Fake White House document distorts US aid to Israel
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 9, 2023 at 23:23
- Updated on October 12, 2023 at 15:32
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Joe Biden approved the allocation of $8 billion in military aid to Israel. Ukrainian now have a significant competitor and the situation is now becoming significantly more complicated for them," says an October 7, 2023 post from an anonymous account called "Sprinter," which has previously shared disinformation under slightly different aliases.
The post is one of several on X, formerly known as Twitter, spreading what appears to be an authentic White House statement.
Similar posts circulated on other sites, including Facebook and TikTok, after Hamas militants on October 7 launched a surprise attack on Israel. Publications such as the Indian news site Firstpost published headlines repeating the claim.
Hamas carried out a massive rocket barrage and sent a wave of fighters who gunned down civilians and took more than 100 hostages, including Americans and other foreigners. Israel officially declared war on Hamas the following day, and its army later said it struck 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites in the Gaza Strip overnight.
The Hamas offensive killed at least 800 people and wounded more than 2,600, the Israeli government said October 9. The death toll in the Gaza Strip has also surpassed 680 since Israel launched its air strikes, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said the same day.
The supposed White House memo, dated October 7, 2023, appears to show US President Joe Biden directing "the drawdown of up to $8 billion in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Israel."
But the message is fabricated.
No such authorization appears on the White House's official website or in government documents published by the Federal Register. A keyword search for the text of the memo suggests the fake is a manipulated version of Biden's July 25, 2023 designation of $400 million for Ukraine (archived here).
"This is fake," a representative for the White House National Security Council told AFP in an October 9 email.
The White House also told US outlets including NBC News (archived here) the missive circulating across social media is inauthentic.
Biden has vowed "rock solid and unwavering" support for Israel. The president directed "additional support" for the key ally on October 8, the White House said in a statement, and he ordered US ships and warplanes to move closer to Israel in a sign of solidarity.
"The United States government will be rapidly providing the Israel Defense Forces with additional equipment and resources, including munitions," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the same day.
The US also led calls at the United Nations Security Council for condemnation of the Hamas assault.
AFP has debunked other false claims about the Israel-Hamas conflict here.
October 12, 2023 This article was updated to replace "Palestine" with "Hamas" in the final paragraph.
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