An open letter on U.S. media coverage of Palestine | by An open letter on U.S. media coverage of Palestine | Jun, 2021 | Medium:
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From journalists, to journalists: Why reporting on Palestine has to change.
Finding truth and holding the powerful to account are core principles of journalism.
Yet
for decades, our news industry has abandoned those values in coverage
of Israel and Palestine. We have failed our audiences with a narrative
that obscures the most fundamental aspects of the story: Israel’s
military occupation and its system of apartheid.
For the sake of our readers and viewers
— and the truth — we have a duty to change course immediately and end
this decades-long journalistic malpractice. The evidence of Israel’s
systematic oppression of Palestinians is overwhelming and must no longer
be sanitized.
In April, Human Rights Watch released a 213-page report
that documented Israeli authorities committing “crimes against humanity
of apartheid and persecution.” Leading Israeli human rights group
B’tselem characterized the region as governed by a regime of ethnic supremacy.
These
terms — apartheid, persecution, ethnic supremacy — are increasingly
gaining institutional recognition after years of Palestinian advocacy,
and we, as journalists, need to examine whether our coverage reflects
that reality.
Take,
for example, the language used in the recent coverage of East Jerusalem
neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah. Media outlets often refer to forced
displacement of Palestinians living there — illegal under international law and potentially a war crime — as “evictions.”
This
term misleadingly implies a real estate “dispute” between tenant and
landlord, an inaccurate depiction of the state of affairs. The United
Nations considers East Jerusalem occupied Palestinian territory, meaning Israel’s territorial claims there are not recognized. More importantly, using the term ignores the well-documented aim of the Israeli government to establish and maintain ethnic dominance over Palestinians.
During the last few days of Ramadan, Israeli forces violently attacked
worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound with tear gas and
rubber-tipped bullets. Journalists didn’t call this an “attack” or
“assault” on Palestinians, but rather a “clash,” as if both sides shared
equal culpability and agency in the escalation.
When
Israel attacked Gaza, media outlets framed it as a “conflict” between
two equal entities, ignoring the total asymmetry in power. Under the guise of objectivity,
rockets fired at Israel — which caused significantly less damage than
Israeli airstrikes — were covered just as much as Israel attacking medical facilities and leveling entire residential buildings, clouding the nearly one-sided scale of violence and destruction.
The asymmetry in context does not just extend to the language we use; stories tend to disproportionately amplify Israeli narratives while suppressing Palestinian ones.
Too
often, media outlets uncritically repeat Israeli military claims about
its assault on Gaza without asking for evidence or proof, despite clear
examples where Israeli officials spread false information. Journalists reported the claim from Israeli forces that they had launched a ground invasion — that was false.
The human toll caused by Israel’s bombardment is indisputable: Hundreds dead, more than 65 of them children. While statements made by Israeli officials
and their defenders justifying the killing of civilians went
unchallenged, Palestinian civilians had their humanity interrogated:
Journalists asked whether they support violence or Hamas rockets.
Troubling
still, reporting wanes considerably when Israel halts its airstrikes.
Palestinians are ignored in so-called times of “peace” despite attacks
and other hostile aspects of life under occupation continuing after the ceasefire.
Though there have been exceptions that accurately reflect the plight of many Palestinians, they are few and far between.
As
journalists, we are entrusted with a profoundly important mission in a
free and democratic society, the power to inform the people and guide
the national conversation, from the family dinner table to Capitol Hill.
We
are calling on journalists to tell the full, contextualized truth
without fear or favor, to recognize that obfuscating Israel’s oppression
of Palestinians fails this industry’s own objectivity standards.
We
have an obligation — a sacred one — to get the story right. Every time
we fail to report the truth, we fail our audiences, our purpose and,
ultimately, the Palestinian people.
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