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00:00 Hellish scenes in the Gaza Strip as Israel`s onslaught continues into the last supposed
00:05 safe zone in the south.
00:08 Cooking tips from the front lines, Israeli soldiers gorge on stolen food as Gazans starve.
00:14 Patriotic lessons in the classroom and military activities after school, it`s what happens
00:19 when Kremlin propaganda is part of the curriculum.
00:28 For more than four months, the world has watched as Israeli forces have mowed their way down
00:33 the length of the Gaza Strip.
00:35 The last major hospital, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, was stormed this past week.
00:40 Details of what`s taken place there are horrific.
00:42 Further south, more than a million Palestinians have been crammed into the city of Rafah,
00:48 where the threat of an Israeli ground invasion looms.
00:51 The stated goal is to eliminate Hamas` leadership and rescue more hostages.
00:56 But there`s also the specter of Palestinians being forced over the border into Egypt.
01:00 The fact that this war has reached this point, where the almost complete depopulation of
01:05 Gaza is a real possibility, and where even an order from the International Court of Justice
01:10 seems unable to prevent it, reflects a global failure to hold Israel accountable.
01:15 Western media outlets, which minimize Israel`s atrocities and amplify its propaganda, exemplify
01:20 that failure.
01:22 All eyes are on the south of Gaza and Rafah.
01:25 The question is, how much longer will the annihilation go on?
01:30 Rafah at this stage in the war represents the distillation of a concerted strategy on
01:39 the part of Israel to effectively depopulate the Gaza Strip under the pretense of self-defense
01:46 and a war against Hamas.
01:49 Prior to October 7, Gaza was described as an open-air prison.
01:53 Today, I don`t know if there`s really a description for it besides a very, very, very densely
01:59 populated concentration camp.
02:02 And that concentration camp`s name is Rafah.
02:04 In a war of horrors, the images from southern Gaza have given new potency to the very notion
02:11 of horror.
02:13 The corralling of a desperate population, 1.5 million Palestinians in the city of Rafah
02:18 has the air of an endgame.
02:21 The majority of people there are refugees from elsewhere in Gaza.
02:24 They`re living in tents.
02:26 Any possibility of safety has evaporated.
02:28 There are bombs from the sky, a looming ground invasion.
02:32 And even in supposed non-combat zones, there are targeted drone attacks, such as the one
02:38 on two Al Jazeera journalists in Rafah.
02:40 A wretched situation for Gazans has become much more so.
02:46 Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians.
02:50 Thousands more are missing under the rubble.
02:52 More than a million Palestinians are now stuck in Rafah, a so-called safe zone, but Israel
02:57 is bombing there.
02:59 We have Palestinians who are displaced from their homes.
03:01 They`re diseased.
03:02 They`re living under tents in the cold, without limbs, without family members.
03:08 And they`re just staying there with nowhere to go.
03:10 You`ve had these people in Gaza being penned closer and closer into a corner.
03:16 You can sense that there`s an endgame where, I mean, either the Palestinians will have
03:20 to be pushed out to the sea or into Egypt, right?
03:23 Those are really the only two options, it seems.
03:26 The sense is that you are now -- we are putting Palestinians in a kill zone.
03:31 The ethnic cleansing being carried out by Israel has been justified domestically and
03:35 internationally by an endlessly looping narrative of a battle for survival against Hamas.
03:42 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed up on American news channels last week, making
03:46 the case for the invasion of Rafah.
03:48 We`ve already destroyed three-quarters of the Hamas organized terrorist battalions.
03:54 Three-quarters, 18 out of 24.
03:56 We`re not going to leave the other six.
03:57 It`s like you leaving a quarter of ISIS in Iraq.
04:02 Netanyahu`s talking points were packed with stats about Hamas losses that no one has been
04:07 able to verify.
04:08 And of course, there was the trope created by Israel since October 7 of Hamas being the
04:13 same as ISIS.
04:14 Obviously, ISIS would reestablish itself.
04:17 Hamas, ISIS would reestablish itself too.
04:19 A fundamental piece of the war narrative that Netanyahu reiterates virtually every time
04:24 he gets in front of a camera is of the October 7 operation by Hamas against Israel.
04:30 Put yourself in Israel`s shoes.
04:32 We were attacked, unprovoked attack, murderous attack on October 7.
04:37 For many Israelis, October 7 is not something that just ended on October 7.
04:43 Every single day, almost 24 hours a day, the coverage is all about what happened on that
04:48 day.
04:49 (IN HEBREW)
04:50 There`s constantly new testimony from victims, from survivors, from those now that are coming
05:01 back from being hostage in Gaza.
05:03 And those stories are constantly being shown to Israelis.
05:06 And very much, it`s still part of the discourse.
05:09 It is Israel`s "9/11," the worst tragedy that has befallen Israel since the Holocaust.
