Greta Thunberg, the Hamas ‘Atrocity’ Videos & A Clockwork Orange…

There’s a reason I’m bringing that up, which you’ll see in a moment.

 

While the usual voices have been criticising or mocking activist Greta Thunberg, this time calling her involvement in the ‘Madleen’ aid flotilla a virtue-signalling publicity stunt, Israel’s own response – in addition to seizing and rerouting the ship, made me think of that scene in A Clockwork Orange.

 

Specifically, that the IDF reportedly tried to make Thunberg and the other activists on the flotilla watch the footage of the October 7th attacks.

Which is a bit weird.

 

The twenty-two year old says she refused to watch the videos.

 

Here’s the scene from A Clockwork Orange, by the way.

 

 

 

 

Israel Katz, Israeli Defence Minister, called the boat a ‘hate flotilla’ and referred to Thunberg as an anti-Semite and Hamas propagandist.

 

 

Obviously the Israelis weren’t going to do anything overly harsh if a high profile figure was involved. But had Thunberg not been part of it, this might’ve gone very differently.

 

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But let’s come back to the matter of the October 7th footage. What is it exactly?

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As noted previously, this supposedly horrific collection of footage has never been made available to the general public.

 

Instead it has been shown in special IDF ‘screenings’ to select individuals – usually selected journalists or other influencers.

 

Israeli actress Gal Gadot organised one such event in New York not long after the Israeli response to October 7th began.

 

What seems to happen is that certain, specially chosen people in different countries are shown *something* (we don’t know what exactly): and then the IDF can claim that the horrific evidence of what happened on October 7th has been revealed and verified.

 

But to certain reputable individuals only. And we, the general public, should simply trust those sources and take their word for it.

 

This collection of videos, we might assume, could concern things like the ‘babies in ovens’, the rapes, or the ’40 beheaded babies’, etc.

 

At least we have to imagine that to be the case: as there’s been no publicly available evidence to support those more extreme claims since October 7th. Again, I was raising this matter in October 2023 (here again).

 

There’s also been confusion over who’s seen what. Remember when President Biden thought he’d seen video of beheaded babies – but the White House had to issue a correction saying that he hadn’t seen any such video?

 

Piers Morgan, for example, a year or so ago claimed he had personally seen the video evidence of such barbarism. When challenged by Bassem Youssef as to whether he’d really seen such footage, Morgan insisted he had – but his body language, facial expression and tone were incredibly unconvincing.

 

Who has seen this footage and who hasn’t? Presumably, leading officials in various allied government have seen it? And some media figures, though only some.

 

But this is a strange way of doing things.

 

 

 

 

Why not just release the footage more generally – or at least some of it? If it’s too upsetting, maybe certain parts could be blurred or pixelated, for example.

 

Also, does the footage – whatever it consists of – have any context when being shown to the various specially chosen influencers?

 

For example, is it just raw footage without explanation or does it differentiate between people shot by Hamas and burnt bodies of Israelis killed by IDF shelling or helicopter gunfire?

 

If, for example, it shows footage of the burnt out cars and charred bodies on the road, does it also explain that the Hamas fighters are unlikely to have been responsible for those horrors with the weapons they had?

 

Almost two years on, I’m still not sure how convinced we should be about this alleged video evidence of Hamas atrocities.

 

I’m no Hamas fan, and I’ve said all along that we know the October 7th attackers killed people, took people by force, and generally did some horrible things. But these things generally seem to fall within the expected context of armed conflict and guerrilla-type operations.

 

As I’ve pointed out before, all we – the general public – have ever seen is video of the Palestinian fighters attacking security posts, exchanging fire with security or police, or breaking into some houses.

 

The rest – the really extreme claims by Israel of Hamas barbarism – is still hearsay and allegation without evidence.

 

And why show this stuff to someone like Greta Thunberg anyway? Is it some form of twisted punishment? Or are they hoping to win her over?

 

Again, it immediately made me think of Malcolm McDowell strapped to the chair with his eyes forced to stay open and watch the mind-control videos. Admittedly, that’s an extreme comparison: though the underlying idea feels the same.

 

And what does showing October 7th footage have to do with the reason she and the others were there on that flotilla – specifically to protest the blocking of aid into Gaza? Does seeing video of Hamas brutality from eighteen months ago alter anything about vital aid and food being allowed to reach civilians today?

 

As for Greta Thunberg more generally, I’ve never really understood why people are so hostile towards her.

 

And in this instance, sure there’s an element of publicity seeking to it: but if she and the others are trying to draw attention to a humanitarian crisis, why is that bad?

 

But I guess this is the wrong era in which to be an activist or humanitarian of any kind – at least as far as public support is concerned.

 

 

 

 

The October 7th Attacks & Aftermath: What They’re Not Telling Us…

Why the ’40 Beheaded Babies’ Story Matters…