So this is a tough read.
Back in Dec, I wrote an article reflecting on how VAW is used as political leverage by men in war, even as they don't bother to investigate it.
A NYT article had just come out then, and many details didn't align with Israeli reports I'd been following... but it was the NYT! So, I carefully noted the discrepancies while reflecting on how rape is always weaponized.
As I suspected, though, that coverage did a gross disservice to the victims. /x
https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/
We now know a lot more about the writer, new to investigative journalism, who skirted NYT fact-checking practices.
We also know that a lot of claims don't match material evidence, and come from sources who've made other wild and debunked claims from that terrible day.
But I cannot stress enough how much all this manipulation of what actually happened, simply to stoke a war effort, did an unconscionable wrong *to the victims & families*, who deserved not to be used as pawns for propaganda. /x
Here's one example of how the December NYT article did harm. The opening anecdote made a symbol of rape around a woman supposedly elaborately brutalized in 9 minutes between her sending a text to her family and her husband saying she was dead:
'It doesn’t make any sense,' said Abdush’s sister, that in a short timespan 'they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her? Speaking about the rape allegation, her brother-in-law said: 'The media invented it.'" /x
The description of the NYT writer's failure goes on:
"The woman who filmed Abdush on October 7 told the Israeli site YNet that Schwartz and Sella had pressured her into giving the paper access to her photos and videos for the purposes of serving Israeli propaganda. “They called me again and again and explained how important it is to Israeli hasbara,' she recalled, using the term for public diplomacy, which in practice refers to Israeli propaganda efforts directed at international audiences." /x
And that's just one of *many* examples.
I know lots of folks are nervous about this side of war. We don't like talking about the fact that gov'ts at war disinform because they *do not owe anyone the truth* - just victory - when on a military mission.
We also don't like the idea of being "tricked", of finding out that we were moved to rage over the wrong details.
Horrible things happened on Oct 7. And were then leveraged at cost to many families *ever* being able to grieve the true horrors. /x
Anyway, I know many folks aren't ready to hear this yet.
It's painful and scary and confuses an already terrible and brutal situation.
Some of us need everything to be straightforward & mission-driven in war.
"Don't say anything that might give comfort to the enemy."
But we're going to be living with the consequences of these horrible war games for the rest of our lives.
It's never too late to start thinking about how to treat trauma with more integrity.
And to honour the victims justly. 🕯️
The first casualty of war is always the truth.
We've always known that.
What we don't seem to be prepared for, as a culture, is the hard fact that truth *continues* to be weaponized all throughout war. Even if one is "for" a side, one should never expect full truth from it.
And in this war? The families of the murdered and missing were never treated properly by their government. Their pain was leveraged right away.
Five months on, they're *still* trapped in others' war games. /x