October 7th Anniversary, ‘Christmas Day again’
“Israel is a evil state, Hamas should of butchered every last one of them on the spot” [sic]
Eric
“Christmas Day again”
Danny
“Synagogue of Satan”
Paul
A sample of social media posts from RTÉ’s Facebook page, Ireland’s national broadcaster, on Wednesday, October 7th, the third anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered.
The comments were in response to a couple of news stories from the Irish broadcaster – one simply titled “Israel marks three years since deadly Hamas attack”. The stories sparked a furious online backlash.
I don’t know whether RTÉ curates or monitors posts on its Facebook page. It is probably better to believe that it doesn’t.
To be fair, social media posts in this politically polarised world can too often descend into very dark places. Ireland is certainly no exception.
Perhaps one of the most disturbing comments was Danny’s “Christmas Day again”, accompanied by clapping hands and smiley emojis.
The spewing of hateful, demagogic, or racist language is unfortunately all too common on social media platforms.
But let us not forget that some of the most egregious hate in this entire conflict has come from elected representatives in the Israeli Knesset.
“It may be justified and moral to starve two million people.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
“The north of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes.” Amihai Elia – Minister of Heritage, no less.
“Let them die. And have them die horribly.” Galit Distel-Atbaryan, once a Minister of Public Diplomacy.
Criticism of Israel is valid. Accusations of Israeli genocide in Gaza are valid. Expressing disgust at the horror inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza is valid. I have written about all of these things over the past three years.
These social media comments do something entirely different.
So perhaps it is an unusual journalistic choice to give random offensive social media posts further oxygen or light.
But I do believe part of a journalist’s job is to capture a snapshot, a moment in time. Comments like these do not vanish into the ether. They amplify one another. Even if the exact words evaporate over time; a sticky residue of hate remains. It is Jewish hate that is built upon.
I have included only people’s first names here, though all openly provided their full names in the public posts. You can verify the posts via these RTÉ Facebook links.
It is important to acknowledge that these social media posts may not reflect wider sentiment in Ireland. It is also important to note that not all comments were anti-Israeli or antisemitic.
Whilst the posts speak for themselves, it is worth noting that conspiracy theories feature heavily, including the seemingly widespread belief that Israel knew in advance of the Hamas terror attack, facilitated it, and, most notably, is responsible for the majority of the deaths of Israelis killed by Hamas that day. The Hannibal Directive is apparently widely discussed in Ireland.
The dismissal and denial of what happened on October 7th are also accompanied by particularly vitriolic hate.
Perhaps few readers of this opinion piece need reminding that the mockery and erasure of Jewish suffering have a long history.
“probably going to be dancing on the graves of palestinians babys [sic] as a part of the commemorations eh” – Nigel
“Israelis government did this” – Patricia
“October 7 Netanyahu’s work to remain in power” – Erica
“During the October 7 assault, the Israeli army gave the Hannibal directive, instructing troops to kill Israelis in order to stop them being taken hostage” – Vicki
“Hamas did not kill 1200 people that day, Israel themselves killed many of those people under their Hannibal directive” – John
“Known in advance and facilitated” – Seán
“Yes they got the warning but ignored it” – Esther
“Where is the truth in all of this? Do we know who really arranged or facilitated these inhumanly savage attacks?” – Noel
“Will probably celebrate by bombing more women and children in their tent” – Eddie
“3 years since Israel allowed it citizens to be killed in an attack they had full knowledge of” – Loue
“The Zionist propaganda machine in full force. Is there a TV channel they don’t control” – Paul
“Zionist propaganda from RTE News”– Des
“A commemoration of the day the Israeli secret service murdered their own people” – Raymond
“Blaming Hamas for the slaughter is just one of the many lies that the Zionazis of Israhell tell the world” [sic] – Steve
“Three years in and still RTÉ refuse to acknowledge the Jew terrorists killed hundreds of their own on that day” – Philip
“That Isreal [sic] manufactured” – Gerard
“At least 380 isarelis [sic] were killed by Israel at the Nova festival as they tried to escape the helicopters” – Mary
Its all israeli “evil” plan” [sic] – Mustapha
“There is no evidence that anyone was roped” [sic] – Kath
“Israel has become a death star” – Pearse
“Allowed it to happen, self-inflicted damage to carry out a genocide …still getting away with it!” – Maria
“The BBC appoint another Jewish head of news. They control the media, the courts the banks and most importantly the industrial and tech military complex” – Kathy
“F Isreal hopefully Putin start getting rid of them too” [sic] – NJ
“They killed hundreds of their own people that day. They also allowed the attack to happen” – Gary
“Israeli forces SHOT their own people to blame hamas” – Daithi
“The zionazi plan was never rocket science” – Cat
The comments above do not represent Ireland, but they shouldn’t be dismissed as meaningless online noise.
Three years after October 7th, there is something deeply disturbing about a society in which the murder of 1,200 people is met with conspiracy theories, celebration and mockery — and where the dead themselves can somehow become the accused.
