يناير: وسائل الإعلام تقلل من تأثير حصار المساعدات والسيطرة على رفح
التاريخ: 
16/12/2024
المؤلف: 

Editor's Note: This article is part of the Press on Palestine series, an initiative by Palestine Square. It includes selections from January 2024. Press on Palestine highlights bias in mainstream American reporting on Palestinian and Arab-Israeli affairs.

          1. The Washington Post, January 14, 2024
          Despite U.S. Pressure on Israel, Casualty Count in Gaza Remains High, By Karen DeYoung and John Hudson

Mainstream U.S. media have been scrambling to maintain their readers’ view of the Biden administration as a benevolent mediator throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In their headline, Karen DeYoung and John Hudson suggest that ‘U.S. pressure on Israel’ is at odds with the high ‘casualty count.’ American imperialist interests are concealed, preventing readers from drawing connections or seeing the United States’ active complicity in the atrocities committed in Gaza.

They introduce the article by describing how Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel that they began to  “[lose] the moral high ground in their war with Hamas.” While Blinken suggests that the ‘moral high ground’ was initially Israel’s, and that the U.S. is an apt judge of morality, he is the only person quoted about the U.S.’s role. The article amplified Blinken’s claims in the headline and through selective sourcing.   

As the Biden administration continues to show unmitigated rhetorical and material support for Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, media outlets like The Washington Post attempt to obfuscate this reality. DeYoung and Hudson quote empty statements by members of the Democratic Party as they urge Israel to allow in ‘humanitarian aid’ and protect ‘innocent life.’ They portray Israel as rebellious and juvenile, reluctant to heed the advice of its protector and supporter. They write that the U.S. is “Israel’s leading defender against an increasingly hostile world,” suggesting that the global movement against Israel is unjustified and that Israel deserves protection from the vitriol. 

The authors report that “There has been some incremental improvement in the south. Palestinian deaths, according to statistics from Gaza health officials, have averaged about 171 a day so far in January, down from 230 during the last week of December.” Here, in addition to the dehumanization of people in Gaza — treating them as mere numbers, suggesting 171 deaths a day can be a positive development — DeYoung and Hudson use passive language to avoid naming Israel as the aggressor. 

They conclude the article with paragraphs of long quotes from an IOF propaganda video. While they mention how the U.N. challenged some of the IOF’s claims, they present the contradictions as ambiguous. The article is devoid of footage from the situation on the ground in Gaza, mentioning actual numbers, or quoting Palestinian sources.

          2. The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2024
          Israel Plans Risky Mission to Seize Last Gaza Border It Doesn’t Control, By Jared Malsin and Summer Said

In this article, Jared Malsin and Summer Said conceal how Israel ‘seizing’ the Rafah crossing would trap Palestinians in Gaza under the bombardment, starvation, and psychological torture inflicted upon them by the IOF. They minimize the impact of controlling Rafah and only mention  the impact of this on Palestinians in the single statement: “Security analysts are concerned that such an operation would deepen the humanitarian crisis.” Malsin and Said avoid declaring this a killing spree, refusing to acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians in their reporting or rhetoric. 

They repeat the Israeli narrative that controlling the Rafah crossing is intended to prevent the smuggling of weapons, omitting any non-Israeli sources that could attest to weapons being transported through the Rafah crossing. 

They suggest that. “For Israel, reclaiming the border region would strike a strategic blow against Hamas.”  Implying the disempowerment of Hamas and supporting border control in this language manufactures public consent for a genocidal act. The use of the word ‘reclaiming’ suggests that Israel has legitimate sovereignty over the Rafah crossing. 

By stating that Israel is ‘pushing to retake,’ control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, Malsin and Said decontextualize Israel’s border control before Oct. 7, 2023.  Israel had some control beyond ‘security cooperation,’ additionally controlling what came in and out of Gaza. Upholding the argument of military strategy, the authors additionally justify Israel’s demolition of homes near the Rafah crossing in the early 2000s, establishing the groundwork to justify the May Rafah invasion.

The WSJ described the operation as ‘complicated’ because of the ‘presence’ of one million displaced Palestinians. In addition to not addressing why one million Palestinians are displaced in Rafah, nor the fact that the crossing is used for aid entry and evacuations, they treat the presence of Palestinians as a nuisance that hinders Israel’s supposed military goals. More examples of language that diminishes the issue include their statement that Palestinians are ‘camping in areas along the [Rafah crossing],’ obfuscating the fact that they were forcibly displaced, seeking refuge in tents. 

Writing, “according to Palestinian officials … more than 23,000 people have been killed,” Malsin and Said included the regularly employed disclaimer that “the numbers don’t distinguish between soldiers and civilians.” However, when mentioning the Israeli death toll from Oct. 7, 2023, their phrasing is determinative, saying that the attack “killed more than 1,200 people, mainly civilians.” The contrast implies a dehumanization of Palestinians; first, by casting doubt over the sources reporting the death toll and second by implying that the number of civilians isn’t clear. While, on the other hand, they suppress the fact that the vast majority of those killed on Oct. 7 were former or current members of the IOF. They also omit the fact that Israel initially falsely reported 1,400 deaths before revising their number three months into the genocide, and how many of those deaths were caused by the IOF. The article mentions the Israeli death toll early in paragraph 4 but does not mention the Palestinian death toll until 12-13 paragraphs in. The authors also fail to identify that the areas targeted in the Gaza Envelope were illegal settlements. 

  1.           3. The New York Times, January 25 2024

          Families of Israeli Hostages Protest at Border Crossing to Block Aid to Gaza, By Victoria Kim and Roni Rabin 

Victoria Kim and Roni Rabin introduce this article by painting “protesters” who are preventing aid from reaching Palestinians during a genocide as victims. The NYT rationalizes their efforts to starve Palestinians by stating they are “the families of Israeli hostages,” and they claim their intentions are only to “push their government to give priority to the captives,” return, and put more pressure on Hamas. Neither Kim and Rabin nor the families interviewed explain how stopping aid from reaching Palestinians can be linked to returning the hostages.

It is not until near the end of the article that the authors mention the situation in Gaza. They briefly note that “most of the territory’s 2.2 million civilians are enduring extreme shortages of basic supplies and are at risk of starvation. At the time, Israel said it was committing to 200 trucks a day, but the rate of entry has fallen far short of that goal, averaging around 130.” There is no criticism of the stated ‘goal,’ which is already far lower than how many aid tracks entered Gaza before the current genocide. The authors only take issue with rate entry falling short, failing to hold Israel accountable, and explaining why aid has fallen short.

Kim and Rabin conclude by saying that the protesters intended to demand “the release of their loved ones.” Again, justifying their genocidal behavior.

TOPSHOT - A man stands next to barbed wire near a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on February 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)
عاتكة أيوب, لورا البسط