Media and Palestine. The information war is, once more, an important dimension in the events that followed the Hamas attacks of the 7th October and the Israeli bombing on Gaza.
Journalists trying to cover the current events are already paying a heavy price. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 22 journalists have been killed as of 22nd of October: 18 Palestinian, 3 Israeli, and 1 Lebanese. On the 10th of October UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay tweeted that the organization “deplores the deadliest week for journalists in any recent conflict”.
Moreover, electricity cuts will make it increasingly difficult to report and communicate between Gaza and outside.
Mainstream media in Europe and the US were widely accused of being biased in favor of Israel, as they reported unverified information, and tended to embrace without criticism pro-Israeli narratives.
We selected some of the best journalistic pieces of recent publication focusing on media, information, and Palestine.
Inkyfada (Tunisia)
“Palestine, the fight for information”
by Haifa Mzaluat and Emma Chebaane
Palestinian journalists have to face tremendous challenges in order to report events on the ground. While during the last weeks many of them are dying in Gaza under bombing, they are also subject to constant surveillance by the Israeli State and to harassment by the police, the army, or settlers.
In a second part, the piece also examines episodes of fake news or biased reporting by different Western media.
In the final part, the article describes the boycotting of “pro-Palestinian” posts on Instagran, X, and Facebook, including new forms of censorship like the “shadow banning”.
The Intercept (USA)
“Europe’s largest news aggregator orders editors to play down Palestinian deaths”
By Daniel Boguslaw
Leadership at Upday, a subsidiary of the Germany-based publishing giant Axel Springer, gave instructions to prioritize the Israeli perspective and minimize Palestinian civilian deaths in coverage, according to the employees.
The New Arab (Pan-Arab website based in London)
“Israel refuses to confirm Hamas beheaded babies, fuelling Gaza misinformation”
By Anas Ambri
On the 10th October, news started to circulate among several international media that Hamas had beheaded babies in the Kfar Aza Kibbutz.
The piece investigates how the news were generated and spread even if never confirmed officially by the Israeli army and never verified. The piece also describes how this specific, and probably fake, news was used by Israel to push a narrative equating Hamas to Isis.
N+1 Magazine (USA)
“A Surge in Suppression. It’s never been so bad”
By Dylan Saba
A member of Palestine Legal, an organization providing legal support for the Palestinian solidarity movement, describes the atmosphere of “McCarthyist purge” in the US, putting those expressing critical views of Israel or alternative views at risk of losing their jobs, being questioned, and harassed.
ExBerliner (Germany)
“They confuse it with antisemitism’: German Media and Israel”
By Matt Unicomb
We re-propose here an old interview of ExBerliner with German-Jewish journalist Fabian Wolff, in which he examines in a critical way the complex and controversial relationship between Germany and antisemitism. More actual than ever.
Jewish Currents (USA)
By Jewish Currents Staff
Germany is often acclaimed for its efforts to atone for the Holocaust. However, these methods also became tools for exclusion, and this analytical article poses the questions: are these efforts really about the victims, and avoid that history repeats itself, or rather they are more about only redeeming the perpetrators’ descendants?
