The Media’s Distortion of Palestine and Islam

Rifat Qatuni prepares his unborn baby for burial following a largely unreported Israeli invasion [Ma'anImages]

How the western media twists information in order to placate home governments and demonize the Arab world

By Cara Loverock

Last week, a story broke regarding a children’s television program broadcast on al-Aqsa TV, owned and operated by the Hamas movement. The children’s show, entitled ‘Tomorrow’s Pioneers’, featured a large mouse character, similar to Mickey Mouse, and spoke of resisting Israel and fighting for Islam. The numerous media outlets which covered this story have provided a clear picture of the racially prejudiced way in which the western world sees Arabs and Palestinians in particular. In a deconstruction of some of the news reporting on this issue, the bias of the west and its unconditional support of Israel and Israeli violations against Palestinians become glaringly obvious.

The story was picked up by all major news organizations in North America. Atika Shubert reported for CNN, and provided a skewed report showing a very narrow view of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, without doing more than to further demonize Palestinians and Islam. It was only at the very end of the report, in which Palestinian Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouthi mentioned the apartheid system in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the hard life inflicted on the residents of Gaza, that the report began to show a small amount of balance and reason.

It is the way in which Shubert words her report that allows for the bias to seep in. She declares that Farfour, the mouse character, calls for children “to engage in violent acts of resistance against Israel.”

Independent journalists, and all those who are informed about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are aware that Israeli forces regularly invade and attack Palestinians, inside Palestinian territory, deep within both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and a balanced report would have included that information. The report also failed to inform viewers, as the media often fails when reporting from this region, that the United Nations declared that all nations have the right to self-determination, which the UN's highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice, has stated implies a legitimate right to resist, with arms, an invading or occupying military force. Whether or not this message should be given to children is a different matter, but viewers should at least be given all the facts, which this report, as all other reports from the western corporate media, did not provide.

The CNN report continues as the network consults Israeli media watchdog group, Palestinian Media Watch and the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). At one point in the report, a clip of 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' is run, showing the presenters adorning a brightly colored set, as a young boy calls into the show. MEMRI translated the words of the caller as; “We will annihilate the Jews.” CNN, to their credit, (and the CBC) at least reported the real translation, which, according to their translators, was; “The Jews are killing us.”

Under questioning, the president of MEMRI, Yigal Carmon, says that he stands by their translation, based on the tone of the voice and, “the measure of the message.” This is not a small difference in translation; it is a large, glaring mistake and one that is not pursued by Shubert at all. Instead of following up how such a fundamental error could be possible, or why the Israelis would make such a ‘mistake’, Carmon's word is all that is needed, and the subject is dropped.

The final line of the report, in which Shubert concludes, “What’s for sure is that children in this part of the world are quickly exposed to virulent political messages.” This is said as though the political message given to children comes exclusively at the hands of the Palestinians and their factions- a message of which this children’s show is a part.

What is missing from this report is, again, the fact that all Palestinian children have the violent political situation in which they live thrust upon them at a very young age, primarily because of the Israeli occupation, and not because of ‘Islamic extremism’. Children here face a hard life because Israel refuses to respect international law, and, with the complicity of the entire western world, refuse to end their illegal occupation of the West Bank, the umbrella under which hundreds of human rights violations are committed against Palestinians each and every day.

This kind of slanted reporting is a slap in the face to all Palestinians and journalists who live inside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, who do not twist the truth or omit important facts in order to appease the Israeli government, its western ally governments or their citizens.

The BBC report unfortunately showed no more balance than the coverage of CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or the AP, stating; “The Israeli organization, Palestinian Media Watch, said the character took ‘every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy’.” Again, any reasonable journalist should take into account that they are consulting an organization over the media of a people illegally occupied by the very government of that organization. How can Israelis possibly provide a balanced view of life in the Palestinian territories, when their government and military authorities are currently committing mass human rights violations against the people of those territories? Would the British have provided a "fair and balanced" view of India during its brutal occupation? Can the United States be trusted to give an unbiased opinion of Iraqi resistance fighters?

Of course not, the western world seeks to dominate and exploit the Arabs (and their resources), and any resistance is immediately dubbed ‘terrorism’. When agents and states of the west, however, invade and destroy nations, they are dubbed ‘the coalition of the willing', and are said to be "bringing democracy" to the Arab world. Anyone who dare speak up for freedom and true democracy is immediately labeled a "terrorist sympathizer" or an "anti-Semite", thus silencing them, or at least manipulating the public into believing the speaker to be an ‘extremist’- not on the side of the west, and therefore not on the side of [imperial-style, corporate-governed] ‘democracy’.

The comparison is often made between the apartheid currently instituted in historic Palestine and that which once dominated South Africa. This comparison is very accurate; as much as western society would like to think itself enlightened and cultured, it is no more enlightened now than during the time of black slavery in the United States. The ability of the media to so effectively distort the facts of the Israeli occupation is a blatant and abhorrent display of racism against all Arab peoples.

It is no wonder that this conflict has lasted as long as it has, as western countries -particularly North America - will never view Palestinians, or indigenous inhabitants of any Arab country, as equal.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a statement regarding the program on their website;

“Israel is devoted to educating its children for tolerance and coexistence, teaching them to respect all peoples in accordance with Israel's democratic values and ideals. Israeli children are taught in their schools and via the media that the pursuit of peace is the highest calling. Israel believes that the key to a true and lasting peace lies in educating the next generation of both Israelis and Palestinians to live side-by-side.”

