Unveiling Media Biases: The Persistent Distortion of Israel-Palestine Narratives

In the echoing silence and biased ink of media corridors, the Israel-Palestine narrative unfolds on the front pages of Western media, where truth becomes a casualty and the struggle for justice is buried beneath layers of distortion.

In a 2010 study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, researchers analysed 91 articles from the New York Times’ covering of Operation Cast Lead, the three-week Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip from December 27, 2008, to January 18, 2009. This operation led to the tragic deaths of nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

The findings revealed a significant media bias in the New York Times’ coverage, with a disproportionate emphasis on Israeli casualties. Despite Palestinians experiencing a death rate 106 times higher than Israelis, the newspaper’s coverage highlighted Israeli deaths by 431% compared to a mere 17% for Palestinian deaths, creating a stark 25:1 ratio. Notably, only 3% of Palestinian fatalities received coverage in headlines and initial paragraphs.

Fast forward to 2023, such media biases persist in moulding narrativessculpted by half and selective truths. The reporting by prominent Western media outlets ever since October 7th has come under scrutiny for deploying language and discourse that appears to contribute to the systemic dehumanisation of the Palestinian people.

Allegations of racial hegemony and vested interests suggest a deliberate obfuscation of the complete truth, with the media potentially implicated in the calculated manufacturing of societal consent for a genocide. Biased and partial media coverage reeks of the attempted justification for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, double standards, fallacious reasoning and factual inaccuracies.

Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian perspectives are systematically marginalised and delegitimised, characterised as unreliable, with the added detriment of inflammatory language reinforcing Islamophobic sentiments and perpetuating racist tropes. Moreover, the dissemination of misinformation by Israeli officials finds a platform, while the indiscriminate and inhumane killings of innocent civilians in Gaza doesn’t. Well, not until Hamas is condemned first.

Selective Reporting and Misinformation

Despite a multitude of Western journalists covering the “conflict” from Israel, there is a noticeable scarcity of on-the-ground reporting on the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The world is confined to a singular narrative, offering only one perspective on the situation.

It is quite significant to note that the Western press did not mention that the Gaza hospital attack, which killed 500 people, was carried out by Israel, thus creating a narrative that obfuscated responsibility and suppressed the facts.

No mainstream media outlet has held Israel accountable for its actions. Even when accountability was eventually acknowledged, it transpired after a considerable 40-day delay perhaps because the graphic nature of the images emerging from Gaza made any justification challenging. In contrast, an immediate condemnation and prominent coverage were accorded to the Hamas attack, featuring prominently in American and British media front pages.

The western media’s penchant for repeatedly prioritising unverified information about Israeli casualties like the debunked claims of “40 Israeli babies being beheaded,” stands in stark contrast to their neglect of the documented and verified decapitation of Gazan children by Israel’s aerial bombardment. In an interview with Sky News, an Israeli official who reiterated the false claim that a Palestinian infant killed in an Israeli airstrike was a doll was left undisputed by the anchor.

In a similar vein, in another interview with a Thai hostage negotiator, the Sky News anchor tries to control the narrative by repeatedly redirecting him to manipulative questions about Hamas.

In Gaza, independent journalists reporting the ground reality face marginalization, as mainstream media outlets fall short of amplifying their courageous, crucial coverage. These dedicated individuals, diligently documenting the ethnic cleansing and genocide of their community, remain unnoticed and undervalued, as mainstream media channels refrain from promoting their field coverage, thus perpetuating the suppression of the truth.

Very recently, BBC received backlash for inaccurately translating an interview of a released Palestinian hostage. The mistranslation suggested praise for Hamas, despite it not mentioning the group at all, allegedly attempting to justify her detention by labelling her as a “terrorist sympathiser.” Tactics like these criminalise the Palestinian youth, including little children, enforcing the idea that there are no innocent lives in Palestine. When the world views Palestinians as criminals, savages, offenders, radicals, zealots etc, it becomes easier to to look the other way when crimes are committed against them.

