The media holds a crucial role in covering global conflicts, ideally presenting events as they occur without external interference, abiding by professional standards to fulfill its mission effectively.
However, scrutiny of the media coverage regarding the ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Gaza Strip reveals significant breaches of professional standards. Several prominent media outlets with millions of followers worldwide have been accused of violating these standards. Over 750 journalists from various news organizations, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian, signed a letter condemning the killing of journalists by the Israeli government in Gaza. They urged the media to accurately depict the Israeli-Palestinian situation using terms like "apartheid" and "genocide" to convey the severity of the atrocities committed against Palestinians in Gaza. They emphasized that the media blockade in Gaza poses a serious threat to news credibility due to the occupation’s deliberate targeting of journalists.
Indeed, the joint statement by journalists stands as compelling evidence of the media’s manipulation of material concerning the events in Gaza and the broader occupied Palestinian territories. This implicates the media as a complicit actor in the ongoing genocide operations witnessed in Gaza today.
However, attributing responsibility to the media solely for its involvement in the present genocide would be an oversight. The media’s coverage of the Palestinian cause has long been marred by numerous shortcomings, making it an essential accomplice in the past actions of the Zionist entity. Even during historical events such as the 1948 Nakba, the media’s portrayal lacked the immediacy and accuracy needed to convey the full extent of the Palestinian suffering under settler gangs’ massacres. Back then, the media lacked the rapid communication channels and advanced technologies we possess today, which limited its ability to accurately depict the tragedies experienced by Palestinians. However, in the present era of technological advancement, characterized by enhanced image quality, rapid dissemination, and diverse media tools, any excuse for substandard coverage becomes invalid. The media’s failure to adhere to professional standards now constitutes a moral transgression for which those responsible will be held accountable.
In this report, we aim to highlight instances of professional breaches observed in the coverage of the Zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip in 2021, comparing them to the approach taken in reporting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Guardian’s adherence to the Zionist narrative
Both the media and political discourse exhibited a consistent tone, exemplified by the Zionist aggression against Gaza in 2021. Those steering this discourse often attributed responsibility for the occupation’s attacks on civilians in Gaza to the Palestinian resistance, despite the heightened hostility throughout the year, marked by forced displacements of Palestinians from Jerusalem neighborhoods and provocative incursions into the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This narrative found agreement in international newspapers as well. For instance, The Guardian published a report on May 19, 2021, titled "Bearing the Heaviest Burden: Children’s Suffering in the Conflict between Gaza and Israel." The report covered images portraying the suffering of children amid renewed clashes and raids between the resistance and the Zionist entity.
The Guardian newspaper consistently placed responsibility on the Palestinian resistance, whether in the 2021 or 2023 aggressions. This was evident despite the staggering casualty toll, surpassing 10,000 martyrs in Gaza. In one of its subsequent articles, the newspaper explicitly accused the resistance of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, echoing the narrative often propagated by the Zionist perspective.
Regrettably, the coverage failed to acknowledge significant events, such as the open letter submitted by over 500 Democratic staffers and former members of US President Biden’s election campaign team on May 24, 2021. This letter outlined five essential demands, urging President Biden to unequivocally condemn the occupation. These demands included ending the forced displacement of Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, halting settlement activities in the West Bank, preventing the misuse of American aid to imprison and mistreat Palestinian children, preventing the destruction and seizure of their homes, and halting the annexation of Palestinian lands.
Similarly, there was little attention given to the remarks made by former US Vice President Mike Pence, who pointedly held the Netanyahu government, known for its extreme right-wing stance, accountable as a major reason for the continual escalation of the conflict. The crux of the issue doesn’t solely stem from the "Deluge of Al-Aqsa," as preferred by Netanyahu, his security leaders, media supporters, and various world leaders, who exploited the events of October 7 to justify the indiscriminate and brutal occupation campaign against Palestinians. Rather, it is a culmination of events spanning over a century that has led the historic land of Palestine to its current state of injustice, tyranny, oppression, and the shedding of innocent blood, favoring the demographic transformation desired by the Zionist entity. Despite successive waves of Jewish displacement to Palestine, the entity's plans for demographic transformation have not fully succeeded.
Fox News and claimed self-defense
Another telling example of the victim narrative, effectively wielded by the Zionist entity, is evident in the report by Fox News, a staunch supporter of the misleading Zionist narrative. The network depicted the occupation as a beleaguered state existing amidst adversaries aiming for its eradication, framing the actions taken as acts of self-defense. It’s disconcerting to witness this same media formulation being employed in the ongoing Gaza genocide operations.
