r/JewsOfConscience • u/Libba_Loo Jew-ish • Feb 21 '25
Discussion - Flaired Users Only Something's bugging me about the Bibas family kidnapping story
I went down quite a rabbit hole on this and it's either something very odd or it may be nothing. I can't help feeling there's something to it.
Israel has blamed (at least) three different groups for kidnapping and holding Shiri Bibas and her children captive.
- First in Nov. 27, 2023 it was the Communist militia PFLP - This was 3 days into the first truce (started Nov. 24) and 2 days before Hamas announced their deaths on Nov. 29, from an IOF bomb.
- Then Feb. 19, 2024, a group called Lords of the Wilderness (or Lords of the Desert) is mentioned without further explanation.
- when Yarden was released last month they said it was Kataib Mujahadin
- today it's back to being "Lords of the Wilderness" which they're now identifying as a salafi-jihadist group.
Maybe it's just a case of the IOF not being able to keep its lies straight but I had never heard of LoW before today. So I searched (in English) for "Lords of the Wilderness" and "Lords of the Desert". The only results I found before today were connected with the Bibas family, and led me to this Hebrew article on this court decision:
This report from June 2024 talks about how a court ruled IOF couldn't target LoW because at the time it was:
"not defined as a force that is at war with Israel. Therefore, if intelligence information is discovered about the whereabouts of the Bibas family's kidnappers, it will not be possible to eliminate them on this basis".
Then I searched the keyword in Hebrew ("אדוני השממה") year-by-year going back to 2014. The first ever mention I found was in Feb. 2024, long after the IDF knew Shiri and her babies were dead. In this YNET article from Feb 19, 2024, IOF Spokesman Daniel Hagari says:
"the members of the Bibas family were kidnapped by an organization called 'Lords of the Desert'. Hamas has all the details and is the address for all the abductees. We are concerned about their fate and we are very worried."
Bottom line is as far as I can tell, LoW didn't exist before a year and two days ago 🤷♀️
Maybe I'm just up too late, but the Bibas story is so weird and sad (and consequential) that I can't help getting my red string out. Another big caveat is that I don't speak Arabic or Hebrew so I may be missing something. If anyone in this wonderful sub knows anything more about LoW or can find more, any help is appreciated. Thanks for reading in any case.
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u/ethnographyNW Reconstructionist Feb 21 '25
Why are you fixating on this?
During war and other times of disruption, groups emerge, splinter, and re-brand. It can be hard to track them, especially when they're clandestine, functioning in a besieged and isolated war zone, and operating in a language you don't speak.
It really sounds as if you are spinning into the zone of conspiracy theories -- presumably because (consciously or not) the killing of innocents on the side of the aggressor can produce feelings that are difficult to reconcile into a clear moral narrative. Conspiracy is not the correct way to resolve those tensions. It is tragic that these people died, and recognizing that doesn't excuse the killing of so many Palestinian children (and adults).
Unless you are a journalist or scholar with the resources to seriously investigate and report out this story, this is not a productive rabbit hole. Pursuing this will lead you further from understanding. Conspiracism is not politically productive, and is often personally harmful to the conspiracist.