It is also worthy to note that the Israeli hostages are personified and humanised as they receive personal attention and empathy in media coverage, sharing their testimonies, reunion stories and providing glimpses into their lives before captivity. Conversely, there’s a notable absence of similar coverage for Palestinian captives released from occupation jails, many of whom are children, as young as 12. Reports on these Palestinian abductees primarily focus on justifications for their wrongful detention, failing to question why Israel is holding children as prisoners in the first place when it violates International law.

The media’s tendency to marginalise Palastinians aims at minimising their suffering by rendering them as practically invisible. This method strategically works to desensitise the world to their predicament by eliminating any visible traces of it. This strategy entails a role reversal, depicting the victim (Palestinians) as subhuman, aggressive terrorists and the perpetrator (Israel) as the victim with the (il)legitimate right to defend itself.

By mobilising fabrication, misrepresentation, slant, and linguistic determinism, the media crafts a narrative that suggests Israel is compelled to resort to bombing the besieged Gaza strip due to being placed in a difficult position. However, the reality is that it is the prolonged and inhumane treatment of Palestinians by Israelis (including settlers) over the past 75 years that leaves Palestinians with little choice but to resist.

Killed vs died – vilification of Palestinians

The biased news channels employ varied language that serves as a tool to dehumanise Palestinians for the world, aiming to regulate the level of empathy extended towards them. Reporting standards dictate the use of active voice to convey a story clearly, yet the utilisation of passive language introduces ambiguity in the minds of the readers and viewers, obscuring the identity of the actor and diminishing the gravity of Palestinian suffering.

For example, this headline of the Washington Post – “Premature babies found dead, decomposing in Gaza’s Al-Nasr hospital” – creates a perception for the reader that they died not because of Israel’s total blockade on Gaza, but for some other, perhaps natural causes. Hundreds of other media outlets report killings of Palestinians in passive voice as “Died”, “found dead” and “feared dead” to cloak the aggressor and actor (Israel). However, when it comes to Israeli deaths, they don’t hesitate from making the perpetrator known and ensuring he is condemned.

In the western press, Israelis are “hostages”, “women” and “children” while Palestinians are “prisoners” or “females” or “people under the age of 18.”

The power of language is evident in the subtle manipulations seen in media coverage where terms like illegal settlements change into “neighbourhoods“, israeli settlers are “civilians” and Israeli Defense Forces’ brutality against Palestinian worshippers are euphemized as “tensions” and “clashes”, the West Bank is reframed as “contested” rather than occupied, showcasing a linguistic strategy aligning with Israeli narratives to legitimise the occupation.

Simultaneously, they characterise Israel’s carpet bombing in Gaza that has now killed over 20,000 innocent Palestinians as “precision strikes“, “combat operations” and “collateral damage.” This not only diminishes the sympathy people feel for the Palestinians but also camouflages the actual victims in the situation.

The media’s failure to critically examine Israeli actions, coupled with the use of inflammatory language, contributes to the continuous oppression and war crimes against the Palestinian civilians.

In the context of Russia-Ukrainian war, the same media outlets flip the narratives, hailing Ukrainians defending themselves by throwing molotov cocktails as “brave heroes”, while calling Palestinians defending their homeland as “terrorists” and “stone pelters‘.”

Framing the timeline

A significant concern of consistent framing of the so-called “conflict” devoid of the historical context. The decades-long strangulation and siege of Gaza, the denial of basic human rights to Palestinians, subjugation to inhumane treatment, forced displacement and the overarching impact of racial supremacy are marginalised or omitted. This narrative omission contributes to the institutional distortion of the facts, influencing global perceptions.

The condemnation of Hamas often serves as a prerequisite for discussing Palestinian suffering. One glaring example of this is how popular TV host Piers Morgan has asked each and every of his guests advocating for Palestine whether or not they condemn Hamas while no one representing Israel is asked if they condemn the heinous atrocities of the IDF in Gaza.

