Abstract
When Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, 1 139 people died. Of these, about a third were military personnel, and Israel itself may have been responsible for some of the deaths. Hamas also took 240 hostages. These events shocked the world. A few days later, the world reeled again – this time due to the extent of Israel’s violent retaliation against Gaza.
Shock and dismay at the damage in Israel is obviously justified, but simplistic analyses of the events of October 7 that ignore context, especially when presented by an influential person, must be viewed critically. America’s President Joe Biden’s unwavering moral and military support for Israel’s attack on Gaza was sharply criticised from the outset.
After World War II, the world pledged never again to tolerate the oppression of any group of people. The USA has a specific and special responsibility in this regard. As one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the US must maintain peace, security and human rights throughout the world in order to promote peaceful solutions and prevent wars. The UN Security Council’s decisions are not only binding, but are also enforceable. However, the US, which has offered generous diplomatic, financial and military support to Israel since 1948, has used its veto right repeatedly since 1948 to ensure that Israel is not held accountable for its multiple violations of various international laws.
On December 7, 2023 Martin Griffiths, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, declared that Israel’s revenge was so severe that humanitarian assistance in southern Gaza had become impossible and that it was no longer safe anywhere in Gaza. Large parts of Gaza were already in ruins and most of the approximately 2,3 million inhabitants were without food, water, medicine and shelter from the bombs and the cold. Tens of thousands – mostly women and children – were dead or seriously injured. More than 7 000 Palestinians were missing, with an unknown number still under the rubble. Everyone in Gaza – including journalists, medics, UN employees, and aid organisations – feared for their lives. In addition, attacks by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem increased sharply. By the time the US vetoed a resolution of the UN Security Council for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the human distress in Gaza was so dire that any celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would seem hypocritical.
Although Biden has been widely criticised in the media, his views have not been directly linked to hasbara (Hebrew for explanation, but in effect Zionist propaganda). In this article the author examines, describes and explains the connection between hasbara and Biden’s statements. The corpus data consists of 13 verbatim transcribed speeches and press releases from October 7, up to and including the UN Security Council’s vote on December 12, 2023. The research is interdisciplinary, qualitative and deductive and employs an ethical perspective that respects universal values and international law.
A secular Zionist movement was founded in Europe in 1897 with the aim of establishing an exclusive Jewish state. The choice of area fell on Palestine, which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire. While the Zionist leaders were negotiating with Britain, they tried to convince the Palestinians that the relocation of European Jews to Palestine would be to their benefit. However, the mass immigration of European Jews at the beginning of the 20th century ushered in an era of displacement, violence, destruction and a loss of territory for the Palestinians. Today, Israel discriminates against all Palestinians regardless of whether they live in Israel or in Palestine. After decades of state violence, Israel’s de facto claim to Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem has become de jure. Whether Palestinians have access to food, water, electricity, fuel, hospitals, schools, courts, family and the rest of the world is in the hands of the Israeli government.
Hasbara has become an integral part of Israel’s politics since 1948. Although Israel views hasbara as a form of public diplomacy, it entails organised propaganda intended to rationalise and disguise Zionism’s imperial goals and state violence. Hasbara consists of a mixture of truths, myths, loaded terms, innuendos, rhetorical questions, falsehoods, incomplete information and other techniques to create oversimplified and distorted versions of reality. The aim is to stir emotions and underlying assumptions that influence perceptions, attitudes and behaviour. Liberal audiences in particular are targeted. The language of peace and democracy is used to create the impression of reasonableness and genuine concern for Palestinian well-being, but in reality Palestinians are being stigmatised. The overall goal is to (a) deliberately manage Israel’s image so that the state is above suspicion and (b) present Palestinians as suspect. As such, hasbara is a tool to maintain and expand international economic, socio-political, diplomatic and military support for the exclusive Jewish state.
In the corpus data Biden positioned Israel as honourable and reasonable by describing Israel as a democratic, law-abiding state that sincerely pursues peace. He expressed his admiration, loyalty and empathy for the country, as well as his willingness to provide practical help in the form of weapons. His message was clear: Israel’s integrity cannot be doubted.
The President devoted his time and attention largely to promoting Israel’s image and interests, and to condemning Hamas. While sanctioning Israel’s violence, Biden positioned the violence perpetrated by Hamas not as resistance to decades of state violence, but as terrorism and acts of pure evil and hatred to the extent that even ISIS’s actions appear more reasonable. According to Additional Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Convention on “occupation”, Palestinians are entitled to armed resistance against Israel’s decades-long occupation as long as they do not target civilians. The occupier’s extensive responsibilities towards the occupied party include, among other things, the maintenance of adequate hygiene, public health, medical care, food supplies, water and other basic human rights. The occupier may also not displace, uproot, or apply any form of collective punishment to the occupied population. One of the most powerful ways in which Biden mobilised his audiences to prioritise Jewish suffering and rights involved references to decapitated babies. The White House staff immediately issued a statement to explain that the President’s claim of acts of terrorists beheading children cannot be verified. Two months later, Biden repeated this claim of decapitated babies – still without any evidence of such events.
