A Jewish-American peace campaigner has criticized the media for parroting propaganda claims about the escalating conflict in Israel.
Fellowship of Reconciliation Executive Director Ariel Gold told Sputnik that reports and images of Israeli civilians killed by Hamas militants were a "gut punch" to her, as some of her relatives were victims of the German Holocaust of Jews and others during the Second World War. But she rejected comparisons between Hamas and the Nazis.
"I think those not only dehumanize Palestinians and distract from the current situation, which is very real on the ground, but also take away from that Jewish pain," Gold stressed.
She also cautioned that Israel's vow to invade Gaza and destroy Hamas would only take more innocent lives on both sides.
"Revenge is something that nobody benefits from. And in terms of Jewish safety, revenge makes the Jewish people far less safe — specifically the Israeli people," Gold warned. "What is occurring right now and what is about to escalate, which we can only acknowledge as genocide against the people of Gaza, will not make anybody between the river and the sea, including Israelis, any safer."
The peace campaigner also criticized the media for repeating unsubstantiated claims of atrocities — like the widely-repeated but since-debunked claim that 40 babies were found beheaded at one Israeli kibbutz that was overrun by Palestinian guerrillas.
"Isn't the reality horrific enough? The atrocities are bad enough. Why do people have to make stuff up?" Gold asked. "I think there's a real attempt to exceptionalize the violence that was committed by the Hamas militants."
"As Hannah Arendt said, the banality of evil and certainly has nothing to do with one's religion, ethnicity, nationality" she continued. "All people are capable of committing atrocities, and there is nothing exceptional about that. Rather, it's a horrific human condition and that [stems from the] root cause of hatred."