The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement this week denying Hamas’s involvement in the horrific events at the Re’im Nova music festival, where 360 people were murdered in a brutal massacre on October 7.
Despite ample evidence, including numerous videos from dash cameras and security cameras, showcasing the brutality of the Hamas massacre, the PA chose to propagate a conspiracy theory blaming the IDF for the killings.
This decision to spread misinformation is particularly troubling given the extensive evidence available, including a recently released video from Kibbutz Alumim security cameras capturing Hamas members executing two women.
Tracing back fake news
The origins of this conspiracy can be traced back to a sentence in a Haaretz article, suggesting that an IDF helicopter might have inadvertently hit civilians while targeting terrorists. Although the police denied this report, noting that the helicopter arrived hours after the massacre had started, conspiracy theorists from both the far Right and the hard Left, fueled by anti-Israel sentiments, seized on it and have been propagating a distorted version on social media.
The PA amplified this dangerous narrative, and even though they later deleted the related tweet, the damage had already been done, highlighting the Authority’s propensity to endorse hatred, conspiracies, and misinformation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the Palestinian Authority’s “utterly preposterous” statement, emphasizing its complete reversal of the truth. Netanyahu reminded the public that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has a history of denying the Holocaust.
“My goal is that the day after we destroy Hamas, any future civil administration in Gaza does not deny the massacre, does not educate its children to become terrorists, does not pay for terrorists, and does not tell its children that their ultimate goal in life is to see the destruction and dissolution of the State of Israel. That’s not acceptable and that is not the way to achieve peace,” Netanyahu said.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid joined the condemnation, as well, labeling the Authority’s statement as false and “abominable.”
“Those who deny the massacre make themselves complicit in the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Lapid said.
The spread of lies
This incident is not an isolated one. The PA has a track record of embracing lies about Israel and Jews, as demonstrated by the recent cancellation of a meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and US President Joe Biden over false, Hamas-generated claims that an Israeli airstrike hit Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds.
In reality, terrorists affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad hit the hospital’s parking lot with one of their rockets during a barrage targeting cities and towns in Israel, killing several dozen Palestinians.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi has made a habit of spreading conspiracy theories and lies. In January 2020, for instance, Ashrawi tweeted about the death of a Palestinian boy, who, she claimed, had been kidnapped by Israelis. “The heart just shatters,” Ashrawi said. US Member of Congress Rashida Tlaib retweeted the claim.
The boy, however, had actually drowned by accident.
In 2022, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh propagated completely unfounded conspiracies about Israel experimenting on the bodies of dead Palestinian terrorists. He has also spread other conspiracies about Israel and the Jewish people in the past.
This pattern of outrageous, hateful behavior raises serious questions about the PA’s credibility and its suitability to run Gaza after the defeat of Hamas. The Palestinian people deserve a future free from the grip of Hamas and the poisonous influence of hatred and conspiracy theories spread by both Hamas and the PA.
It is long past time for the PA to reassess its direction, abandon the propagation of falsehoods, and work toward a future of peace and stability for its people.