Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
White House Thoroughly Denounces Columbia University Protests: 'Blatantly Antisemitic, Unconscionable, and Dangerous'
President Joe Biden’s White House denounced Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests as “blatantly anti-Semitic and dangerous.”
Over the last week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered to demand an end to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The student protesters set up what they called a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and included tents, signs, and more. The actions have led to hundreds of activists being arrested, including the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The White House on Sunday issued a statement condemning the protests after videos on social media captured demonstrators praising Hamas and denouncing the Israeli government.
“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” said White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.
https://www.mediaite.com/biden/white-house-thoroughly-denounces-columbia-university-protests-blatantly-antisemitic-unconscionable-and-dangerous/
64 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
On October 10, official Israeli accounts relayed a sordid but unfounded allegation. Six months later, it continues to circulate, fueling accusations of Israeli disinformation.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/04/03/40-beheaded-babies-the-itinerary-of-a-rumor-at-the-heart-of-the-information-battle-between-israel-and-hamas_6667274_8.html
https://archive.ph/7qHAS
Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which claimed around 1,160 victims, images of the massacre flooded social media and news outlets around the world. But amidst this flood of accounts of murder, looting and mutilation, one rumor took on extraordinary proportions: 40 decapitated babies were allegedly found in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, one of the communities most impacted by the attack. This story, and its variants, went viral like never before, going as far as being mentioned by the White House. However, in the horror of this massacre, in which 38 minors including two infants were killed, there were never 40 decapitated babies. Not in Kfar Aza nor in any other kibbutz, the Israeli government press office confirmed to Le Monde. How did this false information come about? Can it be compared to the Kuwait incubator affair, a fabricated tale of kidnapped and massacred babies that was partly used to justify the first Gulf War? Le Monde's investigation sheds light on a rumor born organically, out of a mixture of emotion, confusion and macabre exaggeration. Israel has done nothing to fight it and has more often tried to instrumentalize it than deny it, fueling accusations of media manipulation.
Three days after the Hamas attack, the army invited dozens of foreign journalists and correspondents, including Le Monde, to Kfar Aza, where Hamas terrorists killed more than 60 civilians. Richard Hecht, Israel's top army spokesman and co-organizer of the visit, wanted to "show the international press that what happened here is unprecedented." The territory had only been recaptured by the army a few hours ago, and corpses were still everywhere: Israeli victims wrapped in body bags, Hamas fighters lying where they fell and a pervasive smell of death, testified a dozen journalists, rescue workers and soldiers interviewed by Le Monde. Itai Veruv, the general who led the counter-attack, drew many parallels with the death camps. He mentioned a provisional death toll of between 100 and 150. Funeral ceremonies were sometimes held in full view of the cameras. Some reporters confided to Le Monde a feeling of unease at the dramatization of the massacre site. Because of the risk of explosive booby traps, journalists could only enter a few houses. The only Israeli corpses they saw were in body bags, all adult-sized. On the ground, according to the journalists present, the general staff made no mention of dead babies. But reporters were free to question the soldiers and first-aid workers present, whose accounts were murkier and disturbing.
On the scene were rescue workers from ZAKA, an ultra-Orthodox non-governmental organization (NGO) responsible for recovering bodies in accordance with Jewish practices. They were also present in the morning at another kibbutz, Be'eri, where photographer Tomer Peretz described "body parts all over, babies, kids," and took a widely-shared photo of a bloodied cradle, which fueled confusion among some journalists, who used it to talk about Kfar Aza. In ravaged homes, ZAKA volunteers discovered bodies rendered unrecognizable by projectiles, explosions and fire. Lacking medical training, some misunderstood the identity or age of the victims. A first-aid provider referred to a family of five shot dead but mistook the mother for a grandmother and the two teenagers for children. Others claimed to the press that a pregnant woman was disemboweled and her fetus stabbed, which was never the case, as confirmed to Le Monde by Nachman Dyksztejn, ZAKA's French-speaking volunteer. In a report on the sexual violence committed on October 7, the United Nations Organization underlined the "challenge" represented by "inaccurate and unreliable forensic interpretations by some non-professionals." These approximations were not always deliberate. "The rescue workers saw so many dead bodies, corpses of women and children, body parts, maybe they said things they imagined," Nachman Dyksztejn explained today. But in the moment, the NGO's spokespeople went into macabre overdrive. Speaking to various media, Yossi Landau, its founder, claimed to have seen with his own eyes children and babies who had been decapitated. The Israeli daily Haaretz later revealed that the organization, in precarious financial health, had tried to take advantage of the tragedy to garner donations.
Journalists also interviewed military personnel on site, often reserve soldiers, whose reliability is questionable. One of them mentioned children hanging from a clothesline, an unfounded rumor that circulates among the civilian survivors of Kfar Aza, worried about the fate of a 4-year-old girl, Avigail Idan. She had in fact been taken hostage by Hamas and was freed since. The Israeli Defense Forces, whose staff itself has not always shown caution or restraint in the 40 babies case, reminded later that a reserve soldier "should not describe events whose details are unclear and unofficial." Some accounts were inconsistent. According to Mael Benoliel, special correspondent for the French-language edition of the Israeli international TV channel i24News, the figure of 40 dead children in Kfar Aza came from Michael Levy, a French-speaking reservist doctor, who categorically denies this. Interviewed by Le Monde, Levy did, however, certify having seen a baby or very young child beheaded in Kfar Aza. This allegation was absent from his on-camera testimony and contradicts the official death count to date, according to which the youngest victim at the kibbutz, Yiftach Kutz, was 14 years old. Fabrication? Confusion? False memory? Some soldiers had "glassy eyes" after three days of fighting, recalled Mael Benoliel. Several witnesses interviewed by Le Monde gave accounts incompatible with the consolidated death count. "Vividness of a memory does not necessarily confirm its authenticity," pointed out Richard McNally, Harvard professor of psychology and a specialist in the memory of traumatic events. "Sometimes errors can occur in the 'fog of war' especially in exhausting, confusing and terrifying circumstances."
snip
Le Monde is considered one of the French newspapers of record, along with Libération and Le Figaro. A Reuters Institute poll in 2021 found that Le Monde is the most trusted French newspaper.
The protests at Columbia were not peaceful. They were full of "calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous".
How could anyone get a" small percentage" out of that?
TY for Clarifying the Reality.
Trump's republicans who also agree with Hamas about killing more Jews.
Do you denounce?
Yes!
How much do you denounce?
I thoroughly denounce!
