OUTRAGE OVER TRUMP AI VIDEO ON GAZA

US President Donald Trump's social media accounts shared a controversial AI-generated video depicting him shirtless on the beach alongside a shirtless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The images are based on a US plan to develop Gaza into a resort area, or what Trump has referred to as the ‘Riviera of the Middle East,' which Palestinians and Arab states have denounced.

The video drew criticism from Trump supporters and critics for implying ethnic cleansing would take place, using tropes to depict Palestinians as uncivilised people walking out of what appear to be tunnels into a re-developed Gaza featuring ‘Trump Gaza’ as an attraction. Some have said the accompanying lyrics suggesting that Trump will ‘set you free’ perpetuate the long-touted claim that H*mas is holding Palestinians hostage. Further, images of dancing bearded women appear only to sexualise Palestinians, another common trope that dehumanises oppressed peoples worldwide.

NBC News broke a story that the video's Israeli co-creators, Solo Avital and Ariel Vromen, claim that they did not mean for the video to be leaked to Trump's team.

Trump's comments in February about the US wanting to ‘take over’ and ‘own’ Gaza had already intensified global outrage over the Western-funded onslaught that had k*lled as many as 186,000 people by July 2024, according to the Lancet medical journal.

Plans to re-develop Gaza as a resort area had been touted since almost right after Israel started its military onslaught in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for their alleged roles in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Video credit: @realdonaldtrump

Sources

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/21/middleeast/international-criminal-court-issues-arrest-warrant-for-israeli-prime-minister-intl/index.html 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/explainer-what-is-the-icj-and-what-is-south-africas-claim-against-israel 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzAYFcrqJUM

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/trump-gaza-ai-video-propaganda-machine-rcna194097