Russia has been a longstanding culprit for spreading disinformation on X, and appears to have been capitalising on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Monday the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, tweeted: “Well, Nato buddies, you’ve really got it, haven’t you? The weapons handed to the Nazi regime in Ukraine are now being actively used against Israel.” … Another video, apparently showing Hamas thanking Ukraine for the sale of weapons it plans to use against Israel, was posted by an X account linked to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. It has since been viewed more than 300,000 times and amplified by far-right accounts from the US. … Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative outlet Bellingcat, also flagged up a fake video purporting to be from the BBC that claimed to feature a Bellingcat investigation showing Ukraine smuggled weapons to Hamas.

People who are on ‘team’ Palestine, often unquestioningly parrot Russian (and Chinese) disinformation, because they’re under the mistaken impression that their enemy’s enemy is their friend. Russia has been a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause and an ally of Syrian and Iran, dating back to Soviet times. The Arab world often ignores how Russia and China treats Muslims, because it’s politically inconvenient.

Some Muslim lives are clearly worth more than others. Take China. The UN is on record as saying what happened to the Uyghurs may amount to crimes against humanity. An estimated 16000 mosques have been demolished. A million Muslims in camps. Forced sterilisation. Medical experiments. Systemic rape. But you’re very unlikely to see large scale protests to oppose that.

The left and Arab world doesn’t care that much, in part because they’ve bought the Russian/Chinese line hook, line and sinker. Partly because west bad, so China/Russia good. Once you realise how selective the outrage is, it’s also hard not to be cynical about the motives of some of those protesting.

Do they actually care? Are they protesting because they’re angry that people are suffering? Or are they protesting because it’s politically convenient and fashionable?

Obviously, what’s happening in Gaza should be condemned. But it’d be nice if people came to the conclusion that war crimes are always bad, even when the guys doing it are on ‘your team’ and not look the other way.