• Israel’s assertions regarding 40 beheaded babies remain unverified, constituting a facet of the manipulative Israeli propaganda apparatus.
• In stark contrast, the emergence of imagery depicting a decapitated Palestinian baby was met with deafening silence from the mainstream media.
The mainstream media prominently featured a fabricated story claiming that Hamas beheaded babies during its October 7 attack. The unfounded hearsay was the discovery of 40 decapitated babies at Kfar Aza kibbutz. The dissemination of false news about 40 beheaded babies—confirmed by the Israeli government press office to Le Monde as unsubstantiated—was both potent and emotionally charged. This misinformation spread ubiquitously, even reaching and circulating from the White House.
However, when footage surfaced showing actual beheaded Palestinian babies, the mainstream media remained silent and outrage was conspicuously absent.
In the past couple of weeks Israel designated a new safe zone in Rafah and then last Thursday, relentlessly bombed it in the most hellish of manners, killing at least 45 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The bombardment ignited a fire that ravaged the camp for displaced people. The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that many victims were “burned alive” inside their tents.
The complicity of corporate media in Israel’s genocidal assault became evident as footage of Palestinian babies beheaded in the bombardment emerged. The images surfacing online have been unbearably upsetting. In contrast, when the IDF falsely claimed that Hamas had beheaded babies in its October 7 attack, media coverage was rampant with the following headings splashed over their front pages:
The Times featured the headline “Hamas cut the throats of babies.” The Daily Mail declared “This was a Holocaust plain and simple.” The Independent stated “They decapitated women and children,” and the Daily Express read “Horror at pure evil beheading of babies.” This extensive coverage extended to UK broadcast media, and in the US, President Joe Biden repeated the false claims, stating, “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.” Outlets like CNN also echoed the IDF story.
However, Israel eventually admitted that there was no evidence to support this claim. Israeli reserve soldier David Ben Zion, a key source of the propaganda, is a leader of the Shomron Regional Council of 35 illegal West Bank settlements. In February 2023, he called for the destruction of a Palestinian village, stating, “The village of Huwara should be wiped out, this place is a nest of terror and the punishment should be for everyone.” He previously described Palestinian people as having “barbaric DNA.”
Genocidal statements, amplified by the media, exemplify the racist and dehumanising rhetoric fuelling Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. Media complicity has continued to amplify such statements.
On multiple occasions on BBC Newsnight, presenters have allowed genocidal language to go unchallenged. Israeli politician Danny Danon referred to slaughtered Palestinians as “barbaric animals.” Former Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman also called Palestinians “human animals” on BBC Newsnight. Both times, the host did not challenge the claims. Elsewhere, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, “This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it’s a battle of civilization against barbarism.”