The American network emphasized portraying the Zionist entity as a peaceful state engaged in self-defense, mirroring the narrative prevalent in local media within the entity. These outlets adopted the slogan "We defend our homeland" across their materials, openly justifying the violent practices in Gaza and gearing up for potential harsh actions against the Palestinians.
The New York Times between retaliation and self-defense
Moving on to another example, The New York Times exhibited unmistakable bias in its coverage favoring the Zionist entity. In 2021, it framed the occupation’s actions as "retaliation" against missiles from the resistance, labeling its members as "militants." This subtle choice of language aimed to manipulate global public opinion, attempting to diminish the perception of the resistance’s actions as a legitimate struggle for freedom, an entitlement safeguarded by international law.
This same editorial tone and choice of terminology were echoed in the recent brutal aggression on Gaza in 2023. The New York Times maintained a consistent stance, employing descriptors such as "terrorists" instead of "resistance," while continuing to rationalize the occupying entity’s actions as "defensive measures for security." Remarkably, despite the passage of years, the newspaper’s approach remains unchanged, reflecting consistent meanings and intentions conveyed through its reporting.
New York Post and the manipulation of terminology
The New York Post engaged in a similar pattern of deception and manipulation of information, akin to what it did in 2021. During that time, the news outlet posted a tweet falsely claiming the killing of 20 Zionists by resistance fighters, which sparked criticism and led to the tweet’s deletion due to its blatant falsehood. This incident bears a striking resemblance to the events that unfolded on October 7th.
In the recent Gaza aggression, the newspaper continued its deliberate association of resistance with terrorism throughout its coverage. It deliberately crafted editorial content to perpetuate this narrative, exemplified by instances such as inviting a Hollywood actress who served in the Zionist army to present a video clip depicting what both the newspaper and the actress described as bloody violations committed by the resistance. These materials were based on misinformation and content provided by the entity to the media.
Facebook and the usual accidental error
The social media platform Facebook displayed biased behavior in the year 2021 when a page named "Jerusalem Prayer Team" surfaced, forcibly adding millions of users without their consent. This page was dedicated to soliciting donations for the Zionist entity. Following severe criticism, the Facebook company acknowledged the violation of its rules and announced the deletion of the page. The addition of users without their consent indicated the platform’s involvement in this issue. This was further supported by Instagram, a platform owned by Facebook, which, in the same year, deleted images of Al-Aqsa and suppressed hashtags in both Arabic and English, displaying clear bias against the Palestinians.
The claims of the responsible company regarding inadvertent errors were contradicted by their actions during the Gaza aggression this year. Around 800,000 posts supporting the Palestinian cause were deleted, alongside deliberate suppression of news pages advocating for Palestinians or reporting events truthfully. Users attempted to access this content, in case it had not been deleted, found themselves searching extensively. The company justified these actions by citing an "accidental error.”
Why does the Western media intentionally distort the truth regarding the land of historic Palestine?
This fact was revealed by Daily Star newspaper in May 2021 in a report titled “The problem with mainstream Western media’s coverage of Palestine." The report divulged the partiality of Western media coverage in favor of Zionists, as the writer observed a distortion of the suffering of the Palestinians, with any reaction from their side being always called an "escalation of violence." The same pattern occurs today in the media coverage of the current incidents in Gaza!
This aligns with statements of Sarah Helm, a former correspondent of the Independent. Helm emphasized the distinct pressure she faced special pressure when reporting on events in Palestine and the Zionist entity because of the intense media and political pressure exerted by the occupation at all levels, especially from the pro-occupation lobby in London. Those who cover the issue feel afraid of being accused of anti-Semitism.
Thus, we find that the same thing occurs again today against every free voice in the world that criticizes the Zionist massacres against the Palestinians in Gaza and the entire occupied territories. In addition to the observations made by Helm, David Cronin, a former writer for the British newspaper The Guardian, stated he was advised by one of the editors to stay away from covering the Palestinian issue. Cronin considers this as a reason for neglecting the historical context of this issue in the Western media due to fear of the flood of preconceived accusations against those who engage in this field. Consequently, this fear has resulted in a lack of understanding among readers in the world about the reality inside the occupied Palestinian territories, which have historically been subject to one-sided aggression. These readers do not realize that 7 out of 10 people in Gaza have been registered as refugees since 1948 after the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes because of armed Zionist gangs coming from Europe.
The success of the leaders of the occupation in circulating the notion that the issue at hand is of a religious nature and that their objective is to defend the Jewish presence not only in Palestine, but also worldwide, has greatly contributed to the deliberate obfuscation of all matters pertaining to the Palestinian right. This facilitated the preparation of a list of accusations for those who deviate from this position. Amongst these allegations, the most significant one is the charge of “anti-Semitism.” capitalizing on the historically famous incident of the Nazi Holocaust, which serves as one of their usual tools to portray themselves as victims of global persecution.
