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Media bias whitewashes Israeli terrorism
by Ray Hanania
I expected to wake up to
read the headline, "Jewish terrorists
murder Arabs."
But, of course, that was
not to be.
Members of Israel's
fanatic settler movement killed three
Palestinian civilians July 19th, including a 3 and 1/2 month old
baby, Diya.
Suddenly, the news media
finds a conscience.
They start using terms
like "Israeli underground" or "Settler
vigilantes," instead of the much harsher terms used to describe
similar acts by Palestinians which include "barbaric terrorists,"
and "blood thirsty Arab killers." One
declared cleverly that a "blast" caused the killings.
The conflict between
Palestine and Israel has a lot to do with the
way the American news media covers
the events.
Certain headlines and
adjectives describing the attackers play a
significant role in how the public responds, and how the political
theater acts itself out.
And those perceptions
result in assessing blame.
Most people "blame" the
Palestinians for the violence, accepting the
Israeli contention that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak they
gave the Palestinians everything
"including Jerusalem" and they opted instead toward violence
"to get even more from Israel."
What is not told until
nearly a year later is that Palestinian President
Yasir Arafat demanded that the Israeli proposal also include
compassion for the millions of Palestinian
civilians who were forced out of their homes
and lands in 1948 and again in 1967. Arafat demanded that
these refugees have a "Right of Return"
that include a variety of options, with only a few
allowing some to actually return to their original homes and
land.
Today, my family's homes
and lands are occupied by Jewish immigrants who
took the homes and the land during the 1948 war. Part of this
land is today the settlement of Gilo near
Jerusalem.
This disparity in truth
sets up Israel in the enviable position of not
only having done its part, but suddenly, it is the victim of
irrational behavior. Therefore, the
Israelis can do no wrong.
The Israelis can kill
nearly 600 Palestinian civilians and the news
media and the world shrugs it off as a consequence of the
Palestinians having refused Barak's peace
offer. In contrast, about 100 Israelis are killed, most professional
soldiers trained to face war. Every attack is treated like
it is the 1972 massacre at the Olympics.
The truth is that Israel
is provoking the violence, but most American
journalists are afraid to report that simple truth. Journalists,
especially in the West, function under the pressure of peer
censorship and pressures, while many in
the Arab World function under an environment of government
censorship and limitations.
I am not sure which is
worse, but I do know that both are wrong.
American journalists are always quick to point out the limitations
on Arab journalists by their governments
as a way of responding to charges that the Western
Media is biased against the Arabs.
But the truth is that
American journalists in particular operate under a
cloud of pressure that prohibits them from reporting the
truth about Israel.
This bias is
inherent in the professional news media structure and is absorbed by
the reporters who don't want to be criticized by the
pro-Israeli editors and publishers who manage these media
operations.
The news media also goes
to great lengths to dissect Israeli actions to
the point of anti-Arab precision. There are two kinds of
Israeli attacks, one involving Israeli
soldiers who are sent in to oppress the Palestinian civilians. All
are considered "defensive" and therefore "justified."
The presence of Israeli
soldiers in Arab areas is the primary cause of
the current violence and the provocation that pushes many
frustrated and desperate Palestinian civilians to acts of violence
of their own.
The second is the kind
involving the fanatic settler movement. Israeli settlers are among
the worst fanatics in the world, even though the
media seems consumed only with the so-called "Islamic
fanatic." These Israeli settlers have been engaged in a hate war
against the Palestinians with the goal of
killing Arabs and stealing their lands.
They have been doing it
since the founding of the State of Israel and
they have culled this campaign of hate to a fine art.
Arab acts of rebellion
against the occupation fall under the term "Intifadah," and involve
everything. Every act of Arab resistance that results in an Israeli
death, injury or simple assault is described as an
act of "terrorism."
We all want the conflict
to come to a peaceful resolution.
But we will not get
there if we allow the news media to distort the
truth, downplay the crimes of Israel, and deny the
Palestinians the compassion and
understanding they deserve.
(Ray Hanania is a
Palestinian American writer based in Chicago and a regular contributor
to MMN. His columns are archived
on the web at www.hanania.com)
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