Does Gaza have sufficient connectivity for its population to have a real news source?
I’ve also read in the past that Al Jazeera is a rather popular media outlet among Palestinians in Gaza.
> Pan-Arab satellite TVs, especially Qatar's Al-Jazeera, are popular. [1]
I know that Shireen Abu Akleh—an Al Jazeera journalist murdered by IDF in 2022—was a superstar among Palestinians, including Palestinans in Gaza.
I have never previously had such a comment on HN in the last 16 years.
I think they have more pressing matters on their mind than getting informed at the moment, such as trying not to starve, finding dead relatives in the rubble of destroyed apartments, and similar things.
Moreover, I think the people of Palestine might be a bit biased against Israel. And I don't think that's an information issue, I think it's a completely natural response to Israel killing tens of thousands of civilian, 70% of whom women and children.
I think if you ask Ukrainian civilians what they think of Russians you'll hear some falsehoods and unreasonable stuff too. That's a completely natural response, and the Ukrainian media is not to be blamed for that.
If that's true, it makes sense to ask whether Al Jazeera has been purposely feeding misinformation to the Palestinian population during the war. And it makes sense to ask if that is in any way related by Al Jazeera's funding by Qatar, where the leaders of Hamas live: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/qatar-hamas-israel-1.699941...
Thank you for sharing this here.
I know some Palestinians, and yes, they seem extremely misinformed, clueless about what Hamas did.
I was surprised after October 7 when they seemed to have had no idea about what had happened. They apparently only knew that IDF had started bombing. I might even guessed 95% instead of 90% "believe that Hams did not ...".
Al Jazeera lies by omission -- by not mentioning what Hamas did, and, if it does, then downplaying the numbers.
The Israeli newspapers lie by omission, too: they don't let their readers know how many civilians Netanyahu and IDF has killed in Gaza. Al Jazeera and right wing Israeli newspapers manipulate the Palestinians and Israelis, respectively.
> ask whether Al Jazeera has been purposely feeding misinformation to the Palestinian population during the war
Of course they do
The reason for asking is because a poll[0] of Palestinians says “90% believe that Hamas did not commit any atrocities against Israel civilians during its October the 7th offensive. Only one in five Palestinians has seen videos showing atrocities committed by Hamas.”
So is it Al Jazeera’s fault that Palestinians have not seen the evidence and seem not to think 10/7 was all that problematic? One assumes that if such deliberate distortion/omission was normal practice at Al Jazeera, Israel would be able to clearly point to it. But the justification for the ban is a pretty vague concern about national security.
[0] https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/969