Journalist Mehdi Hasan's 'Debunked' series exposes seven lies by Israel regarding Gaza
Renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan has launched a groundbreaking video series titled 'Debunked' on Zeteo, which began with a video dissecting what he asserts are seven misleading narratives propagated by Israel concerning Gaza.
Hasan, taking to his social media platform, expressed the necessity of exposing these "dangerous lies" that have, according to him, been overlooked by mainstream media.
Hasan wrote, “we must call out those dangerous lies even if others in our media won’t”. He said his new video series is devoted to “debunking the top seven lies about Gaza & October 7th”.
1. Alleged Ceasefire Breach:
Hasan begins by challenging the assertion that Hamas broke an existing ceasefire on October 7th, a claim repeatedly made by Israel. Contradicting Israeli leaders, Hasan cites news articles from the AP news agency that reported Israeli airstrikes in Gaza two weeks before the October 7th attack, suggesting ongoing hostilities.
The article was published two weeks before the October 7th attack, said Hasan. Another news article said Gaza Strip protesters received bullet wounds to ankles. Another article read, “even before Hamas’ attack on October 7, Israeli forces had already killed 234 Palestinians in the West Bank this year (2023), while settlers were responsible for nine more killings”. Hasan mocked that even if there was a ceasefire before the October 7th attack, “nobody told Israeli military” about it.
2. Hostage Priority:
Another lie, as per Hasan, involves the prioritization of freeing hostages. While U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized it as the "highest priority," Israel's finance minister reportedly stated that destroying Hamas took precedence over hostage retrieval. Hasan alleges that Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths of Israeli hostages, challenging the narrative of a successful rescue operation.
Hasan said, “wittingly or unwittingly, Israeli military has killed more Israeli hostages than its soldiers have rescued”. He cited the report of an Israeli journalist’s tweet which shared an Israeli website. The website said, 10 Israeli hostages were killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. It said the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had intel on some of the hostages were residing in buildings that were targeted by them. According to Hasan, IDF “killed their own citizens and then lied and said they died in Hamas captivity”.
3. The 40 Beheaded Babies Claim:
Addressing what Hasan terms the most emotive and offensive lie, he tackles the widely circulated claim of 40 beheaded babies during Hamas' October 7th attack. Hasan dismisses this as a cynical and repulsive fabrication, citing evidence that disproves the existence of such an atrocity.
Hasan called the story of 40 beheaded babies as a “cynical, reckless and repulsive lie” that was used to justify the killing of hundreds of Palestinian babies.
4. IDF Claim on Al Shifa Hospital:
Israel's assertion that Hamas had a headquarters under the Al Shifa hospital is the fourth lie debunked by Hasan. He argues that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) failed to provide concrete evidence and relied on vague details, such as a pair of cots in an unused room, to support their claim.
Washington Post also reported about IDF failing to produce immediate evidence of Hamas using the hospital for military use and as a “command and control centre”.
5. Reliability of Gaza Health Ministry's Numbers:
Hasan touches upon the Israeli government's reluctance to trust casualty figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry. He emphasizes the contradictory stance, noting that the IDF accepts the Health Ministry's figures as reliable. He also highlighted The Lancet's support, stating there is no inflated mortality reporting from Gaza.
6. Denial of Hunger in Gaza:
Challenging the Israeli defense official's claim that there is no hunger in Gaza, Hasan refers to the World Food Programme's statement that four out of the world's five hungriest people are in Gaza. He disputed the narrative by pointing out the dire humanitarian situation leading to deaths, including among infants, due to starvation.
7. Gazans Electing Hamas:
The final lie addressed by Hasan is the assertion that Gazans getting killed today chose Hamas through elections. He rebuts this claim as a 'Bin Laden-ist logic,' stating it implies a right to kill based on political choices. Hasan argued that many Gazans, especially the younger population, did not participate in the last election nearly two decades ago.
Hasan said the claim of Gazans elected Hamas is “just a lie”. To pove his point, he pointed out that half of the Gaza’s population are under 18, and most of them weren’t even born during the time when the last election in Gaza took place, which is nearly two decades ago. He also pointed that the in the 2006 legislative election, Hamas did not win the majority of the vote cast.
"We must call out those dangerous lies even if others in our media won't"
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 5, 2024
My new video series 'Debunked!' just launched for @zeteo_news. The first episode is devoted to debunking the top seven lies about Gaza & October 7th.
(Oh & do pls subscribe here: https://t.co/Nj0IOnvnyk) pic.twitter.com/D7PiCJWTkk
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