Is this why Israel has continued to illegally, under international law, occupy the West Bank and regularly invade the Palestinian territories, killing innocent civilians without cause or merit? Is this 'devotion to education of tolerance and coexistence' the reason the Israeli army bulldozes the homes of Palestinians, humiliates them at (over 500) checkpoints and barriers strewn throughout the West Bank? Are these 'democratic values and ideals' the reasoning behind the construction of a huge wall, encircling Palestinians and cutting swathes through their villages and agricultural lands, limiting their mobility and destroying their land and way of life? These actions are all in the name of peace and tolerance? The idea that the Israeli government is interested in peace is laughable. They are attempting to rid the world of all Palestinians, and, thanks in part to the skewed reporting of the western media, they are succeeding.

“The Hamas’ manipulation of children, which has been extensively documented by the media, constitutes a reprehensible violation of every international treaty and convention meant to protect children in situations of armed conflict. The PA's heinous exploitation of children is both profoundly immoral and fundamentally illegal.”
[Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement, 10 May 2007]

Funny the government of Israel should point to the alleged illegality of the actions of the Palestinian Authority, seeing as Israel is currently in brazen violation of over 65 UN resolutions.

Palestinian children wouldn’t need protecting if Israel would obey international law and respect human life. It is Israel who has backed Palestinians into a corner; they cannot possibly be surprised that their regular violent attacks on Palestinians have negatively affected the children who live there. In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, children as young as six and seven can be seen with scars from where Israeli soldiers have shot them with rubber bullets or tear gas.

Hebron also has a large Israeli settlement in the middle of the city, Tel Rumeida. The settlers here have a long history of beating Palestinians, damaging their property and seizing buildings and houses that belong to Palestinian families. There is a very well documented history of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian children in the city as they attempt to walk to school, as Israeli soldiers stand idly by.

International help has come from organizations like the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel. These volunteers walk children to school, in an attempt to shield them from the violence inflicted on them by the occupying forces. This, of course, is never, and would never be mentioned by the larger western media, as it actually shows the Palestinian side of the issue.

Not unlike the United States callous manipulation of the September 11th attacks on New York, Israel uses the Holocaust as a political tool. They have been able to occupy and violate an entire nation, also like the US, through the exploitation of a monumental tragedy. I do not attempt to downplay the horrific tragedy of 9/11 or the Holocaust. On the contrary, I am trying to point out that none of those who died in either of these tragedies would want their life to have been given in the name of occupation, war and discrimination; yet this is exactly what has happened.

The claim of the Israeli authorities that it is Palestinians "teaching their children to hate" is a testament to the twisted way in which Israel and most western countries, particularly the United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union, view this ongoing conflict. It is the Israeli army that invades refugee camps, shoots innocent civilians, humiliates Palestinians at checkpoints and steals their land and resources; Israel has stolen the very basic human rights of Palestinian people; yet it is Palestinians that are credited with teaching their children hatred.

In the past few weeks, at precisely the same time the media was all over the al-Aqsa TV story; Israeli military forces invaded the West Bank city of Nablus and its refugee camps. Troops forcibly entered and attacked Ein Beit Al-Ma' (No. 1) refugee camp ["Al Ein"] and shot an unarmed seven-month pregnant woman, Maha Al Katoumi, 29, in the abdomen. Al Katoumi was badly injured and her unborn baby was killed, shot through the head. Where was the media covering this story? Channels like CNN, which were so quick to attack Palestinians over their alleged ‘hatred’ of Israel, didn’t dare cover a story which would actually represent the other side to this conflict. In Google News search of ‘Maha Al Katoumi’ six articles came up, whereas a search of ‘Al-Aqsa TV’ turns up 1,000 stories. The western media turned a blind eye to the Al Katoumi story, one which resonates with thousands of similar stories here, amid unrelenting Israeli military violence against Arab civilians.

The western media and, sadly, western culture, are sending a clear message; Arab lives are not seen as valuable. They are demonized to the point that they are viewed as evil. No matter what the circumstances, their murders go either unreported or are swept aside with the thought that, as they are Arab or Palestinian, they would have turned into a terrorist sooner or later. This is the reasoning that Israelis and the west use in order to be able to sleep at night, in order to steal land, water and (elsewhere in the neighboring Middle East) oil. These resources don't belong to the occupying powers, yet this reasoning, this 'defense against terrorism', allows them to kill innocent civilians, brush it off like nothing happened and keep the conscience of the international community clear.

The western media needs to take a long, hard look at their bias; they are so fearful of being seen as anything less than a true ‘patriot’, as defined by the Bush government and the neo-conservatives, that journalists of the west all too often sell out the truth, the facts on the ground, in exchange for an easy life and a guaranteed career.

Furthermore, who is without sin, in order to cast the first stone of criticism against acts of "illegitimate political violence"? Unless an individual has lived under a violent occupation of their home country; had their family home demolished by military bulldozers, been forced to live in a cantonized ghetto and had their land and livelihood stolen, they have absolutely no right to judge the actions of the Palestinian people. In a land which needs bridges of peace, such blatant distortion of the media contributes only to the construction of the walls of hatred.

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Cara Loverock is an independent writer and researcher based at the joint Israeli-Palestinian organization, the Alternative Information Center