The past weeks in the Jewish world have been a mix of genuine joy and deep sorrow. After two years of Israel fighting for their release, there are no living hostages from Israel left in the hands of Hamas in Gaza.
The hope of a lasting ceasefire was momentarily shattered after two Israeli soldiers were killed on October 19, resulting in renewed airstrikes. Despite the slip-up, Israeli and Hamas officials have reaffirmed their public commitment to peace.
Unfortunately, the ceasefire deal that gained the 20 living hostages their freedom came at the price of 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences for terrorist attacks, as well as 1,700 other criminals.
The pro-Hamas media immediately began attempting to draw parallels and make it appear to be an even swap. Both The New York Times and BBC Chief Political Correspondent referred to the deal as a hostage exchange. CNN Correspondent Christiane Amanpour claimed that the Israeli hostages were "probably treated better than the average Gazan." In reality, they were sexually assaulted, electrocuted, starv
This side of the media manipulates the suffering of Israel and the Jewish people by downplaying the trauma, then gaslighting the public into believing the same happened to the Palestinian people. This is an effort to justify the atrocities that Hamas committed as reciprocal, falsely claiming that Israel did it, too.
The idea that the Palestinian prisoners were innocent hostages or even "POWS" is laughable. Writer and commentator Amelia Adams commented, "Under this definition, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were hostages."
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Here are a few examples of crimes the released prisoners committed:
- Imad Qawasmeh bombed a bus, killing 16 people.
- Qassem Aref Khalil al-Asafreh, along with his cousin, stabbed a college student.
- Ibrahim Muhammad al-Raai carried out multiple shootings.
How in any way is a Nova Music Festival massacre survivor similar to a man who blows up a bus full of civilians?
They're not. And the people behind the anti-Israel movement know it. They know that videos of terrorists kidnapping babies and the elderly are hard to sell as legitimate resistance, so they push the narrative that Israel did it first and worse.
BBC's Lucy Williamson did a piece on the sister of a prisoner crying because her brother will be deported instead of being taken home to Ramallah. What was left out of the report? The fact that her brother orchestrated a suicide bombing that killed four people.
Western activists have also tried to distract their followers from Hamas's barbarity by claiming to be victims of Israeli oppression themselves. European activist Greta Thunberg recently set sail on her second influencer cruise to Gaza, which again resulted in her getting detained. When they were inevitably stopped, they called themselves hostages.
When another "Freedom Flotilla" set sail a few months ago, Thunberg's team released a pre-recorded video of Greta. "If you are watching, this I have been kidnapped," she says. Clickbait for the pro-Hamas crowd to distract from the fact that there were (and still are) bodies of dozens of kidnapped people in Gaza.
The war that Greta and her comrades were supposedly so desperate to end would have ceased a lot earlier if those people had been freed and their captors had surrendered.
They could never admit that, however, because that would require acknowledging there are Israeli victims involved. In their minds, Israelis are all colonizers and, therefore, can only act as the oppressor.
The manipulation of language and framing around the violence that was committed specifically against the Jewish people is not new to the October 7 war.
Holocaust inversion, which is the practice of accusing Israel of acting like Nazis, has been used to demonize Israel for decades. The Palestinians become the "new" Jews, and the Jews become the "new" Nazis.
Descriptions of Gaza as a "concentration camp" or saying Israel is putting the Gazans through a "Holocaust" have become a common theme among Western activists and Palestinians themselves. When the recent ceasefire went into effect, Palestinians posting pictures of themselves smiling with a caption about being a Gaza "Holocaust survivor" started to trend.
The Holocaust was a very specific, intentional, attempted genocide against the Jewish people. It is not a flexible term that can be applied to different situations.
A publication by the World Jewish Congress described it best: "Those who engage in Holocaust inversion claim that not only are Israel and Jews the modern-day Nazis, but they may even be worse … they experienced the worst crime in recent history only to perpetrate reprehensible deeds against another people. Furthermore, the argument goes, merely admitting guilt is not enough; rather, all well-intentioned people are required to punish and sanction Israel, and movements resisting Israel, even terrorist organizations, are legitimate."
There is a deliberate media campaign going on to misrepresent what is happening in Israel. Do not fall for it.
Chloe Sparwath is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in foreign affairs and history. She is the Congressional Affairs Coordinator for the Israel Allies Foundation. She writes on antisemitism, Israel, and Jewish-Christian relations. You can follow her on Substack, Twitter, and Instagram @chloeswannnn.
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