Student Hot Topics: Hamas-Israeli War

As the war unfolds in the Middle East between Israel and the militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, news literacy skills can help us find reliable information and sources and push back against harmful and hateful mis- and disinformation. This page will help you separate fact from fiction during this international crisis.

Newsguard: From doctored war videos to fabricated White House memos, NewsGuard is monitoring and reporting on the false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims relating to the conflict

Oct 9, 2024
This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. The attack triggered the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, and a year of misinformation. Images and videos that have been altered or taken out of context flooded social media platforms, distorting reality. Some social media users tried to downplay the casualties, claiming “crisis actors” were being employed.

Suggested by Prof. Binita Mehta
On GPS, CNN's Fareed Zakaria cited a fraught history of counterinsurgency and cautioned that Israel's war on Hamas could produce bad outcomes for both Israelis and Palestinians if longer-term endgames aren't considered carefully.
5.57 minute video
Video link: https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/05/fareeds-take-israel-hamas-war-longterm-outcome-gps-vpx.cnn

Suggested by Prof. Binita Mehta
November 1, 2023
37 minute recording
...things are tense on many college campuses right now. Many of you know. It's been this way since the October 7th attack by Hamas. You've either been hearing about this in the news or experiencing it yourself in many places if you're a student or a faculty or a staff member

8 Minute Listen
Dartmouth College has set up forums to educate students and the public about the Israel-Hamas conflict. NPR's Scott Simon talks to professors Susannah Heschel and Tarek El-Ariss, the organizers.

AllSides displays the day’s top news stories from the Left, Center and Right of the political spectrum — side-by-side so you can see the full picture.

Monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an independent website that has promoted awareness of media bias and misinformation by rating the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources, large and small. Media Bias/Fact Check relies on human evaluators to determine the bias of media sources and the level of overall factual reporting through a combination of objective measures and subjective analysis

See the latest on the Israel-Hamas conflict from sources across the spectrum as AllSides tracks developments, fact-checking, and more.
NOTE:
AllSides Technologies Inc., (DBA as AllSides) is an American-based company that estimates the perceived political bias of content on online written news outlets, and then presents different versions of similar news stories from sources AllSides rates as being on the political right, left, and center, with a mission to show readers news outside their filter bubble and expose media bias.

Fichera, Angelo, Roni Rabin, and Arijeta Lajka. "False Claims Around Israel Attacks Include Recycled Videos and a Game Clip."ProQuest, Oct 11, 2023.
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Link to Article: http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/blogs-podcasts-websites/false-claims-around-israel-attacks-include/docview/2875488313/se-2?accountid=12257

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Direct link: http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/blogs-podcasts-websites/happened-online-when-social-media-can-t-be/docview/2876531024/se-2?accountid=12257

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Direct Link: http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/blogs-podcasts-websites/fact-fiction-this-war-is-hard-tell/docview/2876472848/se-2?accountid=12257

Al Ahram is one of Egypt’s oldest newspapers . In addition to the main edition published in Cairo, Al Ahram publishes two further Arabic language editions. The regional print primarily targets Dubai and Kuwait, while the second Arabic International edition receives widespread coverage across the globe, with distribution in Frankfurt, New York and London. Right Center

Al Jazeera English is a globally recognized 24-hour English-language news channel. It operates under the ownership of the Al Jazeera Media Network, which, in turn, funded by the goverment of Qatar. It is the first English-language news channel to be headquartered in Western Asia Left-Center

Arab News is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats. Right Center

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Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. It is published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner format. Left

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The Jerusalem Post is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine as The Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name to The Jerusalem Post. Right-of-Center

Based in Jerusalem, it "documents developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world" Centrist orientation.

BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world.

The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news channel and website headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American non-profit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America's most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children.

1996-Present. Provided by Proquest

The Wall Street Journal provides coverage of breaking news and current headlines from the US and around the world. Top stories, photos, videos, detailed analysis and in-depth business information.

20 January 2025
This article provides a useful history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is one of the longest-running and most violent disputes in the world. Its origins go back more than a century.

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The World Factbook, produced for US policymakers and coordinated throughout the US Intelligence Community, presents the basic realities about the world in which we live.

Provides historical background up to 2017

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The World Factbook, produced for US policymakers and coordinated throughout the US Intelligence Community, presents the basic realities about the world in which we live.

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The Middle East refers to a geographic region that includes parts of southwestern Asia, northern Africa, and southeastern Europe. Though geographers and political scientists offer varying definitions regarding which countries constitute the region, the Middle East is generally thought to include Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen. Many of the world's most widely practiced religions began in the Middle East, including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith. Though these religions and others continue to be practiced in the region, Islam is the most prevalent, with the Pew Research Center estimating that more than 93 percent of the residents of the Middle East and North Africa are Muslims. The region's geographic location has made it an important hub of trade, but the discovery of large oil deposits, first in Iran in 1908 and later in other parts of the region, has given the area additional geopolitical significance