Hamas monitored political activity, online posts, and apparently even love lives. Palestinians were stuck between an Israeli blockade and a repressive security force.

The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has for years overseen a secret police force in Gaza that conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians and built files on young people, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People landed in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, the records suggest that the authorities followed people to determine if they were carrying on romantic relationships outside marriage.

Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials watch them closely. But a 62-slide presentation on the activities of the General Security Service, delivered only weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the degree to which the largely unknown unit penetrated the lives of Palestinians.

. . .

Everyday Gazans were stuck — behind the wall of Israel’s crippling blockade and under the thumb and constant watch of a security force. That dilemma continues today, with the added threat of Israeli ground troops and airstrikes.

MBFC
Archive

  • footoro@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    11517·
    6 months ago

    Yeah no shit Hamas is an authoritarian corrupt movement. That still doesn’t justify the genocide on Palestinians and the apartheid, occupation and systematic rape, abuse, torture, and also the Israeli mass surveillance that is used to blackmail people or even track them down to murder them.

    • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      73·
      6 months ago

      If anything, it makes the current conflict even worse: Not only have gazans been forced to suffer from israeli occupation, they have also been systematically oppressed by Hamas and now they’re being slaughtered for their sake. I wouldn’t be surprised if this pushed more people towards Hamas or other terrorist organizations in the long run.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        115·
        6 months ago

        They’re being slaughtered because the goal of israel is to ethnically cleanse Gaza and expand the israeli Lebensraum.

        Hamas is not the target, just the excuse.

    • state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      43·
      6 months ago

      Yeah. There’s, sadly, room in the world for more than one murderous government. I also have no doubt that, if Hamas had the opportunity, they would kill all Israelis. But that is still no excuse for the ongoing slaughter the IDF is committing. An atrocity remains an atrocity.

      • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        37·
        6 months ago

        Hamas wouldn’t bite the hand that feeds. Hamas is controlled opposition, directed by Israel, in Palestine to prevent a real opposition group wanting a two state solution from forming

  • Rookwood@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5219·
    6 months ago

    Everyday Palestinians? What genius propagandist came up with that one? Israel doesn’t seem to make the distinction.

    • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
      507·
      6 months ago

      My thoughts exactly. Nearly everyone agrees that Hamas is bad; what we object to is the grossly excessive violence being applied to all Palestinians.

      • MxM111@kbin.social
        3134·
        6 months ago

        When people shout “Free Palestine” they conveniently forget that if there is no check on Hamas, and if Hamas achieves its goal (and destroys Israel and its population), there would be tyrannical Islamist theocracy in its place. I do not know if there is better way to remove Hamas, I am not a military specialist. Biden advocates for precision strikes, but it might be just the election year maneuvering. But I know for sure, that Palestinians will not be free with Hamas in power. And if Israel lives situation as is and removes its troops, the same thing will be repeated again in future with blood on all sides.

        • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
          263·
          6 months ago

          I don’t know what the solution is either, but I do know that brutalizing and displacing the entire population won’t make the average Palestinian friendlier to the Israeli cause. Say what you will about the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but at least they attempted to be more surgical.

          • Land_Strider@lemmy.worldEnglish
            124·
            6 months ago

            Anything else is more surgical than basically unconcentrated carpet bombing of the Gaza cities a few times over. But yeah, at least the U.S. had a bit of “hearts and minds” approach.

            • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.worldEnglish
              61·
              6 months ago

              The U.S. also had local opposition fighters to help them gain sympathy from the local population, and we were actually trying to nation build.

              You can say that Fatah is basically that for Israel, but they aren’t fighting in Gaza. If the fighting in Gaza was being done by Fatah, then global perceptions would probably be a lot different.

              It would also probably involve less civilian deaths as Fatah would be much less likely just to bomb a neighborhood to get 10 Hamas fighters as opposed to actually fighting for it and taking casualties which is what Israel is currently doing.

