Background
- On October 7th, 2023 a series of attacks were carried out by Hamas in Southern Israel, resulting in over 1,000 deaths.[1]
- Several people online were celebrating the violence.[2]
- Two days after the attacks, the H3 Podcast went live with the episode titled "i made a mistake. i'm sorry. - H3TV #93". The episode included an over hour-long chapter of Ethan and Hila talking about the attacks and expressing their shock to the reactions online justifying them.
Claim
During their discussion about the October 7th attacks, Hila interjected by stating that she denies that the IDF commits acts of violence against Palestinians. She was quoted as saying "I am, I am denying that".[3]
Truth
-
During their discussion, Ethan was talking about Hamas and rejecting the notion that they are "Freedom Fighters" while also calling them terrorists who target civilians.[4] They were frustrated by the brazen minimization, denial or even justification of the events of October 7th. Hila interjected by repeating a comment from a chatter saying that "Israel does that on the daily". Ethan interrupted Hila, causing the conversation to split into two parallel interpretations:
- Ethan, continuing his train of thought, addressed the comment as "Israel also kills innocent civilians and children on the daily" which he stated he doesn't deny.
- Hila, wanting to express her original thought before Ethan interrupted her, addressed the comment as "Israel does October 7th scale killings on the daily" which, at the time, was incorrect.
-
This is supported just 10 minutes later in the same episode when a chatter commented that "Palestinian children are dying right now too" and Hila responded "Yeah, and I wouldn't celebrate that".[5] This directly contradicts the claims that Hila denies the IDF killing children.
-
This is further supported by Hila's explanation on the October 31st members' stream titled "Responding to hila conspiracy theories - See You Next Tuesday #50", where Hila stated the following:
"What was being said is that after October 7th, the horrors that happened on October 7th... they are saying (referring to the chatter) that the IDF does that on the daily, I am denying that"
Conclusion
- Hila was misquoted by bad actors as saying "I am denying that" regarding the IDF's violence against innocents.
- In reality, Hila was focused on denying rhetoric that was being used to down play the severity of the violence that was done against Israeli civilians.