Propaganda images by pro-Israel groups show mock attack on Dublin

CYBER WAR:Photoshop images by pro-Israel advocacy groups purporting to show Dublin under rocket attack have been circulating on the internet and Facebook.

They show plumes of smoke rising from areas of Dublin, with a CNN breaking news caption “missile attack in Dublin”, and an RTÉ breaking news caption “A missile from Gaza hit Dublin a short while ago”.

A question underneath asks: “Would you be willing to live like this for one day? If Dublin was targeted every day like Israel, would you agree to live like that? Share if you agree it’s Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Similar Photoshop images appeared with pictures of other European capitals under rocket attack. The conflict in Gaza was accompanied by a parallel, and unprecedented, propaganda campaign by both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, aimed at getting world opinion on their side. Both the Israeli foreign ministry and public diplomacy ministry denied they were behind the Dublin images, indicating that dozens of independent pro-Israel groups had been flooding cyberspace with messages.

Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, said he was shocked to see the pictures, but though such images might be out of context for Dublin, they were a reality in Israel.

“In Israel hundreds of thousands of our citizens have been plagued by rocket attacks for over a decade, and this would be a familiar sight for them. This is exactly what a Hamas rocket attack looks like, and worse, when it hits our population centres. We hope the beautiful city of Dublin and its people will never see this in reality.”