Media Cover-Up: Shielding Israel Is A Matter Of Policy

 The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the western corporate media’s relation­ship with Israel and Pales­tine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partial­ity. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demon­izing Palestinians.

The current disgraceful cover­age of Gaza’s popular protests indi­cates that the media’s position aims at suppressing the truth on Pales­tine, at any cost and by any means.

Political symbiosis, cultural af­finity, Hollywood, the outreaching influence of pro-Israel and Zionist groups within the political and me­dia circles, are some of the explana­tions many of us have offered as to why Israel is often viewed with sym­pathetic eyes and Palestinians and Arabs condemned.

But such explanations should hardly suffice. Nowadays, there are numerous media outlets that are try­ing to offset some of the imbalance, many of them emanating from the Middle East, but also other parts of the world. Palestinian and Arab journalists, intellectuals and cultur­al representatives are more present on a global stage than ever before and are more than capable of facing off, if not defeating, the pro-Israeli media discourse.

However, they are largely in­visible to western media; it is the Israeli spokesperson who continues to occupy the center stage, speaking, shouting, theorizing and demoniz­ing as he pleases.

It is, then, not a matter of media ignorance, but policy.

Even before March 30, when scores of Palestinians in Gaza were killed and thousands wounded, the US and British media, for example, should have, at least, questioned why hundreds of Israeli snipers and army tanks were ordered to deploy at the Gaza border to face-off Pales­tinian protesters.

Instead, they referred to ‘clash­es’ between Gaza youth and the snip­ers, as if they are equal forces in an equivalent battle.

Western media is not blind. If ordinary people are increasingly able to see the truth regarding the situation in Palestine, experienced western journalists cannot possibly be blind to the truth. They know, but they choose to remain silent.

The maxim that official Israeli propaganda or ‘hasbara’ is too savvy no longer suffices. In fact, it is hard­ly true.

Where is the ingenuity in the way the Israeli army explained the killing of unarmed Palestin­ians in Gaza?

“Yesterday we saw 30,000 peo­ple,” the Israeli army tweeted on March 31. “We arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Noth­ing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and mea­sured, and we know where every bullet landed.”

If that is not bad enough, Is­rael’s ultra-nationalist Minister of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman, followed that self-indictment by declaring there are “no innocent people in Gaza”; thus, legitimizing the targeting of any Gazan within the besieged Strip.

Unfair media coverage is not fueled by the simplistic notion of ‘clever Israel, imprudent Arabs’. Western media is actively involved in shielding Israel and enhancing its diminishing brand, while pains­takingly demolishing the image of Israel’s enemies.

Take for example, Israel’s un­founded propaganda that Yasser Murtaja, the Gaza journalist who was killed in cold blood by an Israeli sniper while covering the Great March of Return protests at the Gaza border, was a member of Hamas.

First, ‘unnamed officials’ in Isra­el claimed that Yasser is ‘a member of the Hamas security apparatus.’ Then, Lieberman offered more (fab­ricated) details that Yasser was on Hamas’ payroll since 2011 and ‘held a rank similar to a captain.’ Many journalists took these statements and ran with them, constantly as­sociating any news coverage of Yas­ser’s death with Hamas.

It turned out that, according to the US State Department, Yas­ser’s start-up media company in Gaza had actually received a small grant from USAID, which subject­ed Yasser’s company to a rigorous vetting process.

More still, a report by the Inter­national Federation of Journalist claimed that Yasser was actually detained and beaten by the Gaza po­lice in 2015, and that Israel’s Defense Minister is engineering a cover-up.

Judging by this, Israel’s media apparatus is as erratic and self-defeating as North Korea; but this is hardly the image conveyed by western media, because it insists on placing Israel on a moral pedestal while misrepresenting Palestinians, regardless of the circumstances.

But there is more to western media’s approach to Palestine and Israel than shielding and elevat­ing Israel, while demonizing Pal­estinians. Oftentimes, the media works to distract from the issues altogether, as is the case in Britain today, where Israel’s image is rap­idly deteriorating.

To disrupt the conversation on Palestine, the Israeli Occupation and the British government’s un­conditional support of Israel, British mainstream media has turned the heat on Jeremy Corbyn, the popular leader of the Labor Party.

Accusations of anti-Semitism has dogged the party since Corbyn’s election in 2015. Yet, Corbyn is not racist; on the contrary, he has stood against racism, for the working class and other disadvantaged groups. His strong pro-Palestine stance, in particular, is threatening to compel a paradigm shift on Palestine and Israel within the revived and ener­gized Labor Party.

Sadly, Corbyn’s counter strate­gy is almost entirely absent. Instead of issuing a statement condemning all forms of racism and moving on to deal with the urgent issues at hand, including that of Palestine, he allows his detractors to deter­mine the nature of the discussion, if not the whole discourse. He is now trapped in a perpetual conversa­tion, while the Labor Party is regu­larly purging its own members for alleged anti-Semitism.

Considering that Israel and its allies in the media, and elsewhere, conflate between criticism of Israel and its Zionist ideology, on the one hand, and that of Jews and Juda­ism on the other, Corbyn cannot win this battle.

Nor are Israel’s friends keen on winning, either. They merely want to prolong a futile debate so that British society remains embroiled in distractions and spares Israel any accountability for its action.

If British media was, indeed, keen on calling out racism and iso­lating racists, why then is there little discussion on Israel’s racist policies targeting Palestinians?

Media spin will continue to provide Israel with the needed mar­gins to carry out its violent policies against the Palestinian people, with no moral accountability. It will re­main loyal to Israel, creating a buffer between the truth and its audiences.

It is incumbent on us to ex­pose this sinister relationship and hold mainstream media to account for covering up Israel’s crimes, as well as Israel for committing these crimes in the first place.

The Article First Appeared In Counter Currents. Org

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