Anti-Palestinian Disinformation Continues to Spread Amid Fragile Ceasefire

Anti-Palestinian disinformation, propaganda, and racism continue to proliferate online despite the fragile and repeatedly violated ceasefire in Gaza, according to experts monitoring the conflict’s digital landscape.

“Anti-Palestinian disinformation and propaganda is used as a weapon to justify crimes that are being committed,” explains Jalal Abukhater, policy manager at 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media.

Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli military operations have reportedly resulted in at least 68,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Authority. Several international organizations, including UN experts and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have characterized Israel’s actions as genocide.

While anti-Palestinian rhetoric has intensified since October 7, experts note that these narratives have deep historical roots. “This has its roots in colonial and Orientalist discourse,” says Asmaa El Idrissi, a lawyer and lecturer at Bochum University of Applied Sciences. “If you look at literature from 100 years ago, you will find exactly the same stereotypes that are now resurfacing against Palestinians: Arabs or Muslims as irrational and backward.”

After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Arabs and Muslims faced increasing portrayal as dangerous and sympathetic to terrorism. These stereotypes continue to influence public perception and policy decisions.

One crucial historical context for understanding anti-Palestinian sentiment is the denial of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” which refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 800,000 Palestinians were driven from their homeland, and at least 15,000 were killed when the State of Israel was declared on Palestinian land on May 14, 1948.

“It’s clearly the denial of the Nakba as a core narrative for delegitimizing any demand for equal rights and a free life,” El Idrissi explains.

Perhaps the most persistent false narrative today is the conflation of all Palestinians with Hamas. This narrative is used to justify collective punishment, which violates international law. While Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, Germany, and other countries, it was elected in the last regional election in 2006, though without a majority vote. No elections have been held since then due to political splits between Hamas and Fatah and ongoing Israeli occupation.

“What we are dealing with here is collective punishment, which is essentially untenable under international law,” El Idrissi said.

Experts note that civilian deaths in Gaza are often downplayed. Abukhater gives an example: When a car or tent in Gaza is bombed, “someone would say that maybe there was a Hamas person in that vehicle where five children have been killed. And that would be enough for them to say: Let’s move on to the next story.”

This biased attitude is further fueled by racist media coverage. Palestinian researcher Hanan Sahmoud highlights how European media have often “depicted Palestinians as savages,” with the wider public adopting these dehumanizing perspectives. Social media users regularly describe Palestinians in derogatory terms, and there are examples of Israeli officials doing the same.

On October 9, 2023, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.” Such dehumanization reduces empathy for Palestinian suffering.

This dehumanization was further amplified by targeted disinformation regarding the famine in Gaza in 2025. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed there was no famine there, suggesting that children only looked malnourished because of pre-existing illnesses rather than Israel blocking humanitarian aid and food.

There is growing evidence that misinformation and disinformation are key components in inciting violence and war globally. In the Gaza conflict, propaganda and dehumanization of Palestinians work in tandem, amplifying racist beliefs that some groups are intrinsically superior to others.

The dynamic extends to Germany, where media outlets often frame Palestinians and their supporters as dangerous. “It’s a very racist assumption to say anyone who stands for Palestinian rights is ‘pro-terrorist,'” Abukhater notes.

These assumptions manifest in police responses to pro-Palestinian protesters. “We are alarmed by the persistent pattern of police violence and apparent suppression of Palestine solidarity activism by Germany,” UN experts stated in an October 16 press release. During Nakba Day commemorations on May 15, German media widely reported that a police officer was seriously injured by demonstrators, but subsequent investigations revealed that protesters were subjected to police violence.

Media bias also plays a significant role. An analysis of nearly 4,853 headlines by German media between October 7, 2023, and January 19, 2025, showed that many leading outlets rely primarily or exclusively on official Israeli sources for their Middle East reporting.

Social media platforms amplify anti-Palestinian content through algorithms that often promote extremist viewpoints. An investigation by DW Fact Check revealed that Israel had spent at least €42 million ($49 million) on anti-Palestinian propaganda ads. On August 22, the same day the UN announced parts of Gaza were experiencing “man-made famine,” the Israeli Government Advertising Agency launched a campaign denying the famine’s existence.

To combat anti-Palestinian propaganda and racism, Abukhater says Palestinians must be given space to tell their own stories. “Palestinians are often spoken about, and Palestinians don’t speak for themselves” across many media outlets. Media organizations must examine their personal and structural biases.

“There should be more discussion on anti-Palestinian racism, recognizing it as a concept, looking at the semantics and how it’s used generally to dehumanize, to accuse all Palestinians.”