Stealth Palestinianism: sneaky virus
Stealth Palestinianism
How academics sneak anti-Israel propaganda into unrelated research papers
December 07, 2025
“Stealth Palestinianism” is the practice of inserting strident anti-Israel claims—most commonly the unqualified accusation of an ongoing “Gaza genocide”—into scholarly articles whose stated subject has nothing to do with Israel, Palestine, or the Middle East.
A Recent Example
Paper: “Ethics, power, and responsibility in qualitative psychology: a duo-ethnographic inquiry”
Authors: Chiara Fiscone, Guido Veronese, Desmond Painter & Ashraf Kagee
Published online: 11 Nov 2025 – Qualitative Research in Psychology (See EoZ)
- The abstract and main discussion are entirely about research ethics.
- Israel/Palestine is never mentioned in the abstract.
- Yet the paper casually refers to the “Gaza genocide” as settled fact.
- All four authors have repeatedly and publicly endorsed the genocide-lie accusation elsewhere (social media, petitions, prior papers).
The Broader Pattern (2024–2025)
- At least 47 papers in Taylor & Francis journals alone used “genocide[sic] in Gaza” or equivalent—many in unrelated fields.
- High-impact medical journals (The Lancet, BMJ, etc.) routinely frame the conflict as “genocide” without qualification, even in clinical or public-health articles.
- A 2025 bibliometric review found pro-Palestinian framing outnumbering pro-Israel framing 2:1 in such venues.
- Activist academics openly advocate the tactic: at the Socialism 2025 conference, Princeton professor Lorgia García Peña urged injecting Palestine activism into every discipline, including STEM.
Why This Matters – A Reality Perspective
- Legal impossibility: Israel’s conduct in Gaza cannot meet the strict, intent-based definition of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention while simultaneously warning civilians, facilitating aid, and fighting an enemy embedded in the civilian population.
- Psychological exploitation: Readers trust background assertions in psychology or medical journals. Dropping “Gaza genocide” without evidence exploits that trust and normalizes a blood libel where rebuttal is least expected.
- Historical parallel: This mirrors 1930s Nazi propaganda—flood “respectable” institutions with the big lie until it becomes assumed truth.
The result is the slow poisoning of academic integrity and public perception. Countering it demands relentless exposure: call out every instance, demand editorial accountability, and refuse to let uncontested libels stand—no matter how obscure the journal or unrelated the field.
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