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A group of genocide prevention experts has accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “outright genocide denial” after she baselessly claimed that “made up” social media content is to blame for young people’s opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In a statement Monday, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security said that Clinton sought to sweep aside young people’s moral opposition to genocide by incorrectly blaming social media and “propaganda.”
“Clinton’s recent remarks at the Israel Hayom Summit on 2 December amount to outright genocide denial,” the group said. “Secretary Clinton’s framing is not at all an accurate reflection of why Americans are growing more critical of Israel…. Young people in the U.S. are not stupid or gullible. They simply reject genocide — something the Secretary might consider doing as well.”
Clinton’s remarks on Gaza last week, delivered onstage at a summit held by far right Israeli outlet Israel Hayom, circulated widely online. She said that young people only oppose Israel and its genocide in Gaza because they’re being fed “pure propaganda” and “totally made up” content on social media.
The former secretary of state lamented that Israel has the “worst PR of any group” — appearing to ignore Israel’s extensive propaganda campaigns in the United States. She railed on about TikTok, which politicians have sought to ban, and other social media platforms supposedly forcing the issue.
The Lemkin Institute pointed out that Clinton seems to think that the societal shift against Israeli occupation and violence is “a matter purely of optics,” rather than a result of the steady stream of horrific images of Israeli slaughter coming out of Gaza for over two years now.
“Secretary Clinton appears not to be bothered by the reality of genocidal violence — in fact, she did not mention anything about it. Her concern is, rather, in her words, ‘the narrative’ — the fact that these crimes are no longer hidden and are now being live-streamed and documented in real time, making it harder for her and others to control it,” the group said.
The group noted that it is ironic to say that users are being fed pro-Palestine content on social media platforms, since most major apps have faced accusations of censoring content critical of Israel.
“What truly seems to unsettle Secretary Clinton is not ‘misinformation,’ but rather the fact that younger generations are no longer consuming a single, state-controlled narrative,” the statement goes on. “Secretary Clinton’s remarks are not only inaccurate — they are also a shameful example of the lengths to which people complicit in genocide will go to to deny its existence.”
Clinton has faced widespread criticism over her remarks, which stand in sharp contrast to the findings by sources like the United Nations and the world’s leading genocide scholars’ group that Israel is committing genocide.
“I’m nearly 50. I don’t use TikTok. I listen to NPR Morning Edition and read the Financial Times daily. I’m a lawyer who has worked on Israel-Palestine issues for the last 20 years,” said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy. “The evidence I’ve seen that Israel committed atrocities including genocide in Gaza is overwhelming.”
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