05:18 And that juxtaposition of the Holocaust on October 7, it`s a strategic decision that
05:23 marries those two narratives and explains that the only way to avoid a future Holocaust
05:30 for Israel is this war.
05:33 (IN HEBREW)
05:37 It doesn`t matter how far we`ve traveled in terms of days and weeks and months, or even
05:51 in terms of how much change has happened on the ground, the cost of lives to Palestinians,
05:57 nothing equates with the losses of October 7.
06:02 The laser-like focus from Israeli news outlets on the October 7 attacks has a flip side,
06:07 an almost total erasure of the suffering their army has inflicted on the people of Gaza.
06:14 The situation in Gaza is largely absent from the coverage altogether, that it`s just focused
06:19 right now on the Israeli narrative and what the IDF is presenting of what`s happening
06:23 in Gaza, and not necessarily about the civilians being impacted.
06:27 If you do have some sort of coverage about the civilian situation in Gaza, it`s usually
06:31 at minute 40 of the first hour of the main news broadcast.
06:36 Western news outlets have a habit of downplaying atrocities committed by Israel`s military.
06:42 Last week, the IDF launched a bombing raid in Rafah, which they said secured the release
06:47 of two Israeli hostages.
06:48 Big news also late last night, the Israeli military rescuing two hostages from southern
06:53 Gaza in a special forces operation.
06:56 The hostage rescue dominated the headlines.
06:58 Relegated to the margins was the fact that more than 70 Palestinians were killed in the
07:03 process.
07:04 The reporting falls within a pattern that has repeated itself across the decades of
07:08 the Israel-Palestine conflict and has been glaringly evident during this war.
07:13 It`s clear that Western media`s coverage has been, I have to say, lacking.
07:18 And of course, you know, I say this and I`m a member of that matrix of the Western media.
07:23 But at the same time, if you consider the way this has been done, the language that
07:27 we use, right, the stories that we amplify, et cetera, I mean, the main picture you get,
07:33 of course, is that the suffering of Israelis is more important, right, more significant.
07:37 There are so many factors that contribute to the bias that we see every day.
07:42 Things like using emotive language, calling the killing of Israelis a slaughter, a massacre,
07:48 but the killing of nearly 30,000 Palestinians is not described as such.
07:52 We look at the AP headline, where they call children minors.
07:56 There`s a deliberate omission of Palestinian humanity in Western media.
08:02 And it needs to be questioned and these organizations need to be held accountable.
08:06 The culmination and the outcome of this type of sustained coverage that actively humanizes
08:13 Israelis and actively dehumanizes Palestinians is the fact that it cultivates a sensitization
08:22 for Israeli loss and a complete desensitization to Palestinian loss.
08:29 So, we can continue to see Palestinians to be killed in mass and not bat an eyelid, because
08:36 what a Palestinian is good for is to die, you know.
08:40 But on the contrary, Israeli lives are lives to be rescued.
08:45 The continued arming of a military that does this to Palestinians is justified on the grounds
08:52 that it is saving humans from non-humans.
08:56 The United States has been Israel`s chief sponsor and support, not just during this
09:01 war.
09:02 It`s a relationship that has spanned decades.
09:05 Israel is the military power it is today, thanks to the aid the U.S. has supplied, amounting
09:10 to $300 billion since the country`s creation.
09:14 Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October last year, President Biden has opened the
09:18 coffers even wider, bypassing Congress to send tens of billions of dollars more in weapons
09:25 and ammunition, with no restrictions on their use.
09:29 Those actions speak louder than the statements of concern from Washington, as Israeli forces
09:34 close in on the Palestinians in Rafah.
09:37 The major military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible plan, a credible
09:42 plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than one million people sheltering there.
09:48 We need to be protected.
09:50 There is a performance of concern for Palestinian lives and at least an implication that there
09:57 is some dialogue between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government over the conduct
10:04 of the war.
10:07 Whether that is true or not, in fact, nothing has changed on the ground.
10:12 I would argue the Biden administration has actually doubled down on trying to help Israel.
10:16 I mean, weapons deliveries, that`s all being fast-tracked.
10:18 I mean, oftentimes, it`s happening now without Congress.
10:22 So, this situation really encapsulates, I think, the schizophrenic nature of what we
10:26 see from the U.S. administration, where on the one hand, you know, we will have these,
10:30 you know, occasionally, let`s say, you know, probrium-filled statements saying that Israel
10:35 must do better, blah, blah, blah.
10:37 And then on the other hand, you see them really ramping up support, and diplomatically, they`re
10:42 shoring it up.
10:45 And if you look at sort of the images that come out of Rafah, it`s the desperation that
10:48 now seems to be much more than before.
10:50 You know, there`s a sense that really it`s the end and there`s nowhere else to go.
