Media Lies About October 7 Helped Create Support For Genocide

Today is the first anniversary of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a Hamas-led cross-border assault that marked a new stage in Palestinian resistance.

In the hours and days after the operation commenced, sensationalist stories spread about actions Hamas fighters allegedly committed. Perhaps the most shocking of these was that members of the group had decapitated and/or burned alive up to 40 Israeli babies.

Those critical of Israel immediately doubted the claim for a variety of reasons. As it became increasingly clear that the story was a hoax, those who had initially believed it protested that it didn’t exactly matter if the babies were beheaded or burned alive, because they had been killed anyways (though this would also end up being proven false, with one baby, not 40, included among lists of those killed that day).

Yet many on both sides agreed on something: Wasn’t the Hamas operation deadly enough on its own without adding such a sensational claim?

More critical observers, however, accurately predicted that whatever brutality Israel had planned needed something particularly egregious to help justify it. The supposed murder of babies in such a gruesome way served exactly that purpose, and played a key role in helping to drum up support for what has turned into a genocide in Gaza.

The spread of this story did not happen organically. It originated with Israeli soldiers and officials telling the lie to a gullible or willing Israeli journalist who reported it as fact. From there, it spread widely, and in the days and weeks to come, it would be cited directly by Israeli government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tweet condemning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not being slavish enough in his support for Israel.

But media outlets around the world, including many in Canada, also played a key role in spreading this story as fact. Here are the names of the people and publications that helped boost the beheaded babies story in Canadian newspapers.

Before I start, a couple of disclaimers: 1) This story only includes examples where the lie was presented as a fact, not just as a report or allegation; 2) The article focuses on newspapers scanned through the Canadian Newsstream database, meaning examples on digital outlets, or TV and radio, aren’t included. For a report that focuses on digital outlets, check out this article by David Gray-Donald at The Grind.

Oct. 11, 2023: The Toronto Star publishes two opinion pieces that present the claim of beheaded babies as a fact, becoming the first Canadian newspaper I found to do so.

One article, by Gilad Grossman, “a spokesperson for the Anti-Occupation Bloc In Israel and a former journalist,” states, “The ISIS-like attack by Hamas against Israeli citizens is an act of barbarism that cannot be comprehended. People slaughtered in their homes, some burned alive. Babies beheaded.” This article was republished in the Waterloo Region Record, The Spectator, the Peterborough Examiner and the Niagara Falls Review.

On Oct. 19, 2023, the italicized text was removed from the article, with this notice added: “This story has been updated. Reports of babies being decapitated by Hamas haven’t been confirmed. As a result, an earlier reference to this has been removed.”

Another article, by Adam Hummel, “a lawyer in Toronto and member of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps of the World Jewish Congress,” states, “The bodies of 40 murdered babies were discovered at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, many decapitated. Babies. Their decapitation is being celebrated.”

On Aug. 19, 2024, the rest of the quote was removed, with this notice added, “This story has been updated to remove an unconfirmed report that the bodies of 40 murdered babies were discovered at Kibbutz Kfar Aza.” The Grind claims this part of the quote was only removed after they asked about it.

I asked Toronto Star public editor Donovan Vincent if the paper regrets publishing these claims. He replied, “There was a lot of information that initially came out when the war started. We corrected details in our opinion columns, news stories and features as we became aware of new information.”

I responded pointing out that the claim was not information, but disinformation planted by the Israeli government, and it clearly had not been confirmed at that point. I asked why, then, the paper decided to publish the claim as a fact. Vincent did not reply.

I also reached out to Hummel, but did not hear back. I was not able to find contact information for Grossman.

Oct. 12, 2023: The Calgary Sun publishes a letter to the editor from Barry Banek, stating, “The media attempted to minimize the attack by suppressing news, such as the fact that 40 babies were beheaded by the savages.”

Oct. 13, 2023: The National Post publishes an article by columnist Sabrina Maddeaux, where she writes, “Those factions - which do not operate ‘in resistance’ to anything, but in self-described pursuit of eradicating not only Israelis, but all Jews - just perpetrated one of the most sadistic terror attacks in modern history. Festival-goers gunned down. Babies beheaded.” This article was also republished in The Province.

Maddeaux did not respond to my comment request.

