{"id":148207,"date":"2019-11-25T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=148207"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:19:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T11:19:43","slug":"how-western-media-bias-allows-israel-to-get-away-with-murder-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/11\/how-western-media-bias-allows-israel-to-get-away-with-murder-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"How Western Media Bias Allows Israel to Get Away with Murder in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Israel has killed 34 Palestinians, including children and women, in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.\u00a0 (Photo: via Social Media)<\/p><\/div>\n

17 Nov 2019 – <\/em>An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was\u00a0foreseeable<\/a>\u00a0because it factors neatly in Israel\u2019s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of \u201cif\u201d, but \u201cwhen\u201d.<\/p>\n

The answer came on November 12, when the Israeli military launched a major strike against Gaza, killing an Islamic Jihad Commander,\u00a0Bahaa Abu al-Ata<\/a>, along with his wife Asma.<\/p>\n

More strikes followed, targeting what the Israeli military described as Islamic Jihad installations. However, the identities of the victims, along with damning social media footage, pictures, and eyewitness accounts indicate that civilians and civilian infrastructure were bombed and destroyed as well.<\/p>\n

As of November 14, when a truce was announced, 32 Palestinians have been killed and over 80 wounded in the Israeli aggression.<\/p>\n

What truly frustrates any meaningful discussion on the horrific situation in Gaza is the feeble response, whether by international organizations that exist with the sole purpose of ensuring world peace or by Western mainstream media, that ceaselessly celebrates its own accuracy and impartiality.<\/p>\n

A most disappointing response to the Israeli violence was\u00a0offered<\/a>\u00a0by Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.<\/p>\n

Mladenov, whose job should have long been deemed pointless considering that no \u201cpeace process\u201d actually exists, expressed his \u201cconcern\u201d about the \u201congoing and serious escalation between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not only Mladenov\u2019s statement creates a moral equivalence between an occupying power, which instigated the war in the first place, and a small group of a few hundred armed men, it is also dishonest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars against population centers is absolutely unacceptable and must stop immediately,\u201d Mladenov elaborated, putting great emphasis on the fact that, \u201cthere can be no justification for any attacks against civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shockingly, Mladenov was referring to Israeli, not Palestinian civilians. At the time that his statement was released to the media, there were already dozens of Palestinian civilians that had been killed and wounded, while Israeli media reports spoke of few Israelis who had been treated for \u201canxiety\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Union did not fare any better. The EU\u00a0parroted<\/a>\u00a0the same American knee-jerk response by condemning \u201cthe barrage of rocket attacks reaching deep into Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe firing of rockets on civilian populations is totally unacceptable and must immediately stop,\u201d a statement by the European bloc read.<\/p>\n

Is it not possible that Mladenov and top EU foreign policymakers do not truly comprehend the political context of the latest Israeli onslaught\u00a0 \u2013 \u00a0that embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using military escalation as a way of fortifying his weakening grip on power.<\/p>\n

Considering this, what is one to make of the poor media coverage, the inept analyses and the absence of balanced reports in major Western news media?<\/p>\n

In a report published by the\u00a0BBC\u00a0on November 13, the British broadcaster\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0to \u201ccross-border violence between Israel and militants in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Gaza is not an independent country and, per international law, it is still under Israeli occupation. Israel\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0Gaza a \u201chostile territory\u201d in September 2007, arbitrarily establishing a \u201cborder\u201d between it and the besieged Palestinian territory. For some reason, the BBC finds this designation acceptable.<\/p>\n

CNN, on the other hand,\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on November 13 that \u201cIsrael\u2019s military campaign against Islamic Jihad\u201d is entering its second day, while emphasizing the UN condemnation of the rocket attacks.<\/p>\n

CNN, like most of its American mainstream counterparts, reports on Israeli military campaigns as a part and parcel of some imagined \u201cwar on terror\u201d. Therefore, analyzing the language of US mainstream media with the purpose of underlining and emphasizing its failures and biases, is a useless exercise.<\/p>\n

Sadly, US bias regarding Palestine has extended to mainstream media in European countries that were, to some degree, fairer, if not somewhat sympathetic, with the Palestinian peoples\u2019 situation.<\/p>\n

El Mundo\u00a0of Spain, for example,\u00a0spoke<\/a>\u00a0of a number of Palestinians \u2013 making sure to emphasize that they were \u201cmostly militants\u201d, \u2013 who \u201cdied\u201d as opposed to \u201cwere killed\u201d by the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe escalation followed the death of Gaza\u2019s armed branch leader,\u201d El Mundo reported, failing once more to pinpoint the culprits in these seemingly mysterious deaths.<\/p>\n

La Repubblica, which is perceived in Italy as a \u201cleftist\u201d outlet, sounded more like a rightwing Israeli newspaper, in\u00a0its description<\/a>\u00a0of the events that led to the death and wounding of many Palestinians. The Italian newspaper used a fabricated timeline that only exists in the mind of Israeli military and decision-makers.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence continued. Several rockets were thrown towards Israel by Gaza\u2019s Islamic Jihad (militants), breaking the brief truce, according to (rightwing Israeli newspaper)\u00a0The Jerusalem Post\u00a0and to the Israeli army\u201d.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear what \u201ctruce\u201d\u00a0La Repubblica\u00a0was referring to.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s\u00a0Le Monde\u00a0followed suit,\u00a0reporting<\/a>\u00a0the same deceptive and cliched Israeli lines and emphasizing statements by the Israeli military and government. Interestingly, the death and wounding of many Palestinians in Gaza did not deserve a place on the French newspaper\u2019s homepage. Instead, it chose to highlight a comparatively irrelevant news item where Israel\u00a0denounced<\/a>\u00a0the labeling of illegal settlement products as \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maybe, one could have excused these across-the-board journalistic and moral failings if it were not for the fact that the Gaza story has been one of the most covered news topics anywhere in the world for over a decade.<\/p>\n

It is obvious that the West\u2019s \u201cnewspapers of record\u201d have maintained their blindspot on fairly reporting on Gaza and intentionally kept the truth from their readers for many years so as not to offend the sensibilities of the Israeli government and its powerful allies and lobbies.<\/p>\n

While one cannot help but bemoan the death of good journalism in the West, it is also important to acknowledge with much appreciation the courage and sacrifices of Gaza\u2019s young journalists and bloggers who, at times, are targeted and killed by the Israeli army for conveying the truth on the plight of the besieged but tenacious Strip.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East and global issues for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of<\/em> The Palestine Chronicle. His books include<\/em> Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada, and<\/em> My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza\u2019s Untold Story. His latest is<\/em> The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website:<\/em> www.ramzybaroud.net<\/a>. <\/em>Email: <\/em>info@ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17 Nov 2019 – Sadly, US bias regarding Palestine has extended to mainstream media in European countries that were, to some degree, fairer, if not somewhat sympathetic, with the Palestinian peoples\u2019 situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":57265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,62],"tags":[120,1030,87,267,1029,487,88,234,771,1027,427,85,109,287,1572,985,880,265,292,70,126,1025,886],"class_list":["post-148207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","category-media","tag-conflict","tag-fatah","tag-gaza","tag-geopolitics","tag-hamas","tag-human-rights","tag-israel","tag-media","tag-nakba","tag-oslo-accords","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-israel","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-settlers","tag-social-justice","tag-state-terrorism","tag-terrorism","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-west-bank","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}