From a colleague who does not wish to be identified: "As’ad, an article from The Daily Caller about the tunnels in Gaza has been making the rounds—e-mail chains keep sending this piece around like there’s no tomorrow, part of the disinformation barrage, trades on all the usual stereotypes, makes all the usual claims based on unnamed sources, etc. Here’s the link:
In terms of how narratives are created, enforced and developed, it is quite interesting. What’s really remarkable about this article is that it is accompanied by pictures purporting to show various sinister things, but even on first glance, they just don't look right at all. So I decided to do a bit of digging. It was not too hard to find previous sources and captions, and they are quite different from what the article says. In fact, none of the pictures show what The Daily Caller captions claim.
Image 1, Daily Caller caption:
“This picture shows clearly the width of one of the tunnels, sufficient for wheeled vehicles to transverse it. Hamas did not build a “subway” system for Gaza residents. They built an infrastructure for one purpose, and one only, an industry of death.”
Image 1, previous caption, Ha’aretz, January 14, 2014:
“A tunnel worker ascends on a rope inside a smuggling tunnel dug beneath the Gaza-Egypt border in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct 8, 2013. Photo: Reuters”
* * *
Image 2, Daily Caller caption:
“Fantastic quantities of explosives were stored in every tunnel, meant to be used in a mega-attack on civilian communities and infrastructure.”
Image 2, previous caption, New York Daily News, November 20, 2012
“Inside the smuggling tunnels area in Rafah. Gaza 2012” Important facts about this picture include, a) explosives are not stored in every tunnel, b) this is the entry point of a smuggler’s tunnel in Egypt, and c) those boxes contain either shortening (for cakes) or ghee butter, of the brand Sabiha. Those are fantastic quantities of pastry ingredients, not explosives.
* * *
Image 3, Daily Caller caption:
“Senior Hamas operatives show off their offensive tunnels to their spouses. Unbelievably, this is actually a picture of a Marriage taking place in the ‘place of death’.”
Image 3, previous caption, National Geographic Magazine, March 27, 2013
“On March 21, Egyptian bride Manal Abu Shanar (shown above) took an unusual route to her wedding in the Gaza Strip (map): a smuggler's tunnel. Her Palestinian groom, Emad al-Malalha, told Reuters that Egyptian officials did not give Shanar permission to enter Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories, at a designated crossing point. The couple resorted to their backup plan, the underground route. Hundreds of tunnels, up to half a mile (0.8 kilometers) long, burrow beneath the border of Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The tunnels are part of an enormous illegal smuggling operation that imports food, medicine, and construction materials—as well as weapons and drugs—into the territory…”
* * *
Image 4, Daily Caller caption:
“A Hamas operative climbing upward in a pier of one of the major tunnels. Notice the work on the sides of the tunnel.”
Image 4, previous caption, Baltimore Sun, July 26, 2014:
“A Palestinian smuggler climbs down into a tunnel, temporarily closed by Hamas forces, beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)”
***
I guess that the failure to understand that there are different tunnels dug by different people with different purposes might lead some to simply accept the dramatic picture captions and move on. Also, if one believes that all tunnels are Hamas tunnels, then everything that passes through them—diapers, dope, pizza, Smirnoff, guns, and ghee butter—becomes part of Hamas operations, and Hamas is ipso facto turned into a crime syndicate."Marriage in the place of death.” Seriously, could trading on the image of Palestinians as vermin and ghouls be any clearer? Explosives instead of shortening, a Hamas guy climbs up instead of a smuggler climbing down into a tunnel--closed by Hamas! Things like this rely on readers consuming and reproducing, rather than thinking critically. Frightening to the point of being comical."
In terms of how narratives are created, enforced and developed, it is quite interesting. What’s really remarkable about this article is that it is accompanied by pictures purporting to show various sinister things, but even on first glance, they just don't look right at all. So I decided to do a bit of digging. It was not too hard to find previous sources and captions, and they are quite different from what the article says. In fact, none of the pictures show what The Daily Caller captions claim.
Image 1, Daily Caller caption:
“This picture shows clearly the width of one of the tunnels, sufficient for wheeled vehicles to transverse it. Hamas did not build a “subway” system for Gaza residents. They built an infrastructure for one purpose, and one only, an industry of death.”
Image 1, previous caption, Ha’aretz, January 14, 2014:
“A tunnel worker ascends on a rope inside a smuggling tunnel dug beneath the Gaza-Egypt border in the southern Gaza Strip, Oct 8, 2013. Photo: Reuters”
* * *
Image 2, Daily Caller caption:
“Fantastic quantities of explosives were stored in every tunnel, meant to be used in a mega-attack on civilian communities and infrastructure.”
Image 2, previous caption, New York Daily News, November 20, 2012
“Inside the smuggling tunnels area in Rafah. Gaza 2012” Important facts about this picture include, a) explosives are not stored in every tunnel, b) this is the entry point of a smuggler’s tunnel in Egypt, and c) those boxes contain either shortening (for cakes) or ghee butter, of the brand Sabiha. Those are fantastic quantities of pastry ingredients, not explosives.
* * *
Image 3, Daily Caller caption:
“Senior Hamas operatives show off their offensive tunnels to their spouses. Unbelievably, this is actually a picture of a Marriage taking place in the ‘place of death’.”
Image 3, previous caption, National Geographic Magazine, March 27, 2013
“On March 21, Egyptian bride Manal Abu Shanar (shown above) took an unusual route to her wedding in the Gaza Strip (map): a smuggler's tunnel. Her Palestinian groom, Emad al-Malalha, told Reuters that Egyptian officials did not give Shanar permission to enter Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories, at a designated crossing point. The couple resorted to their backup plan, the underground route. Hundreds of tunnels, up to half a mile (0.8 kilometers) long, burrow beneath the border of Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The tunnels are part of an enormous illegal smuggling operation that imports food, medicine, and construction materials—as well as weapons and drugs—into the territory…”
* * *
Image 4, Daily Caller caption:
“A Hamas operative climbing upward in a pier of one of the major tunnels. Notice the work on the sides of the tunnel.”
Image 4, previous caption, Baltimore Sun, July 26, 2014:
“A Palestinian smuggler climbs down into a tunnel, temporarily closed by Hamas forces, beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)”
***
I guess that the failure to understand that there are different tunnels dug by different people with different purposes might lead some to simply accept the dramatic picture captions and move on. Also, if one believes that all tunnels are Hamas tunnels, then everything that passes through them—diapers, dope, pizza, Smirnoff, guns, and ghee butter—becomes part of Hamas operations, and Hamas is ipso facto turned into a crime syndicate."Marriage in the place of death.” Seriously, could trading on the image of Palestinians as vermin and ghouls be any clearer? Explosives instead of shortening, a Hamas guy climbs up instead of a smuggler climbing down into a tunnel--closed by Hamas! Things like this rely on readers consuming and reproducing, rather than thinking critically. Frightening to the point of being comical."