Even when Palestinians are given airtime to share their stories, the narrative is divorced from the broader context, sidestepping uncomfortable truths of the underlying issues of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and settler colonialism. The deliberate framing of Israel’s aggression as a response to Hamas, rather than acknowledging decades of occupation, apartheid, and brutalization, validates the notion that Palestinians are complicit in their own plight. The media consistently exacerbates Palestinian reaction while downplaying Israeli actions.

Media starts the clock as soon as any form of resistance by Palestinians emerges, simplifying Hamas as the exclusive antagonist, overlooking the broader and immediate socio-political context. Upon “resolution”, such as instances when Israel ceases its bombardment of Gaza, the media halts the clock, focusing elsewhither. This deliberate construction of a timeline begins with Palestinian instigation and provocation and ends with Israeli retaliation and reprisal. The myriad of factors that lead to resistance or the events of 7th October, the very root cause of the problem – Illegal Occupation and settler colonialism – is grossly overlooked. If that context was provided to the readers and viewers, it would blatantly sway the public opinion in favour of Palestine.

Newsrooms are receiving serious backlash and revulsion on biased reporting as they fail to tell the simple truth: Resistance is not the problem, Occupation is.

How can we “not” aid the spread of disinformation/misinformation?

The rampant spread of disinformation and biased content by powerful media networks and authoritative bodies in critical times such as these, not just invisibilize the pain of sufferers but also actively work towards tailoring the popular narrative for vested interests. Such coverage has entailed some disastrous consequences for the victims as their screams and resistance are overlooked and their identities demonised.

Independent channels including social media handles, Motaz Azaiza, Plestia have emerged in the time of crisis as reliable sources disseminating authentic information and reporting the horrors of the war when the mainstream media is busy carrying out the propaganda of mass deception.

At this point, It is imperative for the consumers to be mindful of their consumption of information from varied sources. Manipulative content aimed at accelerating polarisation, promoting hate speech, and inciting violence should be minutely scrutinised in order to foster a healthy information space across platforms.

Some quick ways to prevent yourself from amplifying and consuming fake news are as follows-

• Use Fact-Checking websites such as Factcheck.Org, Snopes.com, FotoForensics etc. in order to verify news reports.
• Diversify your feed and prevent any filter bubble. Make sure your newsfeed covers information from diverse viewpoints and is not just limited to a particular ideology.
• Be aware of the five filters that Noam Chomsky talks about in his celebrated work, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media. These five filters by Noam Chomsky: (1) Advertising, (2) Ownership, (3) Sourcing, (4) Flak, and (5) Fear & marginalising dissent while consuming controversial news pieces.
• Think before sharing any content. To prevent yourself from being a part of the propaganda machinery, it is vital to be a responsible user of media and refrain from sharing any content that is not backed by reliable sources.

By neglecting to contextualise Israeli state violence, the media has given the Israeli government a free pass, enabling it to continue ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people with impunity and immunity.

The pro-Israel biases of the Western media are considered to be reflective of the wider political association of Israel with Western governments and are thus endemic. While it’s impossible to calculate the effects of these alleged biases, critics argue that they wittingly or unwittingly aid Israel in getting away with crimes that are not even recognised as crimes to begin with.

The ulterior motive of these tactics by the untruthful media is as plain as daylight: Help sustain the occupation. Newsrooms bear the moral and ethical responsibility to report the truth as it is. The dire consequences of such biased reporting, other than the effects mentioned, has culminated into mass incidents of hate crimes. For example, the murder of a three-year old child in Illinois, USA and the recent shooting of three Palestinian students for wearing a Keffiyeh in Vermont, USA.

It is imperative for media outlets to acknowledge the impact of their actions. They ought to actively recruit Palestinian journalists and amplify Palestinian voices, rather than perpetually excluding them from their narratives. The wealth of documented violence against Palestinians, often relegated to social media feeds subjected to distinct forms of censorship, should not be confined but deserves broader visibility and attention.

Nimra Kirmani is a student pursuing Masters in Psychology from Jamia Millia Islamia

Edited by: Bushra Faridi