Analysis Breaking

As Bibas family refuses to let Netanyahu attend funeral, footage further undermines Israeli/UK death narrative

Video of abduction of woman and her children has audio not published by ‘mainstream’ media

Not welcome – Netanyahu at the Bibas funeral.

Israel’s propaganda machine has been pushing a narrative hard that Shiri Bibas and her two young children were killed ‘by hand’ and that their deaths were only known recently – a narrative that UK PM Keir Starmer avidly reinforced in his statement about the return of their bodies from Gaza yesterday despite Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari admitting during a press conference on Friday that Israel had known for months that they were dead, in fact since November 2023, just a month after their abduction during the 7 October raid in southern Israel.

Western media have similarly reinforced the false narrative this week, with Reuters and other outlets reporting headlines such as ‘Hope turns to heartbreak for Israel’s Bibas hostage family‘, even though Harden Bibas, the father of the family, had said a year ago, in a video made in captivity, that they had been killed – like many Israeli captives and tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children – by Israeli bombs and begged Netanyahu to agree with Palestinian militia for their bodies to be returned. The family’s instruction to Netanyahu not to come near the funeral is likely to be linked to his decision to ignore Bibas’s plea and continue his Gaza genocide for more than another year.

The Israeli narrative has been further undermined by video footage of the 7 October 2023 abduction of Shiri Bibas and her children. Twenty-six seconds of this footage appears to have been first broadcast two days after the kidnapping by US broadcaster NBC – but NBC removed the audio:

However, the audio appears to show a commander of the abductors telling his men to take care of the mother and children and make sure they were not harmed – and telling the family to ‘calm down’ and ‘Don’t worry, we are people with humanity’. Skwawkbox does not have Arabic, but ran the footage through an AI translator which closely mirrored the subtitles shown on the footage:

Netanyahu even delayed the release of more than six hundred Palestinian hostages detained arbitrarily by Israel, claiming that the woman’s body returned by Palestinian militia was not that of Shiri Bibas. Her family has since confirmed that they have received her body, but now Netanyahu has said no more hostages will be released until there is a guarantee of no ‘show of humiliation’ – despite Israel forcing released hostages to wear Star of David t-shirts with threatening slogans and dumping the bodies of Palestinian dead in a public area, wrapping in blue plastic sheeting – presumably in an attempt to prevent further scenes of released Israelis thanking and in one case even kissing their captors.

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister at the time, admitted earlier this month that Israel had repeatedly issued ‘Hannibal’ orders on 7 October to kill large numbers of Israeli captives along with Palestinian fighters – a fact known since the earliest days of the genocide and one that has been freely discussed by Israeli media for months but continues to be ignored by UK media and the Starmer government.

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10 comments

  1. What a shame that the main thing some Zionist learn from the Holocaust that murdered 6 million Jews in living memory is how to engage in Genocide against the Palestinians.
    It gives me hope that many Jews are prepared to stand up to Israel and denounce it what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank as a genocide and ethnic cleansing.
    Shame too, that the BCC and most of the Western MSM are regurgitating Zionist propaganda rather than to give a space to the many peaceful Jews that object to the actions of Israel.
    Wouldn’t this be an example of antisemitism from the part of most of the Western MSM, to only report the favourite version of Zionist Jews ignoring the views of the rest of the Jewish communities opposed to the actions of Israel?

  2. Off topic:

    Great stuff from Damo.

    MASSIVE Labour Failures Have Them Back To Bashing Corbyn!

  3. Useful thanks Skwawkbox. Politicians! However, I do not like the fact that two babies were kidnapped in the first place. Two wrong narratives – Israel’s and Hamas’s, don’t make a right. Leave the family to grieve now.

    1. Though I support Palestinian calls a Free Palestine from the rivers to the sea, I didn’t agree with H’s political & military strategy to attack armed illegal settlements and I knew when it had happened that there would be a massive Occupation Force over reaction (as there was last time) and I naively at the time predicted 20,000 Palestinian deaths whilst The Lancet now has it up to 186,000+.
      And in such chaotic situations they captured the human beings they had there; explanation is not agreement.
      Some argue H felt they were being left behind by history by all the proposed Middle East Peace Deals & felt that had to act.
      At least now the oppressed of the world has woken up over Palestine & we have seen Western politicians as they really are plus the Occupation Force & the US (with the West wanting a share) want to steal Palestine’s land, gas, oil & build a new canal so tragically Palestinians are being slaughtered for the above’s PROFITS & they have lost the moral & intellectual plus political arguments.
      I agree with Palestinian intellectual Olymar who calls for “A new Palestinian grassroots approach.”
      Let’s hope the Peace holds.

  4. ‘The Occupation Force couldn’t win in street to street fighting.
    So with USA 2,000 pound bombs took out the streets which now we all know.
    But such a mindless, cruel strategy.
    Took out friend and foe.
    And civilians which is a war crime.’

  5. I read some of these comments stating they should not have taken the children, you are living in a parallel universe. Put yourself in Gazans shoes, held in open air prison, “mowing the lawn yearly” (murdering thousands), feeding them on minimum rations prior to 7th of October, and detaining men women and children on “administrative detention” for years without charge.
    HOW WOULD YOU REACT?

    1. I agree Steve, the establishment has brainwash the masses into believing that change can be achieved through peaceful means. Because, a large majority of human beings rejects the idea of killing and maiming other human beings that don’t represent an immediate threat to our security.
      However, a factual view of history tell us that the only way of achieving long social change and national liberation is through violence: French Revolution, Haiti, Russian Revolution, China, Cuba.
      I believe that what Hamas did on the 7th October 2023 are war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
      Hence, although deploring the actions of Hamas that lead to the lost of innocent’s lives, I believe too, that Hamas did what needed to be done in order to stand a chance to achieve a Palestinian independent State in the nearby future give of take 30 years.

  6. And 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons including women & children “Often held on no or often flimsy charges.” (Human Rights Watch).
    My critique was of H’s political & military strategy which would precipitate a massive Occupation Force over reaction.
    But what was done was done.
    And the oppressed of the world have now been woken up by Palestine & we see the powerful & politicians as they really are.
    Some argue H’s thinking was that its regional allies would pile in but they saw the billions of pounds of weapons the West was pouring in and saw only a regional escalation which could cost a million or so lives so reigned their forces in.
    The Hope perhaps comes from the Palestinians who are calling for a more “Palestinian grassroots approach.”

    1. And millions if not billions are now aware of the injustice to Palestinians thanks to worldwide campaigns.
      And BDS is working.
      The Israeli Occupation Force’s economy has also been hit by £300b which is unsustainable.
      And more companies, universities, councils & pension funds are divesting from Israel.
      And the USA & West has lost its moral & intellectual leadership of the world.
      So the capitalist Western Governments are not having it all their own way.
      So we need to keep all this up to support Palestinians who hopefully will work out what to do next via a more grassroots approach.
      Free Palestine.
      Yours In Peace.

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