Propaganda Used to Justify Genocide in Palestine
Outdated labels and narratives as weapons
As of this writing, over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. As many as 67% of them were women and children. According to UNRWA, there were 26,475 injuries, and 2,450 missing people, 1,350 of whom were children.
The large number proved that this was not a war, but a massacre. Unfortunately, Western media frequently use outdated portrayals, often with labels of anti-Semitism, terrorists, and who started the war on October 7th, 2023.
The outdated labels are irrelevant and have not even been proven to be true. Where did exactly the anti-Semitism and terrorist acts exist? When all this time Palestinians have been struggling to survive amidst the bombardment, pressure, and cruelty they received from Israel since 1948?
Isn't the actual situation the opposite of those labels?
Israelis are anti-Palestinian and have taken over the Palestinian homeland and killed its indigenous people. Aren’t they the ones who should be called terrorists? Israel started it all, not on October 7th, 2023, but since 1948. Since then, Palestinians have been living in open-air prisons in their own country.
The influencer narratives that state neutrality but actually lead us to justify Israel for the massacres it has committed are also worth mentioning. The narrative of tolerance between religious communities is echoed, when the situation is not about religion, but about thousands of people who have been slaughtered.
They are unarmed people, children, the elderly, the disabled, and the injured who need life support in hospitals. Those who survived were forced to leave with their hands up and waved white flags, passing by Israelis who bombing people along the path.
The question is how could they stand with genocide?
The colonization in Palestine is familiar to Indonesians because Indonesia has experienced it. Our fighters were labeled as rebels, radicals, and terrorists by the colonizer for their fight for independence and humanity. Until Indonesia’s independence was finally declared on August 17, 1945.
Following its independence in 1945, Indonesia stated that independence is the right of all nations and colonization over the world must be eliminated.
So, as has been shouted throughout the world: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
