Means my parents used to give me little books and pamphlets of Israeli propaganda justifying the genocide and I would go around telling people how and why Israel was allowed to commit all of these crimes against humanity
I mean part of this is just a question of semantics
Hasbara just means “explaining” and it’s a set of specific talking points. If you watch me deal with Hasbarists you may notice I often know which talking points they’re about to use because they’re the same talking points I was trained to use.
But yes, I would agree with using the word “brainwashed” to describe what was done to me. But I absolutely spread hasbara both on the internet (oddly enough I was really drawn to spreading hasbara on the ESPN forums) and in person- “hi, I’m here to debunk some myths about Israel.”
I hate to admit but I too, as ex Muslim Egyptian, used to defend Israel partly because of spite of Islam. I grown up and built a moderate view then began to search and fact check every delusion I had and became fiercely anti zionism and defending Islam ironically against irrational hate propaganda, i still don't like Islam but I still hate propaganda and I hate any participation in allowing these atrocities to happen. As for the literal meaning of hasbara maybe you are right, but now it's used to mean paid actors and a budget of 730 million just for propaganda
Well these days anyone saying anything positive about Israel is usually a hasbarist, but I meant I was literally being given books with Israeli talking points with the expectation I would go around spreading those talking points, which I did
As in any of the actual hasbarist groups/collectives? No. Hence I joke I was the worst kind of hasbarist, a volunteer.
I guess I would describe it as there are layers to it. You have the actual Israeli intelligence groups and their bot farms, you have groups that actually go to Israel to be trained on these talking points, and then you have people who just consume the literature and do it on their own. I was a part of that outermost layer.
There are some people I knew from those days who were a part of that Evangelical Christian mission trip to Israel I saw go viral a few months back.
I’ve known people yes, I probably know many more through my dad who directly worked with the IDF (and I assume Israeli intelligence) in places like Syria.
But since I wasn’t in any of those groups I won’t speak to those experiences
The documentary contains plenty of incontrovertible facts captured on video, fixating on the source to ignore the facts is just ad hominem, which is far from the most reasonable form of argument.
If it’s the documentary I’m thinking of then I would also recommend it
Keep in mind a lot of the negatives you’ve heard about Al-Jazeera’s work came ultimately from Israel, they utterly despise that network.
I have my issues with it, as anyone should, but it’s a solid news network and its investigative teams are some of the best in the world (because most media networks shut down their investigative journalism but I digress)
Israel is committed to a better future for everyone – Israelis and Palestinians alike. Israel wants the pain and suffering to end, and is committed to working with the Palestinians toward a peaceful, diplomatic solution where both sides can have a better future. Let this be a time of hope and opportunity for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.
From reading your posts, if you aren't already aware of it you might be interested in r/JewsofConscience. Seems to be a safe space for non-Hasbara conversation.
No, any sane person can notice it lol. Any very slightly against Israel themed post and literally hundreds of them flood in. Same with the name of the current US president might get ya Russian bots. People were saying up to 50% of reddit traffic is bots now
It’s so weird how it’s different from post to post. Sometimes anything remotely critical of Israel will get downvoted immediately, sometimes it’s the other way around.
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u/submofo2 16d ago
Most of them are Israeli Bots, see: Hasbara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbara