Something unremittingly bleak about a goddamn country starting "crisis actor" conspiracy theories to deny their crimes. A term invented to deny the deaths of children at Sandy Hook in 2012 is now used to deny the deaths of children in Gaza in 2023.
As the community note says, this isn't a crisis actor. This is a guy who posts on Instagram. A influencer who posts videos online of breaking events...is seen at a lot of breaking events. To Israel, this is a sign of a conspiracy. In fact, some of those images aren't even him, or aren't even related to Palestine at all; one image included in other posts targeting Saleh Aljafarawi is a Halloween costume from Thailand. That article says "pro-Israeli accounts" tweeted this, but it's the literal, official Twitter account of Israel posting this shit, next to their comedy sketches that somehow make trans people the punchline bc fascists only have one joke the whole world wide I guess
Like. It's not new for a government to deny the reality of its atrocities. It is new for that government to outright use a conspiracy theory term devised by Alex fucking Jones, or to, when called on doing so, defend it as a "meme" (also bizarre to see hardcore Zionists use a term crafted for especially antisemitic conspiracy theories). Everything rancid about the world in 2023 congealed into a single tweet, right here
While the term "crisis actor" became popular in the US, it needs to be understood that Israel's been claiming Palestinians "fake", "make up", or "exaggerate" deaths and injuries resulting from Israeli violence for decades(sometimes, even, that they do the attacks THEMSELVES to frame Israel); That, like pretty much ALL political movements these days, Israel's Conservatives are connected and in communication with fellow-travelers(meaning: "others who think like them", i.e., "other conservatives") in other countries; and that they are not unique in doing this. Oppressive governments have USUALLY, throughout history, denied the suffering of those they oppress(see: the Armenian Genocide).
That's all just to say that it's very unlikely Jones came up with the idea of "Crisis Actors" all on his own, even IF he's the one who coined/popularized the term. To be clear I'm NOT saying Israel "taught him" this or "is responsible" for HIS arguments in any sense, but I would not be surprised if he was somehow inspired by this sort of historical propaganda, or even by anti-palestinian propaganda in this vein he'd come across in his life.
