One year of Israel’s unrelenting bombing of Gaza has resulted in atrocities beyond comprehension. The 25-mile-long strip has been subject to explosives the power of over three times the force of the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II. Well over 42,000 people have been murdered, seventy percent of civilian infrastructure laid to waste, hospitals and schools systematically targeted. Israel orders a starved people to move not once or twice but as many as ten times, uprooting then killing them as they move. Even the olive trees aren’t spared– thousands of years of growth lay splintered and broken, facing the same fate as their cultivators. Over 19,000 children orphaned, thousands amputated, shot in the head, burned to death, maimed.
These grave crimes, and many more, should elicit scathing and frequent reports from the Western media, especially considering that it is the governments of the West that have supplied the weapons to make such atrocities possible. The United States alone has supplied Israel with at least $17.9 billion in military aid since October 7, 2023 according to a report by Brown University’s Watson Institute.
Is it not true that in times of brutality and violence, we look to the media to accurately contextualize and explain who is responsible? Most importantly, is it not the media’s job to humanize those affected by conflict?
If we operate under this pretext, then the Western media has failed miserably, but only in its reporting of Gaza. A study conducted by The Nation analyzed and compared CNN and MSNBC’s reporting and commentary on the first one hundred days of Israel’s war on Gaza to that of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The findings present a disturbing reality, a glaring double standard that affords certain populations, namely Ukrainians and Israelis, far greater and more sympathetic coverage than that of Palestinians.
The four findings of the study can be grouped into two interrelated categories, the first being how often the two stations mentioned the impact on civilians and the second being the type of language used in the coverage. During the first 100 days of Israel’s assault on Gaza, more than 10,000 children were killed. In the first 100 days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 262 children were killed. Despite the far greater number of children killed during the same time period, mentions of child deaths were 33.4 percent higher for Ukrainian children than Gazan children. Similarly, 80 percent of the population of Gaza turned into refugees compared to 33 percent of Ukrainians, yet refugees were mentioned 1,663 times in the case of Ukrainians compared to a mere 211 times in the case of Gazans. The stark difference in coverage becomes even more concerning when learning that the death toll in Gaza during this time was five hundred percent greater than that of Ukraine.
Just as important is how the empathetic and humanizing coverage used for Ukrainian and Israeli civilians was not extended to Palestinians. Words such as “massacre,” “slaughter” and “barbaric” are all highly emotive, charged words used to elicit a sympathetic response from the audience. These words were used 661 times when referring to Ukrainians, 1,053 times to describe the killing of Israelis after October 7 2023, but only 43 times to describe the killing of Palestinians. Finally, despite the fact that both Russia and Israel have been accused of committing war crimes and engaging in genocide, both words were used a total of 1,515 times for Ukrainian victims compared to just 104 times for Palestinian ones.
The purpose of the study, and many others that support such findings, was not to suggest that these other victims were undeserving of such coverage- they are not- but rather to point out the media’s hypocrisy in its coverage. What are we to think of a media that reports on Palestinian deaths less than Ukrainian ones despite a higher death toll? What does it mean that our media willingly describes the killing of Israelis as a massacre but refuses to use such language when Palestinian life is violently taken?
The answer to these questions is that the media doesn’t see the inherent value of a Palestinian’s life. If they did, then we wouldn’t end up with articles that diminish their suffering. “Israel Rescues 4 Hostages in Assault That Killed Scores of Gazans,” states a New York Times headline. In this case the Gazans don’t even get the courtesy of being reduced to a statistic; this time 274 Gazans will just be referred to as “scores.” Or what about a headline by CNN stating “Five-year-old Palestinian girl found dead after being trapped in car with dead relatives.” A strange way to describe how Israeli forces killed Hind Rajab and her family then killed the aid workers who came to rescue the girl. We are given the impression that she is “found dead” not killed. For all we know, she could have died in a flood.
A recent article by CNN titled “He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide” further reveals this dynamic. We learn that the soldier took his life after being deployed to Gaza, but what we don’t learn till later in the article and mentioned without further comment, is the fact that this soldier ran over hundreds of Palestinians dead and alive, a horrifying war crime. The article kindly includes an editor’s note that the story contains details of suicide and violence that “some readers may find upsetting.” The initial note didn’t include the warning of violence; I suppose the account of Palestinians being run over causing their inner organs to squirt out didn’t warrant a warning and only came as an afterthought.
I could go on; however, it is apparent that the Western media, through their selective reporting and manipulation of words, takes away responsibility from the perpetrator of such hideous crimes and dehumanizes the Palestinian. In this way, Palestinians endure two deaths. First, their bodies are shattered by bombs, sniper fire, starvation. Then their memory is erased, their trauma minimized, reduced to a statistic at best, just another body in a white bag.
