Some Western media outlets claimed that 40 children were beheaded by Hamas fighters. Indian journalists also latched on to these claims and reported it with impunity
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — As Israel continues to bomb populated areas of the Gaza Strip and has issued an ultimatum to civilians to vacate the northern part of the enclave, a section of the mainstream media in India and several Hindutva protagonists have begun spreading malicious and fabricated stories vilifying Palestinian fighters.
Aditya Raj Kaul, executive editor at TV9 network, posted an unverified claim of a pregnant Israeli woman being dissected by a Hamas fighter. When he was asked about the details, he said that one of his friends from the ground told him. He also claimed to possess a photo of the incident but chose not to post it. Hours after the post, the X platform (formerly Twitter) added a community note saying that there was no proof of the incident. On the other hand, such an incident was reported against Palestinian women in 1982.
Kaul made the startling claim even though yet another misinformation was doing rounds. Some Western media outlets claimed that 40 children were beheaded by Hamas fighters. Indian journalists also latched on to these claims and reported it with impunity. Even US President Joe Biden also peddled the provocative claims but later the White House clarified that the US government had not seen any photo in this regard. Some of the Western journalists also backtracked their claims in this regard. No credible evidence has been provided by the Israeli authorities on the incident. Even then these claims were used to whip up hatred against the Muslims.
A video was posted on X claiming that Palestinians were doing makeup to fake their injuries. Fact-checkers found the video to be of a Palestinian actor who was shooting for a project in 2017.
An Indian account posted a video claiming that Hamas fighters mutilating a dead body. But the video was found to be from Mexico.
Commenting on the role of Hindutva supporters in spreading fake news, prominent fact-checker and co-founder of Alt News, Pratik Sinha, said: “With India now exporting its disinformation actors in the Indian mainstream media and on social media in support of Israel, hopefully the world will now realise how the Indian right-wing has made India the disinformation capital of the world. The disinformation originating from India that fact-checkers globally are having to contend with, Indian fact-checkers have been dealing with that every day for several years now”.
India’s mainstream media was also slammed for peddling fake news to target Palestinians.
“Shameful that many journalists (Indians included) whose job is to verify facts, were too eager to believe this fake news. There’s enough cruelty as it is, no need to add more. Western media fell for ‘Hamas beheaded the babies’. Did Indian media report it too?” tweeted prominent journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani.
Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub also expressed her disappointment at the spread of fake news by social media influencers.
“I thought I had seen the worst of fake news but the disinformation about the Israel-Palestine conflict, amplified by influencers, profiles with more than a million followers has now become the dangerous ‘truth’. Fake news is shaping the narrative about an entire population,” she posted.