              Of course, this couldn’t happen under the current Israeli government. They barely trust Fatah with enough weapons to be policemen in the West Bank, let alone enough to take a city of 2 million.

              • Optional@lemm.eeEnglish
                51·
                6 months ago

                “local” is a relative word their “local” fighters were generally ppl from north who didn’t even speak pashto who were looking for a paycheck by joining the army , and were seen as foreign usa backed fighters themselves. .The english translators army hired required translators themselves in a lot of the rural areas because they didn’t speak pashto just like the westerners. . Thats why they folded and lost very easily once us support ended. They had very few truly “local” fighting force that were from the areas they were supposed to defend. fatah vs hamas conflict inside gaza is a bit more complicated than just language geogrpaphical and cultural barriers and is still ongoing despite peoples opposition to hamas and the current situation.

                • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  6 months ago

                  Yeahhhh Afghanistan was a shitshow. We were actually nation-building, not just nation rebuilding like we did in Iraq, a lot harder to create a national identity out of several tribes and ethnic groups than it is to change/“modernize” a nation like we did in Iraq.

                  Even Iraq had that issue with the sectarianism, but atleast almost everyone spoke the same language (sorry Kurds). Iraq had also had a national identity beat into them by the monarchy and then the Baathists, which probably helped as well. Afghanistan never really had that.

        • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
          235·
          6 months ago

          No. Hamas was not popular until Israel stepped up its attacks on Palestinians and the corrupt Abbas and Fatah party did nothing in response.

          If you want Hamas to go away, you need to actually empower moderates. Abbas lost all political credibility when he promised Palestinian statehood in exchange for nonviolence and couldn’t deliver. Israeli military opened fire on nonviolent protestors and got no consequences for it. Frustrated, the people turned to rightwing parties. Same as what happened in Israel.

          If you want Hamas to stop being popular then you need to stop proving them right. Give people freedoms and security. Because the Israeli government has proved that diplomacy doesn’t work, nonviolence doesn’t work, and protest doesn’t work; the IDF still throws people out of houses and steals land. Abbas offered some deep concessions for peace that made him unpopular with his people (giving up Jerusalem, permanently giving up right of return) and Netanyahu refused without even a counteroffer. He wanted Hamas and rightwing parties to rise so he could justify his violent policies. He intentionally undermined Palestinian moderates and put himself into this mess.

        • Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
          194·
          6 months ago

          Support for Hamas and other extremist groups is a direct result of generations of oppression in an apartheid state.

          The problem is how to separate Hamas from a free Palestine going forward. Hamas claims that they would have no reason to fight if Palestinians get their freedom, and would transition to a peaceful government.

          Obviously, that is extremely doubtful given all the other examples in history of militant resistances gaining full control.

          I posed this question last time lemmy raised internet pitchforks when the US voted against Palestine joining the UN. Who would represent Palestine? Would people seriously be ok with a Hamas representative speaking for Palestine, or even just the western bank subsect?

          • Microw@lemm.eeEnglish
            54·
            6 months ago

            who would represent Palestine?

            The PLO, just as they are right now and have been for 30 years. Not Hamas.

        • Land_Strider@lemmy.worldEnglish
          96·
          6 months ago

          No one is asking for Israel to tear down its walls and emplacements when they shout Free Palestine. Ironically, Bibi knowing but still not taking appropriate defensive measures for the Hamas attack on october, assuming he didn’t fund and encourage it directly as some of his interactions with Hamas would suggest, is what caused and keeps causing blood on the other side of the border, too.

            • Land_Strider@lemmy.worldEnglish
              33·
              6 months ago

              In this current rogue and genociding state? Yeah some increase in wanting that. Normally? No, all everyone wants is Israel to stop the genocide and give back most of the land it had stole over the decades, not a disregard for an Israeli state to exist, nor even somewhere completely else if they can share the land fairly.

