Opinion

Middle East news isn’t fairly covered

Tumultuous events in the Middle East and Japan the past couple of weeks have pushed the news of human rights abuses in Israel-Palestine to a lower priority. However, that hasn’t stopped the atrocities.

Since the Egyptian revolution alone, Israel has led more than ten incursions into Gaza, killing workers at the border, children playing in the streets and smugglers attempting to alleviate Israel’s four year blockade. The illegal blockade has continued against Gaza in addition to the constant military provocations, depriving the people there of food, medicine and building materials necessary for reconstruction after Israel’s latest aerial bombardment.

In the West Bank, Israel’s government continues to illegally settle on Palestinian land and ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem, considered the future capital of the Palestinian state by international law. Since the beginning of this year, dozens of families have been evicted in the middle of the night by illegal settlers helped and supported by the Israeli army .

Israel’s strategy of constant provocation led the terrorist organization, Islamic Jihad in Gaza, to retaliate by launching rockets over the border, damaging one home. Immediately, the US condemned these attacks, but of course, no one condemned the Israeli incursions on Gaza that happened before this attack. For some reason, attacks on the Palestinian people are now considered commonplace.

Using rockets as an excuse, Israel launched a vigorous military strike on the people of Gaza the next day, killing eight people including two children . This went unnoticed in American media for the most part, or was downplayed as a response attack. The civilian victims were left unmentioned.

In Jerusalem, a bomb went off at a bus station used by Israelis, killing one person and injuring 30 people. This attack has yet to be claimed by any Palestinian organization.

In the illegal West Bank settlement of Itamar, a settler family, including three young children, was found killed in their home the morning of March 15. Once again, no Palestinian organization has claimed these attacks and there’s no proof of Palestinian involvement, but sensationalist media sources have sprung to pinned the blame on them. This is despite the fact that Israeli authorities have arrested Thai workers under suspicion they murdered the family due to a pay dispute.

Recently, the illegal settlers of the West Bank have declared a “Day of Rage” against the Palestinians and have gone on a violent rampage.

Two children were run over on two separate occasions — a five-year-old boy and an 11-year-old school girl. A mosque was burned down, Palestinian cars stoned and a man stabbed outside his home. A total of zero American news organizations featured this story and it went completely unreported .

Media focus on these back and forth attacks has essentially glorified the Israeli position, and entirely ignored the Palestinian casualties. Sadly, this is a common occurrence in the American media, which seems to value one type of life more than the other.

According to a study by “If Americans Knew,” NBC reports on 100 percent of Israeli deaths but only 10 percent of Palestinian. ABC is nearly the same, with 100 percent and 11 percent respectively .

The tone and details of the reporting are also highly skewed. Air strikes against civilian populations are considered a “military attack on terrorists,” for example. No context is ever given for retaliatory Palestinian attacks.

The media neglects to mention the Israeli provocations leading to the incident. They paint the Palestinians unfairly, as if they were violence-prone monsters rather than an oppressed and constantly terrorized population. Our media doesn’t even consider loss of Palestinian life or property news. Because of these biases, many Americans remain unaware of the true nature of the conflict.

12 Comments

    • that's cool do whatever you want… it's a free country… but you are making fun of other people because they comment on an article just as much as you comment on these articles…. if anything, you're just as pathetic…

  • BOB: what did the author say that was racist? what is there in the article that screams "nazi" to you?

    you know, when you throw those terms around, they stop meaning anything. the holocaust was a human tragedy, my grandmother survived warsaw, and i don't appreciate your use of the holocaust for political purposes.

  • BOB: what did the author say that was racist? what is there in the article that screams "nazi" to you?

    You know, when you throw these terms around, they lose all meaning. My grandmother survived the warsaw ghetto and i don't appreciate your use of the holocaust tragedy for political purposes.

  • BOB: what did the author say that was racist? what is there in the article that screams "nazi" to you?

    You know, when you throw these terms around they start to lose meaning. My grandmother survived the holocaust and I don't appreciate you using that tragedy for political reasons.

  • I didn't realize rockets was an 'excuse' for an attack last time I checked when terrorists fire rockets into your territory it is more than reasonable to strike back. Additionally you have to check your facts and give sources you claim the media has not picked up on this stuff so how have you? I want you to prove your allegations instead of spewing your hate for everything Israel

    • Sorry JMA, I had to take a shower and my previous comments have been deleted….. but I do remember our conversation…… So, are you a muslim?

  • I have never read such mindless garbage- this is from an official student newspaper?? How does this end
    up being linked on google news? His statement about Israel using rockets as an excuse to attack rates as the
    most idiotic thing I have ever read. What a disgrace!

  • mis-dis-"information"

    El Kurd? Please check out jihadwatch.com and see what real persecution smell like…

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