May 14, 2015
The Latest “Breaking the Silence” Report Isn’t Journalism. It’s Propaganda.
By Matti FriedmanThe Israeli NGO won international attention last week for claiming to expose IDF malfeasance in Gaza. It exposed something else.
Last week, a report by an Israeli group called Breaking the Silence made headlines in the U.S., Britain, and most of Europe, becoming one of the week’s biggest international stories. The subject was the Gaza war of 2014. The headline in the Washington Post was representative:
New report details how Israeli soldiers killed civilians in Gaza: “There were no rules.”
This report is worth dwelling on because there will be more rounds of fighting in Gaza, and more reports like this one, and more reporting of this kind—and because, for all observers of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, it is important to understand the sources of information that shape our thinking.