August 19, 2025 – Dr. Susanna Kokkonen
The US Ambassador in Israel Mike Huckabee recently said the following:
“The Arab countries have demanded that Hamas surrender. The West is demanding that Israel must stop.”
This paradox captures a popular international view on the conflict. This is a view that is surprisingly benign on Hamas.
The situation is extraordinarily complex. What we need to recall is that it was the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that started this situation, and it is Hamas that is continuing this situation by holding the Israeli hostages and by not agreeing to leave the Gaza Strip.
International media -at this point- barely mentions Israeli hostages and their terrible treatment by Hamas.
Media
There is a war going on in the world media, and it is fought with images and slogans. From the beginning of this conflict the United Nations (UN) and the world media have received their information from Hamas. This is a problem because it has completely shaped the current narrative. A German newspaper proved that a Gaza photographer staged photos of starvation. Some of the children shown starving in the photos are in fact sick with genetic diseases or the photos come from a different conflict.
The oldest anti-Jewish accusation that survives is what we call the Blood Libel. This is the accusation that Jews kill non-Jewish children, and it exists in many different forms. The current use of false images of children as victims is the same type of accusation.
Hamas intimidates journalists and controls the narrative. An Associated Press (AP) journalist recently admitted that he erased for instance the fact that Hamas fighters dressed as civilians. The meaning of this is frightening. AP is a respected press agency, widely used around the world. But since 2008, AP is complying with Hamas’ demands. This means that the international press is complicit in spreading Hamas’s message.
The media raises a terrible outcry each time a journalist or photographer is -tragically-wounded or dies. But the truth of the matter is that some of these people were acting for Hamas. The media simply ignores this.
Why are there no protests taking place against Hamas? In fact the only protests that have taken place against Hamas have taken place in the Gaza Strip.
Genocide Accusation
There is a UN definition of genocide and by and large this definition is also a legal definition. A Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, having lost his family in the Holocaust, fought for years to have crimes such as the Holocaust recognized and potentially prosecuted as an international crime. UN General Assembly approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948.
This definition is not that of a war. There needs to be a clear intent to destroy an entire ethnic, religious, racial, or other clearly identifiable group. The other extremely important thing is that a genocide accusation needs to be established in a court of law. If someone/a country expresses intent to commit a genocide, prosecution must prove that they have the power and capacity to do so.
It is extremely troubling that media, politicians, and the public use the accusation of genocide against Israel as a fact. Israel has superior military capacities, but they have protected civilians. Colonel Richard Kemp, the Commander of the British forces in Afghanistan stated that the rate of civilians dying against each terrorist (that was killed) was lower in Gaza than it was for example in Afghanistan.
Starvation
The media is speaking about “man-made starvation.” The media accuses Israel of a siege causing malnutrition and starvation. In a war-torn area food insecurity is nearly always a consequence. But here there are factors that need to be considered.
There are trucks that would be allowed into Gaza, but the UN has not been delivering. The UN has refused to participate and deliver aid that the United States and Israel have agreed to provide. This is part of the UN refusal to cooperate with alternative aid mechanisms.
Hamas is also hijacking food. Hamas keeps food in its own warehouses, and it is not delivered. There are armed gangs stealing food. Hamas’ most important leaders are staying abroad and having no concern for the population in Gaza. A Gazan woman said publicly: “There is no food because Hamas took all the aid to their tunnels.” There is videographic evidence to back up her words. The UN now admitted that just in the month of July 2025 around 90% of its aid was looted before reaching its destination.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Huckabee recently visited Gaza to observe aid distribution sites. Clearly, one reason was that Hamas’ vast disinformation is making it difficult to know what the situation is really like.
Much of the world puts pressure on Israel. The question we need to ask is why can these actors not put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and leave Gaza? This would end the conflict and all its tragic consequences.
Whilst the Holocaust Remembrance Association deplores all loss of human life, we strongly condemn the lies, exaggerations, and false portrayals of Israel in the media. We suggest that some media outlets spread a type of blood libel by using false photography.
At the same time, the media ignores vital facts. We demand that the media report all the facts.
We would like to suggest that the situation is extremely complex, and headlines cannot do justice to what is happening in Gaza. We urge everyone to verify the information they encounter before sharing.
It is time to say Never Again!
The Holocaust Remembrance Association exists to remember, reconcile, and take a stand against antisemitism in all its forms.
