December 5, 2024
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The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have released a Spotify Wrapped-inspired list to showcase their 2024 “operational accomplishments”. Known for its viral popularity, Spotify Wrapped is a feature that lists users’ top songs, artists, and listening habits over the year. The IDF, however, reimagined the format as a “playlist” to detail the killings of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.

In their “Wrapped,” shared on X, the IDF listed “accomplishments” in the format of a public playlist titled “Your Top Songs 2024”. The entries reinterpreted Spotify’s music aesthetics, with song-like titles.

Standout tracks included “Dead”, referring to the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s former secretary general, and “Dead Pt. II”, referencing Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. Other entries such as “365”, inspired by Charli XCX’s hit this year, stressed a year of “protecting our civilians”. 

Another entry read, “19,000+ Terrorists Eliminated” with the mock album named “Bye Bye Bye” – an NSYNC song. The post also featured mock albums such as “Dead Hezbollah Terrorists” and “Dead Hamas Terrorists.”

“Thought we would share our year, wrapped,” they wrote in the caption.

The internet, however, did not take the IDF’s Spotify Wrapped-inspired recap lightly. Almost immediately, social media users began sharing their own versions of Wrapped, using the viral template to call attention to Israel’s war crimes. 

A user wrote, “Don’t be shy, post your real one,” and detailed, “Your top war crimes: Killing over 100,000 people in Gaza, displacing millions in Gaza, leaving 0 functioning hospitals in Gaza, destroying over 80 per cent of all buildings in Gaza, causing mass starvation in Gaza.” 

News website Mondoweiss also created their own version of the Spotify Wrapped-inspired list with the caption, “Israel’s genocide ‘Wrapped’ since October 7th, 2023.” The post used the same format as the IDF’s original, but with starkly different content. Titled “Israel’s Genocide Wrapped”, the template included statistics, such as the number of Palestinians killed, displaced, and injured, as well as the destruction of Gaza. The list highlighted the deaths of over 2,00,000 Palestinians, the displacement of more than 1.5 million, and over 20,000 children still missing in Gaza. The post also pointed out the more than 1,05,000 Palestinians injured, over 10,000 imprisoned.

“Turning death and destruction into a Spotify Wrapped parody? This is grotesque on a whole new level. Celebrating violence like it’s a greatest hits album only highlights how far humanity has been stripped out of this conflict. War crimes as ‘accomplishments’? Shameful,” a social media user commented.

The IDF continues its war in Gaza, particularly in the north. A massive evacuation is underway in Beit Lahia, with over 10,000 people forced to leave in the last 24 hours.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Group Amnesty International published a report, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The group said the Israeli Defence Forces committed at least three of the five acts banned by the 1948 Genocide Convention. The IDF assault has led to indiscriminate killings of civilians, caused serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicted “on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.

“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, Al Jazeera reported.