A heterogeneous group of Tel Aviv University (TAU) international students have gotten together to share the verified truth on the incursion of Hamas terrorists into Israel, and their murderous acts.Following the horrific October 7 terror attack by Hamas, and the extensive spread of fake news across digital platforms, a group of 30 international students at TAU have formed a task force to tell the verified story of what they're seeing and hearing in Israel right now.“We're a group of very diverse students with different backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, nationalities and we are coming even with different political views,” said Maria Ellal, one of the founders of the task force and a student from Malta who is currently enrolled in the International Master's Degree Program in Security and Diplomacy. “We are just trying to get the message out of what we are seeing on the ground.”The task force has started Instagram, TikTok, X, and Facebook accounts and through them, members are sharing the stories of victims and survivors of the terrorist attack. Every post made has been fact-checked through multiple sources. The task force is also creating a content database as they analyze the online content disseminated since the attack, and members are using their international networks to raise awareness.“The task force is disseminating truthful information and fact-based information, because in war the first thing that dies is truth,” added Ari Spielman, another founder of the task force who is an American student in the International M.A. in Environmental Studies program. “ The task force with Prof. Ariel Porat, president of Tel Aviv University. (credit: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)TAU's task force We are verifying survivor accounts and uploading stories so that in the future, this can't be something where it's said it didn't happen like denial of the Holocaust and genocide. [Denial] is something that happens even in a day and age when we have verified photo information.”Members of the task force also wrote an open letter that commits themselves to “using our knowledge and international perspective to raise the awareness of societies worldwide. This was signed by 150 TAU international students from various countries like Malta, the US, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, France, Hong Kong, and Poland.“We are always proud of our international student community at TAU, but, given these terrible times, we're admittedly especially proud right now” concluded Maureen Adiri Meyer, the director of TAU's Lowy International School.“We and the wider TAU community are trying to support this and all other student-led initiatives right now, however we can.”
