The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People landed in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, the records suggest that the authorities followed people to determine if they were carrying on romantic relationships outside marriage.
Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials watch them closely. But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.
. . .
Everyday Gazans were stuck — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and under the thumb and constant watch of a security force. That dilemma continues today, with the added threat of Israeli ground troops and airstrikes.
Yeah no shit Hamas is an authoritarian corrupt movement. That still doesn’t justify the genocide on Palestinians and the apartheid, occupation and systematic rape, abuse, torture, and also the Israeli mass surveillance that is used to blackmail people or even track them down to murder them.
If anything, it makes the current conflict even worse: Not only have gazans been forced to suffer from israeli occupation, they have also been systematically oppressed by Hamas and now they’re being slaughtered for their sake. I wouldn’t be surprised if this pushed more people towards Hamas or other terrorist organizations in the long run.
They’re being slaughtered because the goal of israel is to ethnically cleanse Gaza and expand the israeli Lebensraum.
Hamas is not the target, just the excuse.
Oh, look, a Look-over-there New York Times article about how it’s the merelly authoritarian on the “other” side that are worse than the full blown Genocidal Fascists murdering an entire population - men, women and children, lots and lots of children - whilst claiming they’re only going after said autoritarians.
I did NAZI that coming.
Read the article, it’s very informative for once.
The documents were provided to The News York Times by officials in Israel’s military intelligence directorate, who said they had been seized in raids in Gaza.
- None of it confirmed by secondary independent sources.
- Both writters of the article are Israeli and based in Israel.
- And the timing is convenint for Israel.
- Finally, lets not forget the New York Times’ very special track record of pro-Israel Propaganda.
So the sources for all that are Israeli IDF spooks, none of it is independently confirmed, the writters are Israelis in Israel, this newspaper has been caught not long ago printing pure Propaganda for Israel and the timing of all this “information” “coming out” is right smack when Israel is preparing to go into overdrive in their Genocide which is justified as being to “eliminate Hamas”.
Curiously if all of what Israel says is to be believed (including what they provided for this “article”), they’re killing Palestinian civilians in huge numbers to supposedly get rid of their oppressors, a level of doublespeak we hadn’t seen since Bush caused 1.4million Iraqi deads whilst claiming America was “freeing Iraqis from the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein”).
It’s funny that whilst originally I was inclined to believe the idea that Hamas are pretty straightforward authoritarians with a secret police and everything, after reading the article with a proper analyst’s eye (analysis of information being something I have professional experienced in) I have actually put that predisposition to believe it aside since that piece is written by people who are not even in a position to be unbiased, for a newspaper which is heavilly biased, anchored on paperwork provided by a single-source who are the spooks of the very army commiting Genocide and murdering children in cold blood in Gaza, and which of course has not been independently checked, and comes at a time when this type of story is exactly what the nation all of the above are biased in favour of would want to spread to reinforce their long running Propaganda messaging, so one can only conclude this hit piece almost certainly the most pure unadulterated Propaganda imaginable.
Regardless of your doubt, plus lengthy attempt to discredit the source and dissuade people from reading the article. It sounds not just plausible but likely. Sometimes motives, intentions and outcomes line up perfectly. As truth does. As always think critically and believe what makes sense to you personally
Since you’re a “propaganda expert” what would be the intention and desired outcome by the IDF releasing this?
Edit: added a question
Regardless of your doubt
Gullibility is not a virtue
When you get conflicting information on a crime scene, you gotta make judgment calls. To not find Israel guilty is being intellectually dishonest and ignoring reality
When you get conflicting information on a crime scene
When the crime scene is a mass grave and you’re getting “conflicting information” from the serial killer’s PR team
Oh look, the NYT manufacturing consent for the military industrial complex. What a surprise.
Two things can be true at once. Israel can be violating human rights with their war in Gaza, and Hamas can be an oppressive piece of shit.
This is a false equivalency. The NYT has historically been complicit in manufacturing consent for US foreign policy interests with coverage framing and agenda-setting. By choosing what stories to cover and how to cover them, they can promote certain perspectives while downplaying others. Another user in this thread already pointed out that the author of this article is a pro-Israel propagandist.
The NYT is garbage state propaganda with no more journalistic credibility than the Enquirer
Oh look New York Times is trying to win another Pullitzer Prize.
Reminder that Leaked NYT Gaza Memo Tells Journalists to Avoid Words “Genocide,” “Ethnic Cleansing,” and “Occupied Territory”
Paywall and the archive doesn’t work…
But it sounds like this was pretty tame compared to other countries.
Shit, Israel goes into Gaza and abducts people for torture and long imprisonment without charges based on social media and claimed statements to informants…
And this says Hamas followed people to see if they were having an affair?
And kept files on people? Some journalists?
Hasn’t Israel killed more journalists than even Russia the last couple years?
I don’t see what’s surprising or concerning here. And I don’t see where the article is getting their info either. Are they just repeating IDF propaganda again?
Nevermind, I googled it.
The author is from multiple propaganda outlets in Israel, and belongs to pro-Israel “think tank”…
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/experts/adam-rasgon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Institute_for_Near_East_Policy
Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a ‘balanced and realistic’ perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP’s ranks."[43]
Not only funded by AIPAC, but started be people with a bunch of AIPAC connections.
Thanks for the research, the fediverse is so much better than reddit.
I wouldn’t say that.
Not only did Reddit have Poppingkream, but they could actually ban people and do something about vote manipulation.
There’s more than a few accounts on here that if you get into an argument with them, you’ll always see 3-5 down votes immediately, and they’ll get an equal amount of up votes as soon as they post.
Because on some apps it takes two clicks to sign into a new account, and some people care enough about votes to switch over and over again.
On Reddit they’d crack down on that. Eventually giving an IP ban.
Here trolls have a bunch of options for random instances to make a new account and go right back at it.
Lemmy has its own problems, even if they’re not the same as reddits.