10:59 Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
11:02 Some Israeli officials have been quite open about it, which made a story this week in
11:06 the Haaretz newspaper about Israeli soldiers feasting in Palestinian homes all the more
11:11 sickening.
11:12 Nick has more on that story.
11:14 As you say, Amina, northern Gaza is facing a famine.
11:17 However, the article profiled Israeli soldiers who have made themselves at home in Palestinian
11:22 households cooking meals with, quote, delicious ingredients they find.
11:27 The article reads like a lifestyle column, not something written in the middle of a war
11:31 zone.
11:32 And what it does not say is that those Israeli soldiers are in kitchens belonging to displaced
11:37 Palestinians and the food they are eating has been looted.
11:41 The article did say that the soldiers had mixed feelings about what they were doing,
11:45 but made peace with it because, quote, the better we ate, the better we fought.
11:50 But again, no mention of the latest figures from the World Food Program, which says that
11:55 many Palestinians are now eating half a meal every two days.
11:59 The taunting of hungry Gazans has become habitual in Israel.
12:04 For months, soldiers have been posting videos of their meals, the kitchens they`ve pillaged
12:09 and even the food stores and supplies they`ve destroyed.
12:13 Israeli businesses have made promotional videos of the food carts they`ve sent to troops on
12:18 the front lines.
12:20 Israeli activists and settlers have physically stopped food aid from entering Gaza.
12:25 But the fact that Haaretz, a paper that once had a reputation for being left-leaning and
12:30 critical of the occupation, is publishing this kind of content shows in the Israeli
12:35 media there are vanishingly few voices of reason.
12:39 Let`s go to another war, the one that began in February 2022 with Russia`s invasion of
12:45 Ukraine.
12:46 Since then, the Kremlin has invested considerably in managing domestic perceptions of the war,
12:51 including amongst younger citizens.
12:53 Digital, mainstream and alternative media are used to disseminate partial facts, sometimes
12:58 even outright fiction.
13:00 School textbooks have been rewritten, too.
13:03 Ever since he came into power in 1999, Vladimir Putin and his government have invested in
13:08 indoctrinating the youth, reforming school curricula, patriotic narratives in the classroom
13:13 and youth armies.
13:15 All of these have been longstanding elements in Moscow`s campaign to mold the next generation.
13:21 With the war dragging on, the government`s youth propaganda has escalated.
13:25 Educational institutions have become part of an orchestrated effort to shape loyal,
13:30 militarized nationalists and passive media consumers.
13:33 The listening post Tarek Nafa now on the use of education in the Kremlin`s propaganda machine.
13:52 We see a very typical representation of a Russian schoolchild.
13:57 She is white, she is ethnically Russian, she is dressed in a perfect little dress and perfect
14:03 little pigtails.
14:06 She is the Putin government`s representation of an average Russian little girl.
14:19 So what we see in the video are a number of myths and outright lies and conspiracy theories
14:27 that explain that the war is really about Western powers using Ukraine as a puppet regime
14:36 to get at Russia.
14:40 March 3rd, 2022.
14:42 One week after Russia`s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
14:47 Thirteen-year-old TV presenter and singer Sophia Khomenko is giving a lesson called
14:52 Defenders of Peace.
14:55 Broadcast online by Russia`s education ministry, it`s an introduction to the Kremlin`s official
15:01 narrative on the war, aimed at Sophia`s peers, schoolchildren.
15:11 Since the start of the war, Russia`s youth have been a key target of the state`s messaging.
15:16 Last September, when students returned for the start of the school year, they found their
15:21 history textbooks had been rewritten and a new class had been added to the syllabus.
15:27 Mandatory patriotism lessons called Important Conversations.
15:32 Every Monday, first lesson in Russian schools is dedicated to conversations about patriotism.
15:40 Millions of children in Russia, unfortunately, are forced to listen to false arguments about
16:01 politics, about patriotism, about war, about how important it is that Russian soldiers
16:06 are in Ukraine and how Vladimir Putin is the only solution to all the problems in Russia.
16:13 The new school history textbook is aimed at students who are about to leave school and
16:18 students who might go on potentially to join the army.
16:21 So, history for them is a really vital part of educating them as future soldiers and as
16:28 future regime supporters.
16:31 What we see in the textbook is Russians as victims, surrounded by enemies, desperate
16:37 to undermine Russia.
16:38 And children are taught that they should be suspicious of so-called foreign agents, that
16:44 they should be suspicious of any non-official media, because everything outside of the state,
16:51 everything outside of Russia is full of lies and mistruths.
16:55 Education is one of the most important factors to try to spread the information.
16:58 The Russian government understands that this is a prolonged conflict and they are trying
17:03 to spread their message to the younger people to cement this message across the country.
17:07 The schoolchildren are encouraged to only trust the official sources.
