Palestinian Truth: We Need to Win the Information War

As Arabs and especially Palestinians our fight against Israel and the injustice it represents has been a long and costly one, one often punctuated by major defeats, collapse of national self esteem and economic stagnation. We like to show maps of Palestine at each major milestone of defeat: 1948, 1967, 1973 and today, you see these maps all over social media, we point to them and say “see what the nasty Israelis did to us!” We think this brings public opinion on our side. Through these visual aids it is made very clear how much territory Palestinians have lost over the years, it couldn’t be clearer that we are the losing side, but we fail to recognize this it seems and plunge headfirst into peacemaking on an uneven playing field with gleeful abandon thinking we are actually at the negotiating table to get something in exchange for an end to combat operations and recognition of the enemy’s status and right to exist. Palestinians were only invited to Oslo to give their leadership a face saving exit from the fight and to dress up surrender as a victory for peace. Too bad peace was never a party to the talks, I only recall Palestinians and Israelis at the table.

Today, we are witnessing the collapse of the pretense and illusion of Oslo, but in its place there is nothing but a vacuum and a slew of vague declarations and pronouncements to the tune of “we shall never accept Trump’s plan!” No clear policy exists, no vision or steps exist to arrive at a coherent policy as far as I see, just more platitudes and vague ideas of what we should do next. Palestinians are no less defeated, they are no less the perennial victims of Israeli injustice, they are no less chained and monitored from Israeli watchtowers in their own lands. The West Bank and Gaza Stripe are open air prisons, another intifada would be essentially a prison riot and we all know how prison riots usually end: badly for the prisoners!

Don’t call me a defeatist, I am a pragmatist, I write today as an angry middle-aged Palestinian who has lost all patience. I grew up on tales of great deeds of resistance, of the glory and victory yet to come and the promise of liberation, I am old enough now to know that the two paths we took to arrive at that much sought-after victory: insurgency and direct action or total acquiescence and surrender, were wrong, neither giving up everything for peace nor unbridled undirected violence worked.

Believe me when I say I would much rather that defeat not be where we are right now, but, I told a friend once that “I will not lie for my cause”, and that remains my personal mantra. I will not lie and I will not join those who lie to gain political capital and popularity by standing with the Palestinian cause, while imperceptibly bluffing our way towards all-out war unprepared! Palestinians can protest and they can throw rocks and brave teargas storms, and our allies in the anti-Israel camp can continue to make speeches and posture and make pronouncements that show their support for Palestine, but I am under no illusion that anything will come of all this. I am not saying we should stop protesting or stop building alliances, but we should do more, we should be under no illusion that any Arab or allied country will fight Israel on behalf of Palestinians, that will not happen!

Before great armies assemble and before rolling the dice on the great gamble that is war, first, there is an information war, an offensive of art, literature, film, song and news content that serves to inform the populations of the great powers, to bring popular opinion in those countries to our side. This is the most effective weapon we have at our disposal and our job is easier in this regard than it is for our enemies as we have historically accurate, documented facts on our side, we have access to a plethora of online information platforms and the archives of many news services that covered in great detail our region’s turbulent recent past that we can use to bolster our argument. 

We can easily assail anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian propaganda pieces like the Hollywood B movie ‘Beirut’ which misrepresents our culture, our history, our civil conflict, and our great struggle against multiple Israeli incursions and invasions. We can flood social media with such negative opinions about this movie, all supported with facts from Western news archives, that the filmmakers would unilaterally withdraw the film from cinemas to cut their losses and assuage popular anger. This is how we should act: with focused action, measured responses all with clear goals in mind.

Militarily, we may be unable to oppose Israel and the USA, but in the realm of information we have an opportunity to snatch a measure of victory from an ocean of defeat and inaction. We are frustrated because Arab officialdom is limited in what it can do and how forceful it can be with the US behemoth and its military juggernaut that will defend at all costs Israel against any and all military attacks. But, when faced with a clever, reasoned and well-crafted argument, there is little military power can do. With such an information campaign we can win the hearts and minds of Western audiences who in turn would push for a change in foreign policy in their own countries to shift support away from Israel and towards Palestine.

To work, this information offensive should be pure and sincere and truthful and we should, as much as possible, move away from disinformation, this is necessary to build trust and credibility. Our only option now is to launch a major information war to counter the assault on us by the enemy and its many confederates in media.