Calling Facts We Don’t Like ‘Hasbara’ Isn’t Working

by Abier Khatib, keyboard warrior and pro-Palestinian activist

New York, March 10 – Folks, we have a problem: all that online engagement on Twitter and Instagram, promoting our narrative and debating against Zios has yet to produce the desired effect. We haven’t moved the needle in any noticeable way regarding American public opinion on Palestine. People aren’t buying our side of the story, even when we dismiss points we dislike as mere propaganda.

I love to dogpile Zionists as much as the next activist. Don’t get me wrong. “Cathartic” doesn’t begin to describe the thrill of harassing those devils into blocking or muting us – all the more when we can glory in a Palestinian operation that kills Jews. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the basic calculus: when we call the “facts” that Zios cite, and we call those points “hasbara” instead of addressing the points themselves, we appear to lose credibility.

I don’t like it any more than you do! It’s just a – there’s no better word for it – a fact. I know we like to avoid “facts” that contradict our narrative of virtuous victimhood – when we’re not doing the opposite by calling the violent targeting of Israeli children virtuous – but we might have to change our approach if we really want to make inroads in public opinion. It turns out that winning debates when lots of people who don’t already support you are watching and listening requires facility with information, logic, and coherent argument, and not just the slurs we practice when we get together for activist events.

Those nefarious Zios have even marshaled these things called “logic” and “facts” that can undermine our case! I can’t tell whether they actually believe Palestinians left en masse without being expelled by ethnic cleansing Jews, or whether it’s just a hole they’ve found in the historical record that they can exploit; the thing is, the effect is the same either way. We have to actually prove our assertions if we want to emerge victorious in debate, and we’ve been sorely lacking that regard because we rely on cries of “Nazi!” “Hasbara!” and “Genocide!” We don’t know how to respond without more of the same when a Zio presents actual Palestinian statistics showing the opposite of ethnic cleansing or genocide, or when the photos we’ve been posting of Zionist atrocities get shown to be from Syria, or wore yet, from the so-called Holocaust. And I don’t need to tell you what kind of losing argument it is, to our chagrin, when you try to deny the Holocaust to a bunch of Americans.

So we have our work cut out for us. Does anyone have any real facts that we can use?

Anyone?

Anyone at all?

Hello?

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