What is the job of a journalist? Is it to report on objective fact? Is it to alert the public to the actions of their leaders? Is it to provide information in an engaging, entertaining manner?
Regardless of what one believes the role of journalists to be, something has become unequivocally clear; the vast majority of Western journalists are failing Palestinians in a myriad of ways.
Journalists have contributed to the dehumanizing of Palestinians, they have forced upon the public a dishonest dynamic of Jewish versus Muslim, when what is currently happening in Gaza is not an issue of religion, but an issue of humanity, and they have indirectly facilitated the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Since the events of October 7, there has been a consistent tonal and rhetorical difference in reporting on Palestinians compared to reporting on Israelis. While Israelis are “slaughtered,” Palestinians, in contrast, have only “been killed.” While Israelis are “murdered,” Palestinians are “found dead.” While Israelis are “massacred,” Palestinians are merely “killed.”
These contrasts in language make all the difference — while all casualties are tragic, what does it say when the press only treats some casualties as worthy of such emotional language? While deaths caused by Hamas involve active voice, deaths caused by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) involve passive voice. This difference carries a heavy implication; Palestinian lives, and the loss thereof, are simply less than Israeli lives.
This is blatant dehumanization, and it is carried out in one of the most powerful forms of media: the press. And it is this very dehumanization that facilitates the horrific crimes against humanity and genocide that is currently happening in Gaza. The genocide that journalists refuse to mention.
While extensive reporting on Israel and Gaza has flooded news feeds, there is a constant avoidance of the “g word.” Even as international aid workers were, as reported by CNN, intentionally targeted and murdered by IDF. Even as the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrests of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s former Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant. Even as international bodies such as the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations acknowledge that Israel is, at the very least, engaging in ‘acts of genocide,’ there has been an almost unilateral avoidance of the word “genocide” in reporting on Gaza.
Instead, journalists refer to the events in Gaza as the “Israel-Hamas war,” or simply the “Gaza war.” These specific rhetorical choices matter. By positioning Palestinians in Gaza as engaged in a war, journalists have made it rhetorically impossible for Palestinians to be victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide. By framing Palestinians as combatants, journalists have justified and legitimized the violence waged against a population that is mostly women and children. By engaging in the dehumanization of Palestinians and the outright denial of the ongoing genocide, journalists have not only failed Palestinians, but they have failed the public too.
As easy as it is to tell people to “just watch the news,” or to say that you’re “up to date on current events” because you check the BBC’s website a few times a day, what happens when these bastions of information crumble? It becomes impossible for many people to be informed. It leaves the public susceptible to disinformation and propaganda. And it opens the door for attacks on freedom of speech — attacks that are happening more and more frequently.
See, it’s not only journalists and the press as an institution who have failed Palestinians; the United States has failed Palestinians, too. Although purporting to support freedom and democracy for all, America’s foreign policy has all but rolled out a red carpet for Netanyahu’s attacks on Gaza. Although claiming to value freedom of speech and due process, the American government has authorized the censorship of those who speak out in support of Palestinians. Although positioning itself as a bastion of progress and equality, America’s money goes to supporting acts of genocide. Make no mistake; we are all complicit.
But when it comes from the top down, what can be done? Contrary to popular belief, a lot.
Last year, college students across the United States organized mass protests in support of Palestinians, which escalated to encampments. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which focuses on the economic aspects of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, published a BDS guide for those interested in supporting Palestinians. Legislation regarding the United States’ involvement in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza is often on congressional dockets — and the official U.S. Congress website has a ‘find your members of Congress’ page.
At the very least, I encourage people to look beyond the headlines, to engage critically with all information, and to extend humanity to those other than the people they share traits with. When there is a mass ignorance and denial of genocide, merely extending personhood to the people being victimized is a radical act of solidarity.