While anti-Semitism discriminates against Jews, Zionism discriminates against Palestinians. Both forms of discrimination may not be tolerated in any context. However, Joe Biden is a self-confessed Zionist and supporter of Jewish nationalism. He was explicit about this loyalty and mentioned it several times, even in the same words: “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.” At the same time, he made it clear that his moral compass is based on his Christianity, and that all people are created in the image of God and are therefore entitled to human dignity. With reference to Moses, Biden evoked a mythical past that insinuates that the identity of the Old Testament Jews is directly connected to Jewish Israelis and the State of Israel. Employing this problematic idea of a pure bloodline, he used the Old Testament to promote Zionism at the cost of Palestinian lives. Biden also described his long and close association with Israel, her supporters and her leaders with words such as “the intensity and the intellect and the brilliance you bring to this cause”, “the miracle of Israel”, and “hope and light for so many”. Yet his comments about Israel’s moral leadership, democracy and law-abiding nature contradict findings that the State imposes an undemocratic, discriminatory rule of apartheid with military force on Palestinians – in Israel and in the occupied territories.
In the tradition of hasbara, Biden relied on a cause-and-effect logic without complete information, without consistency, and without nuanced interpretation. US leaders’ long-standing rhetoric that casts doubt on Palestinian aspirations has helped to establish the idea of a clear enemy among the public. This facilitates prioritising the interests of one group above those of another. If the electorate is also under the impression of a murderous threat by an unreasonable aggressor, convincing them that war is necessary and appropriate becomes plausible. Biden alluded to the terrible suffering of Jews in Europe, for example, to suggest that the protection of Jews and their right to human dignity and freedom outweighs that of Palestinians. Thus he used the West’s legitimate empathy with the Holocaust to justify power abuses in Gaza. The reprehensibility of anti-Semitism formed a refrain in his speeches, especially in conversations with the nation’s Jewish electorate. Biden evoked a connection with anti-Semitism despite the fact that the Palestinians had no part in the Holocaust. He expressed only vague empathy with Palestinian casualties, without offering relief or support.
On December 12, 2023, two months after Biden had explained in detail that silence about injustice is wrong, he repeated that “silence is complicity”. On that same day the US vetoed the UN Security Council’s resolution on a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Biden remained silent about the illegal occupation of Palestine, their right to armed resistance, the catastrophic damage in Gaza, and America’s deliberate actions since 1948 to protect Israel from accountability. He also ignored the voices of non-Zionist Jews, church leaders, academics, filmmakers and many others who do not support the Israel regime. Biden’s version of reality ignored both the responsibilities of Hamas (to attack only military targets) and of Israel (to end the occupation of Palestinian territories and associated injustices, and to protect civilians and their rights).
His speeches demonstrate a mixture of techniques that assist in the manufacturing of consent, such as the use of innuendo, loaded terms, emotion, false claims, myths and selective fact. The underlying meaning of his message was that the Palestinians’ claims to freedom, security and justice are secondary to the protection of Israel, and that Israel’s war and America’s supply of weapons to Israel, despite the high number of casualties among Palestinian civilians, are justified. Biden’s words and values may sound inspiring to some, but his statements involve a distorted logic and double standards, and they disregard the asymmetry between the parties. His position clearly reflected hasbara’s core goals to normalise Israel’s power abuses and incite the stigmatisation of the Palestinians.
As Israel’s partner, protector and financier, America has the power to enforce a decision. Biden can end the carnage in Gaza; he can allow Israel to be held accountable by the UN Security Council; and he can contribute to the realisation of Palestinian self-determination. Instead of playing off groups against one another, he can help to negotiate a sustainable, just peace based on international law for all involved. By prioritising US interests over global interests he abandons his responsibilities to apply universal values and international law and to maintain international peace and security. Moreover, his interpretation of Christianity deepens this lack of moral leadership and it raises questions about his personal role in inciting injustice.
Biden’s use of propaganda to propagate a selective application of universal values also raises serious concerns about the integrity of a state with a critical responsibility for maintaining world peace and security in accordance with international law. If the selective application of universal values and international law by any country – in this case the most powerful in the world – since 1948 cannot be called to order, it is time to review the global community’s mechanisms and structures for dealing with crises related to these very issues of human rights and international peace and security. The Palestinian struggle affects everyone. The struggle is no longer only about self-determination, peace and security. It has become one of survival and the integrity of justice.
Keywords: Gaza war; hasbara; international law; Israel, Palestine; Joe Biden; propaganda; Zionism
- Hierdie artikel se fokusprent is geskep deur Karolina Grabowska en is verkry op Pexels.