza to his daughter for her second birthday.
Another video, published by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, shows three Israeli soldiers celebrating after one of them injured a Palestinian civilian with a gunshot in the West Bank.
In December 2017, an Israeli sniper shot an unarmed Palestinian civilian near the security fence separating Gaza and the envelope settlements, hitting him in the head. Following the video's circulation, which documented the operation and captured Israeli soldiers laughing and celebrating the fatal shot, the Israeli army announced an investigation into the incident.
Responding to the criticism aimed at Israel following the video's dissemination, the then Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, remarked that the soldier who fired the shots "deserves a medal."
One of the most famous images of Israelis celebrating the killing of Palestinians was reported in 2014 by Alan Sorensen, a Danish journalist, from the Sderot settlement during the Israeli aggression on Gaza. Dozens of Israelis gathered and applauded the occupation army as it dropped bombs on Palestinians in Gaza.
Unsubstantiated Rape Claims
During the meeting, Netanyahu claimed that an Israeli woman had been tied to a tree and raped several times, during the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in the envelope settlements. However, Misbar searched for the origin of the claim and did not find Hebrew or independent media reports referring it or confirming its authenticity. But a lengthy report published by The Washington Post, on November 25, it was mentioned that it is still uncertain whether any Israeli woman, who was a victim of the October 7 events, had reported to the authorities that she had been raped. By reviewing the report, it becomes clear that all of the rape accounts circulating were collected from secondary sources, with the exception of one account given by an eyewitness whose identity was not revealed by Israel.
Evidence Suggests Israel Bombed Displaced Civilians
Benjamin Netanyahu repeated Israel's accusations of Hamas targeting displaced Palestinians from the north to the south of Gaza without providing any evidence to prove this. However, satellite images and the type of injuries suffered by displaced people who were killed on the Al-Rashid coastal street, for example, suggested that Israel was responsible for the attack that shredded their bodies while they were walking towards the south in early November.
Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Second Class Citizens
Netanyahu bragged to Musk about what he called “deradicalization” within Israel, explaining that Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel had integrated into Israeli society and attained prominent positions in politics and the judiciary.
However, a recent report published by the French newspaper Le Monde indicated that Palestinians inside Israel, even though they are Israeli citizens on paper, face discrimination, especially when trying to find housing or work. This issue was acknowledged by the Israeli Supreme Court itself in 2020. Arabs also represent only 8 percent of the seats in Parliament, even though they constitute 20 percent of Israel's population.
The “Common Destiny” Trick
During his conversation with Musk, Netanyahu used a familiar Israeli propaganda pattern, based on linking the fate of Israel with the fate of the West and the United States in particular.
He referred to a statement by a political official in the Hamas movement, stating, "It will do this again and again.” Netanyahu added, “But they will not only do it against Israel, but it will spread quickly across the Middle East and will put the entire region in danger, after which it will move to Europe and then to another place, to America, which they call the Great Satan, while we are considered nothing more than the Lesser Satan.”
“This is an Iranian axis. Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas, they are all part of that axis that is hostile to Israel, the United States of America, free and democratic civilization, and the modern Arab countries. We are all on one side and they are on the other side," he added.
While criticizing those demonstrations in support of Palestine around the world, Netanyahu said, “They hate Israel, and they hate Israel because they hate America.”
This propaganda method aims to persuade the West and the United States to continue providing support to Israel in its war on Gaza, by portraying Israel’s national security as an extension of American and Western national security, and portraying the Hamas movement as a “common enemy whose ambitions exceed the geographical borders of the State of Palestine.”
Using Historical Events
Netanyahu used historical events familiar to Musk and the Americans in his description of the events of October 7. He claimed that it was "relatively 20 times [worse than] what happened on 9/11 in the United States." The Israeli propaganda machine claimed that number by comparing the number of victims in the two countries with the total population, despite the fact that the number of victims of the September 11 events was two and a half times bigger than the number of those killed in the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in the settlements surrounding Gaza.
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