In this regard, I recollect the words of Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of the occupation, who hailed from Ukraine. She played the victim, a role in which they exhibit mastery, when she said: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children." This is an intentional distortion of facts and acting as the vulnerable who pursues safety and peace; it is a usual language that they mastered several decades ago even before the establishment of what they call their state.
She herself said: "Every morning I wish to wake up and not find a single Palestinian child alive," in a clear contradiction to her above quoted statement. Therefore, it is no wonder to see the massacres committed now against civilians, especially children in Gaza; it is a deeply entrenched ideology in the minds of the leaders of such occupying entity.
Manipulation of minds based on falsifying history through the media
About two years later, the same thing happened again, but the media attack this time is more misleading. I was astounded to read an article published on Yedioth Ahronoth website, wherein it was stated that Yaron Dekel, the regional director of the Jewish Agency in Canada, tried to reverse facts that are very clear to all people, and to show the situation in Gaza as a direct cause of the persecution of Jews in Canada. Dekel asserted that Jews conceal their religious identity, and are afraid to show their support for the motherland or the promised land... or other titles they use. He attributed blame to the Palestinians and their resistance, and as well as their manipulation of facts, as he mentioned, using the famous phrase "anti-Semitism" against the popular position rejecting the Zionist massacres against the Palestinians, considering this as unacceptable and threatening the security of Jews in Canada.
The regional director spoke of what he called the bias of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in favor of the Palestinians as it refused to describe the resistance as terrorism. He using veiled threatening statements when he hinted that CBC is funded by taxpayers as an indirect message. This veiled threat is one of the tools of pressure used by those people to always force the media to stand by their side. In apparent contradiction and despite his claim that the lives of Jews are in danger, at the end of his article he spoke about raising more than $72 million to support the reconstruction of settlements around the Gaza border.
Here, I would like to refer to the malicious trick practiced by the media, which we have observed in many articles. It is the idea of "postponement" that is to start the story with the information and ideas that serve the Zionist entity, as the regional director of the Jewish Agency in Canada did when he linked the suffering of the Jews of Canada to by the resistance in Gaza, then he postponed or placed the other information - despite its importance from the perspective of the supporter of the Palestinian right or those wishing to monitor the real events - to the end of the article.
This occurred also with CNN when it covered the news of the release of the Zionist captive Yocheved Lifshitz. It deliberately inaugurated the article with the negative part in the title and introduction and postponed to the end of the news the woman’s praise for good treatment she received during her detention.
There was also another notorious incident that caught the attention of followers in the world, when the CNN correspondent in Palestine received directions over the phone from the director to look around as if she was in danger to delude viewers that the resistance is targeting media people: “look around as if you’re in danger!"
The most obvious incident in the early hours of the aggression on Gaza was the undocumented news published by Los Angeles Times newspaper about the raping of women and the beheading of children by the Palestinians, and then it deleted the news after it achieved the desired echo. The American newspaper realizes well that the influence of the published news will not disappear even after the news itself is deleted. By this, the newspaper aims to form the collective awareness of citizens inside and outside the United States, especially as media platforms shared it.
This malicious trick was once used against the Jews themselves by Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels, and was based on the following:
- Spreading negative images and ideas about Jews in magazines, movies, cartoons, and other media.
- Facilitating the access of Germans to radios to listen to these ideas.
- Cancelling some textbooks with the aim of teaching students to obey the Nazi party and hate Jews.
- Burning books and harassing Jewish authors.
- Using movies as a way to show false support for Nazism through presenting the images of smiling children and cheering crowds like the 1935 movies “Triumph of the Will.”
Looking at these steps and reviewing the Western and Zionist media, one realizes that the matter is repeated against the Palestinians and their resistance.
The recent cinematic portrayals prior to the "Al-Aqsa Deluge" warrant consideration. Films were produced recounting the biography of Zionist Prime Minister Golda Meir during the October 1973 war. Her leadership was deliberately depicted as peaceful, though she felt compelled to engage in war by Egyptian actions. Certain filmmaking techniques were employed to shape perception, such as camera angles, lighting, facial expressions, and particular word choices, alongside other potentially misleading images of a woman who authorized bombing the Bahr al-Baqar school in Egypt’s Sharqiyah Governorate. The school was filled with children, though it was claimed weapons depots for the army were present within.
The media possesses great potential for harm should it be leveraged to benefit certain parties in conflict. Beyond disregarding facts, such portrayals grant license to ongoing violations of international law. The world then risks becoming a jungle where respect for humanity and life is lost. Public opinion worldwide may also be misdirected in favor of certain parties, accumulating over years as a historical burden that distorts the true struggles of peoples and their free will.