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Israel is Losing the Propaganda War // Katie Halper
Katie Halper | Trusted Newsmaker
Stop Playing Defense: Why We Must Center Palestinian Voices
One of the biggest challenges in talking about Palestine today is resisting the endless stream of propaganda that demands a response. Each outrageous claim pulls critics into a reactive cycle: prove this false, disprove that accusation, explain why this atrocity was not what officials said it was. But here’s the hard truth—when we play defense, we let the propagandists set the rules of the game. If we want to break free, we need to stop chasing every lie and start centering Palestinian voices, stories, and priorities.
The Trap of Debunking
Think about the pattern. A hospital is bombed. Instantly, officials announce it was a Hamas base. Or a group of journalists are killed, and the claim surfaces that they were actually militants. Critics rush to fact-check, gather evidence, and dismantle the lies. But no matter how well they succeed, the frame remains the same: we’re arguing inside Israel’s talking points. This isn’t accidental—it’s the very function of propaganda. It thrives on keeping us distracted, exhausted, and forever reactive.
Propaganda Is Designed to Be Outrageous
It’s a mistake to treat propaganda as a good-faith argument. The claims aren’t designed to be plausible; they’re designed to be outrageous. They work precisely because they’re so absurd, forcing people to waste energy proving the obvious. Meanwhile, mainstream outlets amplify the official line first, giving it credibility before Palestinian witnesses even get a chance to speak. By the time the truth emerges, the news cycle has already moved on.
Centering Palestinian Narratives
Instead of living inside this cycle, we need to flip the script. Palestinians themselves are not preoccupied with whether some politician lied yesterday. Their priorities are survival, dignity, history, resistance, and community. They want to tell the world about the genocide they are enduring—but also about their determination not to surrender, about the culture and faith that sustain them, about why they continue to resist. Those are the stories that should be leading the conversation.
The Danger of Disassociation
There’s also a deeper moral hazard in the debunking game. When we constantly try to prove that a journalist or a doctor wasn’t connected to Hamas, we’re silently accepting the idea that being part of a resistance movement makes someone a legitimate target. That logic is toxic. It strips Palestinians of the right to resist oppression and reduces their humanity to a test of political purity. Centering Palestinian voices means refusing to play by those rules altogether.
Breaking Propaganda’s Grip
The most powerful way to undercut propaganda is not by debunking every line but by refusing to let those lines dictate the terms of debate. When Palestinian journalists, families, and communities tell their own stories directly—without being filtered through official talking points—the propaganda starts to lose its hold. Audiences see people, not caricatures. They hear truth, not spin. And that shift in framing is far more powerful than any fact-check could ever be.
Holding Media Accountable—But Not Making It the Center
Of course, there’s still value in exposing how headlines launder propaganda into supposedly “neutral” reporting. Highlighting manipulative language and holding outlets accountable is necessary work. But it should never eclipse the primary goal: amplifying the voices of those actually living through the reality. Media critique is a tool, not the centerpiece.
A Better Way Forward
The path forward is clear. Support independent platforms that give Palestinians the mic first. Share testimonies, history, and culture without filtering them through the lens of official denials. When debunking is needed, keep it brief and secondary. Let Palestinian narratives set the agenda, and let official spin scramble to catch up—not the other way around.
Conclusion
Propaganda wins when it controls the frame. The most radical act we can take is to stop chasing lies and start amplifying truth. Palestinians are not just subjects of accusations to be defended—they are people with stories, histories, and futures worth centering. If we keep our focus there, the propaganda machine begins to falter, because it can no longer dictate what the conversation is really about.
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