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Crisis in US
Media Coverage of
Gaza
Patrick O'Connor
The
Electronic Intifada
5 July
2006
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10521
One element fueling the
current crisis in Gaza is the ongoing failure of US corporate media
coverage of Israel/Palestine. US policy, public opinion and mainstream
media coverage of Israel/Palestine are all dangerously biased towards
Israel. Media coverage both reflects and influences policy and public
opinion. Media coverage of events in Gaza again illustrates how the US
mainstream media privileges the Israeli narrative, and frequently ignores
both Palestinian experiences and international law, providing the US
public and policymakers with only part of the story.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted that he intended to
commit war crimes in Gaza, telling his cabinet that he wanted “no one to
be able to sleep tonight in Gaza”. Olmert thus officially acknowledged
Israel’s policy of collectively punishing 1.4 million Palestinians, a
violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. But none of the US’ three
leading newspapers - The New York Times, Washington Post and LA
Times - reported Olmert’s statement, even though it was widely quoted
around the world.
In the last week, these three leading US papers all also published
editorials strongly supporting Israel’s right to “retaliate” after the
capture of an Israeli soldier. Their editorials never mentioned a single
element of Israel’s brutal 10 month siege on Gaza. In a reminder of The
Washington Post’s editorial advocacy of the Iraq war, The Post
took the most belligerent position, applauding Israeli “restraint” and
approving an Israeli overthrow of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Although the major newspapers have published some good articles reporting
Palestinians’ views in the last days, their overall bias towards Israel
has been glaring.
On July 2 Ehud Olmert told his cabinet that, “I want nobody to sleep at
night in Gaza. I want them to know what it’s like” in Israel’s communities
near Gaza that have been hit by Palestinian Qassam rockets. His statement
referred directly to Israel’s practices of waking Palestinians in the
middle of the night by repeatedly flying jets overhead that create sonic
booms, and of shelling Gaza at night. Additionally, Israel keeps Gazans
awake at night with worry about poverty, siege, imminent attack, and lack
of electricity, water, fuel and food. Olmert’s statement was widely
reported in the Israeli media, and by the Associated Press, The Chicago
Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, and the UK’s Guardian,
among others. A google news search for his quote yields 279 articles,
mostly from newspaper websites around the US. Some of these papers
undoubtedly printed this story.
Yet there was no hint of Olmert’s words in LA Times or
Washington Post. The New York Times’ coverage is more
interesting. New York Times’ correspondents Steven Erlanger and Ian
Fisher reported the quote in an on-line article that was also published in
the International Herald Tribune. However, the quote never appeared
in the Times’ print edition. The Times’ editors seem to have
decided that Olmert’s words were not “fit to print,” and deleted them from
their journalists’ report. The conspicuous absence of such a widely
reported and telling quote raises the possibility that the leading US
papers actively avoid printing information that makes Israel look too
obviously bad.
What is certain is that the leading US papers generally omit the
frameworks of human rights and international law as well as related
concepts like collective punishment, and proportionality, all of which
have been consistently violated by Israel. On July 3, the Israeli human
rights organization B’Tselem specifically criticized Olmert’s statement,
saying that, “The use of sonic booms flagrantly breaches a number of
provisions of international humanitarian law. The most significant
provision is the prohibition on collective punishment. Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention… categorically states that "Collective penalties
and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
In addition to criticizing sonic booms, Human Rights Watch noted on June
29 that “The laws of war prohibit attacks on “objects indispensable to the
survival of the civilian population.” Israel’s attack on Gaza’s only power
plant is in violation of its obligation to safeguard such objects from
attack.”
Though collective punishment of Palestinians has historically been a
cornerstone of Israeli policy, and characterizes Israel’s siege of Gaza,
the US’ three leading papers have used the phrase “collective punishment”
just four times since heightened crisis began on June 25. Each paper cited
the same statement by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas once, and The
New York Times also quoted a Palestinian grocery store owner. These
same newspapers printed the phrase “collective punishment” a combined
total of only six other times this year in their reporting on
Israel/Palestine. Since June 25 those papers used the words “terrorism” or
“terrorist” 28 times to describe Palestinians, while using “occupation”
only six times to describe Israeli actions. Citations of the illegality of
Israeli settlements, the Wall, home demolitions, detention of
Palestinians, and many other measures are similarly rare. While these
newspapers do document the humanitarian crises that Palestinians endure,
they generally avoid suggesting that Palestinians have rights like
Israelis, or that there is an accepted body of law that should be applied
not just to Palestinian attacks, but also to Israeli actions.
Similarly, in taking positions on the current crisis, these newspapers’
editorial boards completely erased Israel’s most recent human rights
violations. All three papers blamed only Hamas. The New York Times'
June 29 editorial noted “reckless Hamas provocations,” and The
Washington Post’s July 1 editorial “Hamas’s War” highlighted Hamas’
“acts of terrorism and war.” Writing as if history began with the June 25
capture of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian attack materialized
from thin air, none of their editorials even hints at Israel’s
disproportionate violence – Israel’s 39 year military occupation; the 176
Palestinians killed in 2006, many of them civilians and children, compared
to 16 Israelis killed; 8300 Israeli shells launched into Gaza this year
compared with 840 Palestinian rockets launched towards Israel; on-going
Israeli land seizure; or Israel’s tightening siege of Gaza. Only The
New York Times mentioned that Hamas was now breaking a unilateral 16
month truce. Israeli newspaper editorials have been more nuanced and
balanced than these US editorials.
None of the editorials noted that Palestinians killed and captured Israeli
soldiers implementing a siege of Gaza. None noted the irony that
Palestinians were holding a single Israeli soldier prisoner, while Israel
is holding 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, many civilians held without due
process, and some enduring torture. In a sentence that could have been
drafted by an Israeli government PR firm, The Post’s editors wrote that
“the militants' demand that Israel release Palestinian prisoners it has
legally arrested in exchange for a soldier who was attacked while guarding
Israeli territory.”
After rationalizing Israel’s arrest of 60 Hamas leaders, many of them
Palestinian Authority Ministers and elected members of the Palestinian
parliament, The Post’s editors then downplayed Israel’s destruction
of an electric plant that provides half of Gaza’s power. In a final
outrage that combined both blindness towards Israeli violence and complete
disregard for international law, The Post’s July 1 editorial recommended
that the Arab States and the UN stop “fulminating about supposed Israeli
war crimes.”
Once again, Israeli government spin overpowers the Palestinian narrative,
and human rights and international law are belittled. These examples
illustrate how the US corporate media is actively shaping the information
reported to the US public to Israel’s advantage, and promoting the view
that Hamas and Palestinian terrorism are the sole problem in
Israel/Palestine. Without more balanced reporting from establishment media
outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times, US
policy and public opinion on Israel/Palestine are also unlikely to become
much more balanced. The need for media activism on Israel/Palestine is
more vital than ever.
Patrick O’Connor is an activist with
Palestine Media Watch and the
International Solidarity Movement. He is currently researching
the
major US newspapers’ coverage of Israel/Palestine.
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