{"id":295496,"date":"2025-05-19T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=295496"},"modified":"2025-05-18T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T08:53:16","slug":"the-media-calls-israeli-captives-hostages-and-palestinians-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/05\/the-media-calls-israeli-captives-hostages-and-palestinians-prisoners\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media Calls Israeli Captives \u201cHostages\u201d and Palestinians \u201cPrisoners\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

People watch a live broadcast of Israeli American soldier Edan Alexander as he is released from Hamas captivity in Gaza, at a plaza known as “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv on 12 May 2025.
Photo: Oded Balilty\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

Although he was a soldier captured at a military outpost, U.S. news outlets rarely described Edan Alexander as a prisoner of war. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

13 May 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0There are several<\/span> ways to describe someone held against their will, each with its own implications. The word \u201cprisoner\u201d suggests someone detained on suspicion of crimes or captured during times of war. \u201cHostage,\u201d on the other hand, signifies a civilian held against their will.<\/p>\n

Since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war in Gaza, corporate media outlets in the U.S. typically describe Israeli captives as \u201chostages<\/a>,\u201d even if they are soldiers<\/a>, and Palestinian captives as \u201cprisoners<\/a>,\u201d even if they are children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This semantic choice was once again on display in the coverage of the release of dual American Israeli citizen Edan Alexander, a soldier in the Israeli military captured from an Israel Defense Forces outpost along the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, by Hamas militants. Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native, was freed after negotiations between Hamas and a U.S.-led delegation. His release kicked off Donald Trump\u2019s Middle East trip, where the president is expected to meet with leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.<\/p>\n

American news outlets on Monday referred to Alexander as \u201cthe last living American hostage<\/a>\u201d in Hamas custody. Anchors<\/a> and analysts<\/a> alike made little to no mention of his service with the IDF, instead grouping him with civilians who were also taken by Hamas. It\u2019s an omission notable to Palestinians, who say that when the Israeli military captures their countrymen \u2014 even those who, unlike Alexander, are civilians \u2014 they are seldom granted a similar reception.<\/p>\n

TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 May 2025\u00a0–\u00a0Although he was a soldier captured at a military outpost, U.S. news outlets rarely described Edan Alexander as a prisoner of war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":295497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1029,88,1855,1941],"class_list":["post-295496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-political-prisoner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295496","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=295496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295498,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295496\/revisions\/295498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}