    • ALQ@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2414·
      6 months ago

      The NYT has been shown to be biased against Palestinians, so this, unfortunately, doesn’t surprise me anymore. I used to trust the NYT as one of the more trustworthy sources, but am reluctant to give them any traffic anymore. It feels like, at least in the US, the right-wing crazies have won because “mainstream media” (all media, frankly) really is starting to feel untrustworthy.

      I strongly dislike nearly everything about this timeline.

      • DancingBear@midwest.socialEnglish
        81·
        6 months ago

        I think it’s less “right wing” per se and more that the news networks are corporate conglomerates with a narrative they want to propagate.

        They also want to access to the politicians, who are in turn beholden to their donors. The politicians won’t give them access unless the media are willing to also subjugate themselves to the donor class narratives.

        I think it’s more about the money on politics and the ruling that corporations are people and money is free speech that is the problem.

        I think the media is corporations, which advocative for neoliberal policies in general, and because they want access to the politicians they have to be on board drinking the donor kool aid.

      • efstajas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        6 months ago

        Just an anecdote but I find this doesn’t align at all with what I’ve personally read from the NYT. I’ve been following their Gaza coverage pretty closely, and I really feel like it’s been highlighting the injustice of what’s going on quite well. Some of those articles describing the things happening to Palestinians literally brought tears to my eyes.

        Their comment sections are pretty consistently full of genocide apologists flaming them for supposedly spreading Hamas propaganda too.

        To be honest, I can somewhat understand that a major news outlet would want to avoid words like “genocide” even though I personally think there’s no doubt that it’s the right word to use. The debate around using these words is too toxic, and using them would quickly tip discourse even further into bullshit semantic arguments, in turn distracting from what’s being reported.

        • BaldProphet@kbin.social
          28·
          6 months ago

          They’re also victims of Hamas’ war crimes, because using civilians as shields and conducting military operations from civilian locations are also war crimes. If Hamas can even be accused of such, being a terror organization rather than a legitimate government.

          • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            43·
            6 months ago

            Hamas is as legitimate a government as any other authoritarian government is.

            Israel is certainly acting a terror organisation rather than a legitimate government these days.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4820·
    6 months ago

    Oh, look, a Look-over-there New York Times article about how it’s the merelly authoritarian on the “other” side that are worse than the full blown Genocidal Fascists murdering an entire population - men, women and children, lots and lots of children - whilst claiming they’re only going after said autoritarians.

    I did NAZI that coming.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        205·
        6 months ago

        The documents were provided to The News York Times by officials in Israel’s military intelligence directorate, who said they had been seized in raids in Gaza.

        • None of it confirmed by secondary independent sources.
        • Both writters of the article are Israeli and based in Israel.
        • And the timing is convenint for Israel.
        • Finally, lets not forget the New York Times’ very special track record of pro-Israel Propaganda.

        So the sources for all that are Israeli IDF spooks, none of it is independently confirmed, the writters are Israelis in Israel, this newspaper has been caught not long ago printing pure Propaganda for Israel and the timing of all this “information” “coming out” is right smack when Israel is preparing to go into overdrive in their Genocide which is justified as being to “eliminate Hamas”.

        Curiously if all of what Israel says is to be believed (including what they provided for this “article”), they’re killing Palestinian civilians in huge numbers to supposedly get rid of their oppressors, a level of doublespeak we hadn’t seen since Bush caused 1.4million Iraqi deads whilst claiming America was “freeing Iraqis from the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein”).

        It’s funny that whilst originally I was inclined to believe the idea that Hamas are pretty straightforward authoritarians with a secret police and everything, after reading the article with a proper analyst’s eye (analysis of information being something I have professional experienced in) I have actually put that predisposition to believe it aside since that piece is written by people who are not even in a position to be unbiased, for a newspaper which is heavilly biased, anchored on paperwork provided by a single-source who are the spooks of the very army commiting Genocide and murdering children in cold blood in Gaza, and which of course has not been independently checked, and comes at a time when this type of story is exactly what the nation all of the above are biased in favour of would want to spread to reinforce their long running Propaganda messaging, so one can only conclude this hit piece almost certainly the most pure unadulterated Propaganda imaginable.

        • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
          32·
          6 months ago

          Since you’re a “propaganda expert” what would be the intention and desired outcome by the IDF releasing this?

          • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            6 months ago

            “Hamas is Evil, hence why we have to attack Rafah to get rid of them.”

            I mean, “Hamas is Evil hence everything is morally acceptable to getting rid of Hamas” is the sole foundation and support for ever single evil action of Israel such as destroying hospitals killing medical personnel (“they’re Hamas”, “Hamas was there”, “there was a Hamas tunnel under it”), blow up entire blocks with 2000lb bombs (“we were targetting a Hamas operative”), blow up school playgrounds (“we were targetting a Hamas operative”) and so on.

            The more Evil Hamas is made to look the more “Moral” justification the IDF has to do destroy and murder everything Palestinian claiming that it’s to “destroy Hamas”, as Netanyahu frequently says.

            There is literally no other moral argument from Israel for their Genocide. These people aren’t even especially imaginative.

            So this story is just adding another bit of cement on that very same structure supporting the actions “the most moral army in the World” and it’s not even especially important: it even has the wiff of Military Intelligence bureaucrats coming up with something to show the boss they’re doing some work and it getting published because the New York Times has no journalistic criteria at all when it comes to stories that portray pro-Israel in a good light (probably has no journalistic criteria at all for anything).

            You need to be trying really, really hard to imitate the Three Wise Monkeys when it comes to Israel, to not yet have noticed that “we have to get rid of Evil Hamas” is their only justification for doing the most evil stuff imaginable.

            Theirs is such a stupidly simple strategy that is painfully obvious for those with even the smallest amount of brains who aren’t hasbara sockpuppets, no need for “propanda expertise” (whatever that is).

            • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
              23·
              6 months ago

              So that’s why you believe this is propaganda versus a true account of what’s happening?

              For someone so adamant in their conviction it comes across weak af. I am much more inclined to believe the Palestinians. Your wall of text does not negate that fact.

              Israel has finally lost in the court of public opinion, no matter the amount of manipulation

              • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
                32·
                6 months ago

                Conviction?!

                You’re clearly coming at it from the point of view of the indoctrinated - you pre-believe something (i.e. are prejudiced) and then seek a way to interpret reality to yield “conclusions” that match your conviction and are not at all even trying to analyse it rationally.

                Any rational analysis of this “article” in the current context and given the past explicit biases and actions of those who participated in making it will yield the conclusion that what’s in there has a high probablility of being Propaganda and cannot be trusted to be truthfull.

                It really boils down a pretty old principle: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. I totally understand defaulting to believe anything sourced from the IDF and delivered via the NYT in the past, before all this started, but at this point after all they said that turned out to be outright lies along with what they did using such lies as justification, we’re very much on the domain of “shame on you” when it comes to such sources as the New York Times and the IDF.

                Does it mean this article is with absolute certainty Propaganda and not actually true? Of course not: there is a small probability that it’s not Propaganda, since like “Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction” there is a core of believability to it (which curiously is both like a true story AND like the best Propaganda), so only time will tell if it’s mostly true or if, like the “weapons of mass destruction”, it is just Propaganda.

                The rational take on this article (so, not the take of those driven by something irrational like conviction, which is why I so often emphasied Skepticism and Analysis on my posts on this) is to treat it as having zero informational value, unless independent information arises that clarifies it.

                • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
                  1·
                  6 months ago

                  You keep mentioning Iraq’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction justification which Bush spewed out. You might be surprised not everyone believed it. War is a racket, we know this. It is common knowledge not a propaganda conspiracy.

                  This article may be propaganda (highly doubt it though).but the Motives and intentions line up perfectly so yea I’m gonna believe the religious zealots are acting as religious zealots.

        • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
          713·
          6 months ago

          Regardless of your doubt, plus lengthy attempt to discredit the source and dissuade people from reading the article. It sounds not just plausible but likely. Sometimes motives, intentions and outcomes line up perfectly. As truth does. As always think critically and believe what makes sense to you personally

          Since you’re a “propaganda expert” what would be the intention and desired outcome by the IDF releasing this?

          Edit: added a question

          • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
            103·
            6 months ago

            If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

            This piece has so many elements present in typical pro-Israel Propaganda (the IDF source, the absence of independent validation of what the source provided, the shamelessly pro-Israel newspaper, the Israli nationals writing it in Israel, the neat dovetailing with long running Israeli Propaganda messaging) that anybody with even the least amount of Skepticism or Analytical Experience will conclude that it should be treated as Propaganda until proven otherwise rather than believed real until disproven.

            You need to want really really hard to see a swan here to think that this is a swan rather than a duck.

            • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
              36·
              6 months ago

              Yea, none of it aligns perfectly with what appears to have happened in real life. Netanyahu is completely credible and not a dishonest war criminal. There is no internal conflict in Israel. You’re probably right.

            • Beetlejuice001@lemmy.wtfEnglish
              35·
              6 months ago

              When you get conflicting information on a crime scene, you gotta make judgment calls. To not find Israel guilty is being intellectually dishonest and ignoring reality

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
                43·
                6 months ago

                When you get conflicting information on a crime scene

                When the crime scene is a mass grave and you’re getting “conflicting information” from the serial killer’s PR team

  • Mrkawfee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4222·
    6 months ago

    Running a hamas hit piece during Israel’s genocide. You know it’s going to be legacy media.

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      3113·
      6 months ago

      Regardless of how bad Israel is, Hamas is trash. Are we just supposed to pretend or ignore this fact because we are disgusted by Israel?

      • suction@lemmy.worldEnglish
        198·
        6 months ago

        Americans have to take a side and treat everything like sports, didn’t you know?

      • kerrigan778@lemmy.worldEnglish
        138·
        6 months ago

        It just doesn’t seem like the most relevant headline right now, “Hamas still also bad” is a bit water is wet.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          95·
          6 months ago

          The article talks about how a lot of what was going on was “largely unknown.” This is quite literally new information were hearing about in this piece.

          Everyday we hear about the horrors Israel is inflicting on Palestine, that’s certainly a “water is wet” thing right now. I hope you don’t think they should stop reporting on this.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
          85·
          6 months ago

          “This just in: the run of the mill authoritarians on the ‘other’ side are bad” while a new bunch of Nazis are aiming at a new Holocaust of an entire population.

          It all has the heavy stink of the pro-Holocaust propagandists desperatelly trying to distract public opinion with a bit of whataboutism.

        • efstajas@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          6 months ago

          What are you talking about? The article includes new information that has been uncovered, it’s far from “Hamas is also still bad”. Do you think they shouldn’t report new information on Hamas?

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3516·
    6 months ago

    what did you expect from a group created and funded by israeli intelligence to dismantle peaceful pro peace palestinian leftist organizations?

    • bartolomeo@suppo.fiEnglish
      164·
      6 months ago

      I know they were funded in part by Israel to destroy Palestinian unity and give Israel an excuse to kill more Palestinians and take their land, but was Hamas really created by Israel?

      • sazey@lemmy.worldEnglish
        115·
        6 months ago

        Maybe Israel didn’t found Hamas as such but they certainly nurtured it like a baby bird.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            23·
            6 months ago

            A legal fiction needed to function as a scapegoat for US trials in absentia?

            Or are we talking about a tool of the East Asia Cold War, intended to operate as a front for paramilitary operations in the Russian and Chinese back country?

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          54·
          6 months ago

          This argument is made a lot in conspiracy circles and anti isreal communutues, however the argument comes from the fact that Isreal paused prior conflicts for humanitarian or political reasons instead of actually destroying them with superior force. The thing you want them to do now, go easy and end the conflict early is also what you’re complaining about them doing before.

          • AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            6 months ago

            Shlomo Brom, a former deputy to Israel’s national security adviser, told the New York Times that an empowered Hamas helped Netanyahu avoid negotiating over a Palestinian state, saying the division of the Palestinians helped him make the case that he had no partner for peace in the Palestinians, thus avoiding pressure for peace talks that could lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. (source)

            Damn those anti-israeli national security advisors.

            • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              12·
              6 months ago

              Did you read the article? Exactly as I said the argument that is that allowing aid info Palestine helped prop up hamas.

              The same people that complain Isreal does not let aid in push this argument based on them letting too much aid in.

              • AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                6 months ago

                Why do you insist on conflating funding a terrorist organization with cash with providing humanitarian aid via food and medicine?

                • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  11·
                  6 months ago

                  Because that’s what this argument is, they’re talking about UNRWA and similar groups that are officially separate from hamas but in practice are largely controlled by hamas.

                  Do you really not follow any of this? You have such strong opinions for someone that doesn’t seem to follow the big talking points at all. I get if you want to disagree but not knowing the arguments make you seem very uninformed.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2916·
    6 months ago

    Paywall and the archive doesn’t work…

    But it sounds like this was pretty tame compared to other countries.

    Shit, Israel goes into Gaza and abducts people for torture and long imprisonment without charges based on social media and claimed statements to informants…

    And this says Hamas followed people to see if they were having an affair?

    And kept files on people? Some journalists?

    Hasn’t Israel killed more journalists than even Russia the last couple years?

    I don’t see what’s surprising or concerning here. And I don’t see where the article is getting their info either. Are they just repeating IDF propaganda again?

    Nevermind, I googled it.

    The author is from multiple propaganda outlets in Israel, and belongs to pro-Israel “think tank”…

    https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/experts/adam-rasgon

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Institute_for_Near_East_Policy

    Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a ‘balanced and realistic’ perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP’s ranks."[43]

    Not only funded by AIPAC, but started be people with a bunch of AIPAC connections.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
      92·
      6 months ago

      The Israeli Shin Bet does pretty much the same domestic espionage and there’s rightwing patrols in ultra orthodox neighborhoods as well monitoring for illicit relationships etc.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        98·
        6 months ago

        I wouldn’t say that.

        Not only did Reddit have Poppingkream, but they could actually ban people and do something about vote manipulation.

        There’s more than a few accounts on here that if you get into an argument with them, you’ll always see 3-5 down votes immediately, and they’ll get an equal amount of up votes as soon as they post.

        Because on some apps it takes two clicks to sign into a new account, and some people care enough about votes to switch over and over again.

        On Reddit they’d crack down on that. Eventually giving an IP ban.

        Here trolls have a bunch of options for random instances to make a new account and go right back at it.

        Lemmy has its own problems, even if they’re not the same as reddits.

        • SoupBrick@pawb.socialEnglish
          55·
          6 months ago

          The cool thing is that votes don’t mean anything in the comment section here.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
      62·
      6 months ago

      I’d be more surprised by a country that’s didn’t spy on it’s population.

  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
    2110·
    6 months ago

    Has NYT only just figured out now that the nuance was never in Hamas being “the good guys” or not?
    Hamas may be better than Israel right now in that they’re not actively pulling a genocide, but nobody apart from Hamas thinks Hamas are really the good guys in this - but Hamas being a horrid government doesn’t then somehow justify Israel’s genocide against the “Everyday Palestinians” Hamas are oppressing.

  • Jafoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    135·
    6 months ago

    Governments spy on their own citizens? This is more shocking than learning Ivy League unis give preference to legacy students

  • gasgiant@lemmy.mlEnglish
    113·
    6 months ago

    Oh my god that’s awful.

    Nearly as bad as an agency that does that to their own people and that of another nation.

    Not seeing a lot of similar articles about Shin Bet though. Wonder why…