Poisonous fake news exploits child’s death

of the poor child, followed a familiar path. First it was amplified by Palestinian activists in Gaza and the West Bank, then repeated by key voices in the Palestinian diaspora. From there it was promoted by anti-Zionist Jews in the diaspora, before circulating back to Israel’s far-left fringe.

The one thing they have in common is they believe Israel is evil. The story was true for them because they wanted it to be.

But it was not true. Or rather, like the best lies, it contained a grain of truth, but nothing more. Aisha was indeed a five-year-old from Gaza. She did have a brain tumour and was allowed into Israel to access medical treatment. That is where fact ends and fiction begins.

Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry unit that deals with civilian matters in the territories, said it was perfectly willing to allow Aisha’s family to accompany her. They decided instead to send a friend. And Aisha did not die in Jerusalem; she received treatment before returning to Gaza, where she sadly passed away.

But by the time that information was released, the original story had been read and shared around the world. You can see the thought processs, motivated by a belief that Cogat was likely lying or that, “even if it wasn’t, Israel has been guilty of far, far worse”.

When truth is deemed less important than an overall narrative, lies will inevitably end up being told; lies on a devastating scale. All we can do when confronted with the lies of anti-Israel campaigners is to unmask them. But similarly, if we see pro-Israel campaigners describing or sharing things we know to be untrue, we should not hesitate to call them out, however uncomfrotable it might be to do so.