by Betsy Piette, published on Workers World, July 15, 2024
On July 8, Haaretz, considered Israel’s most influential daily newspaper, published the results of its thorough, in-depth investigation into what actually took place when Hamas attacked Israeli settlements just outside of Gaza on October 7. Their long report concluded that on that date, Israel’s army employed the “Hannibal Directive” — an Israeli army policy for its military to open fire on its own soldiers to prevent them from being taken captive.
While the Electronic Intifada first reported that a survivor of the Kibbutz Be’eir made this charge on Oct. 16, the Haaretz investigation was significant in the number of military sources it interviewed who confirmed that they had direct orders to implement the Hannibal Directive.
The official purpose of Israel’s Hannibal Directive is to prevent kidnappings, even if it means taking the lives of those at risk of being kidnapped. Based on the Haaretz investigations, it appears that many of the deaths of both Israeli civilians and soldiers living in the settlements were deliberately caused by Israel’s military, which has long maintained the position that it can protect Israeli citizens. Intentionally killing both Israelis and Palestinian militants who were part of the Al-Aqsa Flood removed most witnesses to the October 7 events.
News from Israeli authorities immediately following October 7 placed all the blame for the Israeli deaths on Hamas militants, greatly exaggerating the numbers of people killed. This further inflamed anti-Palestinian sentiment and encouraged mainstream media sources to run manufactured reports that included multiple beheaded and burnt babies and later mass rapes of Israeli settlers by Hamas militants.
In October, all of the corporate media outlets repeated the “horrors” allegedly committed by Hamas, only to acknowledge later that they never happened. Beginning in December, the New York Times featured a series of stories alleging mass rapes by Hamas, only to have these stories debunked when the facts eventually came out.
U.S. politicians, especially President Joe Biden, quickly and frequently repeated Israel’s propaganda, using these lies in an effort to justify the U.S. financing of Israel’s nine-month genocidal campaign that has claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people in Gaza. Biden has yet to publicly admit his remarks were based on falsehoods told by Israeli officials. To date none of the major U.S. media sources have discussed the Hannibal Directive or debunked the reports from Israel.
U.S. media ignores Haaretz report
It is now over a week since Haaretz reported on the results of its investigations of October 7, and the U.S. media continues to maintain its collective silence. The on-line publication Mondoweiss, which reported on the Haaretz investigation on July 10, noted: “Three days later, in the New York Times: not a word. The Washington Post: nothing. CNN: nothing. National Public Radio: nada.”
Mondoweiss stressed: “Critics sometimes use the expression ‘media malpractice’ to describe the American mainstream’s failure to report accurately about Israel/Palestine. This time, though, what’s happening is even worse; it has to be deliberate self-censorship, designed to hide the truth from the U.S. audience.”
A vague reference to the study came in an article by the Associated Press that appeared in several publications, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, on July 11. It stated: “The Israeli military on Thursday acknowledged a string of errors in its response to the deadly Hamas attacks last October. 7, including slow response times and disorganization, as it released the results of its first investigation into failures during the assault that triggered the war in Gaza.”
Making no mention of the Hannibal Directive, the AP article goes on to say: “During the standoff, a tank fired at the home, raising concerns that the 13 hostages inside were killed by friendly fire. The military concluded that they were likely killed by Hamas militants, not Israeli shelling. … Investigators ‘determined that, based on the information reviewed and to the best of their understanding, no civilians inside the building were harmed by tank shell fire,’ the report said, though it said two Israeli civilians were hit by shrapnel outside the building.”
People in the U.S. are told that we have a “free press,” but the media here is owned lock, stock and barrel by greedy corporate interests. Wall Street bankers, multibillion-dollar weapons manufacturers and energy company executives control the boards of directors of every major U.S. news outlet.
Ongoing efforts to silence the truth
Israel’s leaders know they can rely on corporate media to repeat their lies and bury the truth about events on October 7 and since then in the nine-month siege of Gaza. However, they have had to work relentlessly to silence reporters and media not controlled by the imperialists.
Since October 7, Israel has launched attacks against headquarters of media institutions, including the offices of pro-Palestinian or Middle East media, such as Al Jazeera, Palestine TV, Ma’an News Agency and Al Quds and Al Ayyam newspapers. Several media have been banned from on-the-ground reporting in Gaza.
The Zionist military has target-bombed the homes of key journalists, killing dozens of their family members. The Gaza government media office placed the number of Palestinian journalists killed at 147 as of May 16, 2024.
*Featured Image: Cars destroyed by fire from Israeli helicopters outside the Nova Electronic Music Festival. (Src: The Grayzone, November 18.) Max Blumenthal has been covering this story on the Grazyzone since shortly after the events occurred, and taking a lot of heat for doing so.