Following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, stories of horrifying atrocities against civilians spread through the media. Many of the most horrendous stories came from Zaka, an Israeli search-and-rescue organization. Some of these accounts have since been refuted by respected Israeli sources, but their reach has gone beyond a simple news correction.

Investigative journalist Arun Gupta joins Allen Ruff to talk about fabrications, rape claims, and the dehumanization cause by propaganda. They talk at depth about Gupta’s Intercept piece “American Media Keep Citing Zaka — Though its October 7 Atrocity Stories are Discredited in Israel”  and his YES! piece “Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation.”

Note to listeners: this interview involves discussion of very violent and disturbing allegations.

Arun Gupta is a journalist who has written for the Washington Post, The Nation, YES!, Raw Story, The Guardian, and Jacobin. He is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York and author of the upcoming “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction: A Junk Food-Loving Chef’s Inquiry Into Taste” (The New Press).

Image by 01x07x2022000 on Wikimedia used under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

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