Israel is committing genocide and Western media is helping hide the bodies

In Gaza, the distinctive blue flak jackets and helmets of journalists, symbols of the pursuit of truth under dangerous conditions, have now also come to represent Israeli violence and silencing, writes Fatima el Issawi. [GETTY]

Since the start of Israel's onslaught on Gaza, Western media has continuously been complicit in the erasure of Palestinian suffering, says Fatima el Issawi.

For over the last nearly 11 months, mainstream Western media has framed the ongoing onslaught in Gaza as a ‘classic’ conflict between two parties. The Gaza mass killing, is largely bloodless on televised screens. On social media platforms, another story is unfolding; a torrent of horrific accounts of Israel’s war crimes inflicted on civilians surpassing any surreal imaginary of violence, captured by the victims themselves as well as their perpetrators, the latter proudly celebrating their impunity.

Navigating between my social media feeds and my TV screen, it is hard to believe I am following the same story. Gazans’ encounters with their “bare life” are beyond any hallucinations that our imagination can create, including our own living experiences of trauma.

I was born and raised in a conflict zone in South Lebanon where life was punctuated by Israeli attacks and several invasions. However, Western media remains largely indifferent to the victims. The absence of their shredded bodies from mainstream coverage is more perverse than simple apathy due to lack of geographical and cultural proximity, as we teach our students in journalism courses. Indeed, the media is serving to whitewash Israel’s war crimes and therefore partakes in the erasure of those who it violently targets. Victims are denied the basic right to be acknowledged as suffering subjects.

The implicit message is: it is OK to kill them since some of them are potential terrorists, and their children will likely follow suit.

The unsaid

Passive voices and soft wording that steers clear of terms like “massacre”, “crimes” or “killing”, are just a some of the countless examples of erasure used in mainstream Western reporting.... READ MORE  https://www.newarab.com/opinion/western-media-helping-hide-bodies-amid-israels-genocide

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