17:11 So it is quite an important push in trying to encourage certain one-sided consumption
17:18 of news, but also it encourages people to just tune out of the news.
17:24 A more nationalist vision of schooling that sees education as a carrier of patriotic values
17:31 has been years in the making in Russia.
17:34 After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow's oversight over education was tested.
17:40 There was a lack of funding, a lack of vision.
17:43 Some schools tried to westernize their curriculums, others embraced a more regional approach and
17:49 began teaching in local languages.
17:52 Everything changed when Vladimir Putin took office in 1999.
17:57 Control over public education was gradually centralized.
18:01 A new federal curriculum was introduced.
18:07 And extracurricular nationalist groups were created with the aim of fostering a state-centered
18:13 national identity.
18:16 Putin's government recognized from the very beginning the importance of co-opting the
18:20 youth, so to speak.
18:22 In the 2000s, there were the popular youth movements, Nashi, Moldav Guardia, those who
18:27 proclaimed the support for Putin.
18:30 And then during the 2010s, they were trying to lure younger people into government jobs
18:36 and trying to present this option of if you're not outspoken against the state, you're fine,
18:41 you can have your beautiful life.
18:45 We asked Russia's education ministry for an interview.
18:48 They never got back to us.
18:51 Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russian society has been transformed fundamentally.
18:57 Virtually all independent journalism inside the country has disappeared.
19:03 Dissidents have been exiled, anti-war protests outlawed, which leaves Russia's youth with
19:09 nobody to look up to but voices endorsed by the Kremlin.
19:18 They are being told to conform, starting in the classroom.
19:22 Who is and who should be their heroes are of course the representatives of the system,
19:29 are of course the representatives of the state, the government.
19:35 For example, there is Tina Kandilaki.
19:37 She is a diva style anchor on a TV program for the kids.
19:44 She is talented, she is bright, and she is absolutely pro-Kremlin.
19:49 Friends, today I want to tell you about the lessons of the school about the important
19:54 topic of knowledge about heroes.
19:56 Media literacy means understanding that the state's media and the state's reality is
20:03 the only media and the only reality that can be trusted, that children are told that figures
20:09 like Alexei Navalny, Ekaterina Shulman, other opposition leaders, Mikhail Khodorkovsky for
20:16 example, are working with the CIA, with America, seeking to undermine Russia.
20:22 And what children learn therefore is that their job is to repeat what they hear.
20:32 Instilling young people with a sense of loyalty and dedication to the state is not just an
20:38 ideological exercise.
20:40 Russia is a country reliant on new conscripts.
20:43 An undisclosed number of young soldiers have been killed in Ukraine.
20:48 The Kremlin wants to increase its combat personnel by 30%.
20:52 A more malleable, militarized generation of Russians will help with that.
21:00 Across the country, the state has introduced war museums and memorials in schools.
21:06 There are currently 22,000 of them in operation.
21:10 It's part of a Putin directive to open museums in every region of Russia.
21:15 They are places of commemoration, but of a distorted history where young Russians are
21:21 told that true patriotism comes with self-sacrifice.
21:26 One of the more disturbing trends we might see in Russian schools is plaques being erected
21:32 to graduates of high schools who have died in the so-called special military operation,
21:38 hailed as models of the best kind of Russian you can possibly be.
21:44 So what we see with the museums that are being erected is that these are places of pilgrimage,
21:52 where Russians pay tribute to the sacrifices of the past and the sacrifices of the present,
21:59 and in particular, the supposed utopia that's going to come from a future victory in the
22:04 war against Ukraine and against the West.
22:07 These museums are having just one main goal.
22:12 They're trying to teach children that this war in Ukraine right now is something similar
22:20 to the Second World War, the Great Patriotic War.
22:24 The problem is that in the Great Patriotic War, Soviet Union was saving the world from
22:29 fascism.
22:30 And right now, Russia is on the opposite side.
22:34 That's why they're having such a big campaign, because it's really hard to explain what the
22:39 hell is going on and why Russia is killing Ukrainians and why Russian soldiers are dying.
22:50 In closing, a postscript to our lead report on the situation in the south of Gaza.
22:54 There was a lot we could not include in that story.
22:57 Images of Israel's killings of civilians that are too graphic.
23:00 They serve as records of a war that has shattered multiple laws of combat and human rights.
23:05 All of them need serious trigger warnings before we put them on the air.
23:09 And yet, what we showed in our report and what this network broadcasts from Gaza on
23:13 a daily basis is significantly more than what makes it onto many other outlets.
23:19 We're approaching five months of this war.
23:21 And while we will keep an eye on stories around the world, our focus will remain on Gaza.
23:26 As the campaign to displace and ethnically cleanse Palestinians reaches its most dangerous
23:31 phase, this is not the time for journalists to turn away.
23:34 We'll see you next time here at The Listening Post.
23:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]