Oct. 14, 2023: The National Post publishes an editorial stating, “The promised carnage and terror arrived early in the morning on Oct. 7. Babies beheaded, as has now been confirmed by Israeli government sources, with mothers and fathers also butchered at the Kfar Aza kibbutz.”

By this point, Israel had killed at least 724 Palestinian children.

National Post editor-in-chief Rob Roberts did not respond to my comment request.

Nov. 6, 2023: The Toronto Sun publishes an article by columnist Warren Kinsella where he details his experience at the Israeli consulate in Toronto watching supposed GoPro footage taken by Hamas fighters on October 7. He writes, “I saw the decapitated heads of babies and children. I saw babies with bullet holes in them. I saw babies and children who had been burned until all that you could see was the outline of their little bodies, arms reaching up to God.”

By this point, Israel had killed at least 4,104 Palestinian children.

I asked Kinsella if he regrets contributing to the spread of this narrative and if he has taken steps to correct it. He replied, “Fuck off, Holocaust denier.”

Nov. 10, 2023: The Globe and Mail publishes an article by columnist Marsha Lederman where she frames questioning the claim that babies were beheaded as a form of hostility, writing, “I had been asked to answer a question: Why are so many people, chiefly among the younger generations, so anti-Israel? How did this tiny country of less than 10 million people go from darling of the left and beacon of democracy in the Middle East to being so utterly reviled – especially by progressives? For instance, how much do you have to hate a country to actively seek out and tear down posters of its abducted children – often with glee? I’ve seen the hostility myself on social media, where people argue about the details of the Oct. 7 attacks (were babies really beheaded?)”

Lederman did not respond to my comment request.

Dec. 19, 2023: The National Post publishes an article by Michael Higgins, “a journalist with more than 40 years experience, half of them spent at the National Post where his last position was politics editor,” where he states, “It is still bizarre, however, that these demonstrators would account Jesus as one of their own. Because, if baby Jesus had been around on Oct. 7 he would have found himself butchered and beheaded with the creche burnt to the ground with Joseph and Mary inside. Not because he was ‘Palestinian’ but because he was a Jew.”

By the end of the month, Israel had killed at least 8,663 Palestinian children.

I was not able to find contact information for Higgins.

April 29, 2024: The National Post publishes an article by Sheryl Saperia, “CEO of Secure Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating terrorism and extremism,” where she states, “Free us from the likes of Hamas and their apologists. Hamas is a genocidal, banned terrorist entity that invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and beheaded babies, raped and tortured young people at a music festival and kidnapped children and elderly Holocaust survivors - and then promised many more such attacks.”

Saperia had a similar article published in the Toronto Sun on Oct. 14, 2023, but in that one the claim of beheaded babies was presented as a report. In the National Post article, published months later and when the story had been repeatedly debunked, it is portrayed as a fact.

By this point, Israel had killed at least 14,500 Palestinian children.

I contacted Saperia through the form for her organization. She did not respond to my comment request.

Sept. 22, 2024: The Winnipeg Sun publishes an article by Donald James, a reverend and the interim national director of Bridges for Peace Canada, where he states, “What we have been shown includes naked women tied to trees for gang rapes, babies beheaded or burned in ovens while their mothers were raped while hearing their babies’ screams.”

Around this point, Israel had killed at least 16,750 Palestinian children.

I contacted James through the form for Bridges for Peace Canada. He did not respond to my comment request.

The fact that Canadian media outlets helped spread a disturbing lie created and wielded by the Israeli government to preemptively justify its planned genocide in Gaza is a scandal. There is no excuse for the media doing so, and it can never be forgiven.

And yet, the media is not asking for forgiveness, nor apologizing, nor even, in the vast majority of cases, correcting their errors. This highlights the deadly double standard in Canadian media, where the burden of proof needed to publish harmful claims about Palestinians is nearly non-existent while editors bend over backwards to avoid placing any blame for atrocities on Israel. When these heinous claims about Palestinians are proven to be false, the outlets generally just move on. The claim isn’t mentioned again, and no responsibility is taken for the damage done.

This case is particularly egregious because some of the largest publications in the country have continued to repeat the lie, even as the death toll of Palestinian children from the operation the story was cooked up to justify multiplied.

Canadian media continues to lie about October 7, and fail to tell the truth about what has happened since.