The Hasbara – The Israeli Propaganda – Is Not Working

Rasa - Palestinians are calling next Friday protests the 'Day of Tires' after Israel’s bloody crackdown on Land Day protests in the Gaza Strip brought the overall death toll to 18. Thousands of others were wounded in the course of the peaceful rallies.

News ID: 437100

Date: 04 April 2018 - 21:47

RNA - That the Israeli troops who killed the peaceful Palestinian protesters have not been charged is by no means the end of this fight for the right to return to occupied Palestine. This is not just a PR nightmare as some would like to call. Israeli troops shooting unarmed protesters was not lawful self-defense, and the besieged people in Gaza are not walking away from this issue, either. Palestinians have every right to continue to indicate that Friday was the first of what is intended to be six weeks of protests, with the next marches planned for next Friday - tentatively called the “Day of Tires”.

Sure enough, the Hasbara, the Israeli propaganda, is not working, either, because not charging the Israeli troops who cowardly killed Palestinian protesters is a travesty under International Human Rights law:

The usurper regime is free to pre-deploy snipers at the border with Gaza, intending to kill any protester who gets too close to the fence this Friday. Israeli leaders are also free to ensure their next reaction to the peaceful protesters may be even deadlier, in keeping with their silly narrative that the unarmed demonstrators are all terrorists. But they cannot spin this one. Simply put, their propaganda – the hasbara – is not working on the diplomatic and media battlefield.

Under International Law, killing unarmed protesters is not only indefensible, but unjustifiable and condemnable, that’s why the UN Security Council condemned the killings. That also says why the usual defenders in the West are all silent, while the criticism from the United Nations and the civil society is stronger than ever. The Israeli narrative is losing big time to the Palestinian narrative, not just because the propagandists in Tel Aviv were patently unprepared for this PR crisis, but that it won’t blow over just yet despite the slinging pathetic, patently-false story-lines and paranoia. Remember, the Land Day protesters will stay along the Gaza border for at least 45 days.

According to Fars News Agancy, they also make no secret of their agenda. They are out there to tell the occupiers and the world community that enough is enough; that they want to return to their motherland, which is Palestine. These mass marches on the border is a sign that the days of occupiers are numbered and that violent crackdowns won’t change the Palestinian demands for the right of all people to non-violent protest for a better future without a violent response.

Yet more evidence of the fact that Israel is getting thrashed in the international response is the fact that its supporters in Washington likewise have nothing to say about its latest atrocities, although they clearly show that as always for the usurper regime there will be no political cost to killing unarmed Palestinian protesters at least on the Capitol Hill.

Still, there is clear moral outrage at the United Nations and the arguments as to why there should be no more impunity for Israel at the Security Council. Just like many human rights groups and international aid agencies, the sound minds in the world’s biggest organization have also made it clear that Israeli soldiers cannot shoot live ammunition at unarmed Palestinian protesters and get away with it. They maintain that the usurper regime must end its human rights abuses in the occupied territories, and that no one – including those who have turned Gaza into an open prison – can be immune from international justice and accountability.

True, the Israeli leadership has reason to feel comfortable and even grant medals to its soldiers because at the United Nations, the Trump administration blocked the Security Council from issuing a statement that called for an “independent and transparent investigation” and affirmed the Palestinians’ right to peaceful protest. But that’s all really.

At a time when international response to the unjust killings has been harsh, the UN Security Council members have condemned the arrogant Israel, the Western media narrative is hardening, Israel’s staunch supporters in the West are silent and ashamed, and some are even jumping ship, this terrible situation in occupied Palestine, particularly in Gaza, is unlikely to go on like this forever. It won’t. As promised by God Almighty: For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise; I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him. I shall thoroughly plead their cause, and I shall break in pieces the oppressor.

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