Gazalighting, hostages, accountability and double standards - On the selective outrage dominating our society, media and politics

There is a word that captures precisely what has been happening in our media and politics for the past two years: gazalighting. Just like gaslighting, the psychological manipulation of someone's grip on reality, gazalighting inverts the facts and turns perpetrators into victims. The starting point of this conflict, the bloody terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 innocent civilians were murdered and over 250 people taken as hostages to Gaza, faded remarkably quickly from public consciousness.

In left-leaning media and political circles, barely any attention was paid to the fate of the hostages. Not one Gazan publicly expressed sympathy for the Jewish families living in agonising uncertainty for almost two years. Not one pro-Gaza voice was asked to distance themselves from Hamas and its leadership. The double standard could not be more glaring: everyone who supports Israel must ceaselessly denounce Netanyahu, while not one ounce of accountability is demanded from the other side for the acts of terror that ignited this conflict.

Double moral standards in Belgian media and politics

The perpetrators become victims, and those who state the facts become suspects. That is “gazalighting” in its purest form.

The Eurovision Song Contest offers a telling illustration of this double standard. For two years, Belgian politicians and media were consumed with excluding Israel from a cultural music event. Israel was accused of cheating, of wielding too much influence, of not deserving to win. Meanwhile, dictatorial regimes such as Iran, Turkey, Qatar and China pour billions of euros into our universities and religious institutions. On this, silence reigns. Yet this represents a serious, concrete threat to our freedom, security, democracy, and our academic independence.

The report compiled by Israeli experts led by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy makes this journalistic failure even more disturbing. The “Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children” extensively documented the atrocities committed by Hamas against women and children during the October 7 attacks. Rape, torture, sexual humiliation and extreme acts of violence were investigated and recorded in detail. Yet Belgian media remained almost entirely silent about the report. Only after a complaint was submitted to the VRT Ombudsman, that BeNews verified, did the public broadcaster publish a small article on its website more than a week later. That was the extent of the coverage. No extensive analysis, no major debate programmes, no sustained public outrage of the kind we routinely witness in other conflicts. This again exposes the same double standard: when Jewish victims are at the centre of the story, the moral outrage of our media suddenly appears far less urgent.

Even more troubling is the evolution of activist movements across the West. Organisations that once claimed to stand for equality, anti-racism and human rights increasingly appear consumed by an obsessive hostility toward Israel. Within radical fringes of XR activism, woke movements and segments of the BLM movement, the war in Gaza has become an ideological cause in which Israel is systematically portrayed as the ultimate evil while Hamas and extremist Palestinian factions are minimised, excused or indirectly glorified.

This is no longer humanitarian solidarity. It is political radicalisation.

When chants such as “from the river to the sea” echo through European universities and city centres, everyone understands the implication. When activists refuse to condemn Hamas while labelling every Israeli military response as “genocide,” the issue ceases to be about peace or human rights. It becomes the ideological demonisation of the world’s only Jewish state.

The hypocrisy becomes even more alarming when self-described anti-fascist activists openly cooperate with speakers, organisations or networks associated with extremist Islamist ideology. Across Europe, several demonstrations over the past months have descended into explicit antisemitism, intimidation and glorification of violence. This should deeply concern anyone who genuinely values democracy and pluralism. A democratic society cannot survive if extremist ideologies are normalised under the cover of activism.

Belgium should take a far firmer stance against organisations and individuals who glorify extremism or openly support terrorist groups. Freedom of expression is a fundamental democratic right, but it cannot become a shield for intimidation, hate propaganda or support for violence. Individuals residing in Belgium who openly incite violence, spread terrorist propaganda or actively undermine democratic constitutional order should face prosecution under the law. Where legally possible, residence permits should be revoked, and cases involving dual nationality should be examined carefully when there is proven support for violent extremism or terrorist ideology.

Too often, Western institutions respond with weakness out of fear of being labelled intolerant. But genuine tolerance does not mean allowing anti-democratic movements to exploit our freedoms in order to destroy the very foundations of our society. Liberal democracies have both the right and the obligation to defend themselves against extremism, antisemitism and the glorification of terror.Fear of intolerance has resulted in institutions such as Ghent University, under the leadership of Petra De Sutter, becoming intolerant toward Jews and a democracy like Israel

It is time to stop framing Hamas and Gazans as eternal victims of a supposed “colonial apartheid regime.” It is time to demand accountability. From Hamas, which uses its own population as human shields. From Qatar and Iran, which finance and arm this terrorist organisation. And from the Western media and politicians who have uncritically adopted this framing for the last years. Gazalighting is not analysis, it is propaganda in its purest form.

Those marching in our universities and through our streets “for Gaza” are in many cases not driven by humanitarian concern, but by deep-seated antisemitism or political self-aggrandisement. That these marches pass through Jewish neighbourhoods in Brussels and Antwerp is no coincidence, it is intimidation. It should be prohibited, just as any other form of targeted intimidation of a religious or ethnic community is prohibited.

The hostages deserve better. The Jews deserve better. The truth deserves better. And our democracy deserves leaders with the courage to call the double standard exactly what it is.

Image credits: Peter Steiner via Unsplash