Biased Independent News Reports on Israeli Crimes in Palestine from 2000 to Present - Research Paper Example

Israeli Crimes in Palestine from 2000 to Present Name: University: Course Tile: Instructor: Date of Submission: 1.0 Introduction The Israeli-Palestine conflict has been a matter of great concern to the international community. This is due to the fact that the conflict between these two opposing sides has resulted into critical levels of crimes against humanity. Even though both sides have committed grave crimes against the opposing side, each has their own opinion of the crimes committed by the other side. These opinions are significantly influenced by the way both the local and the international media conduct their news reporting of the crimes against humanity resulting from the conflict/war. The role of both local and international media is a crucial one in conflict management and resolution. News reports on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been characterized by biasness and non-conformity with the international standards and regulations for objective and non-partial reporting (Sloan and Mackay, 2007, p.16). For instance, most international mainstream media failed to acknowledge the implications of the Israeli-Palestine conflict and Israeli-imposed isolation. The purpose of this research paper is to examine how independent biased news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine affect the opinions of everyday people in the Arab world. 2.0 Background Information on Israeli Crimes in Palestine At the centre of the conflict between Israel and Palestine is the jurisdiction of the Gaza Strip (Dowty, 2012, p.12). The Gaza Strip lies on the southern boarder of Israel along the Mediterranean coast. The Israeli-Palestine conflict begun when an estimated 8500 Israeli settlers comprising of approximately 1700 households/families were evacuated from enclaves in the region surrounded by approximately 1.4 million Palestinians. Both Israel and Palestine claim territorial jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip, an area whose size, Sloan and Mackay (2007, p.16) describes as hardly twice the size of Washington, DC. The conflict is deeply rooted as each side claims and can point out deep roots in the Gaza Strip. The Jewish jurisdiction over Gaza Strip can be traced back to more than 15o years B.C to the time of Maccabees while the first Arab sovereignty in the region took place in A.D. 634 after their armies drove the largest Jewish settlement in the Israel. In modern day, since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Gaza strip borders follow the armistice lines between Israel and Egypt. Gaza strip was captured by Israel in 1967 following a six-day war giving way to a highly protected Jewish settlement in the region. However, following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian authorities regained control of the Gaza strip (Shmidt, 2008, p.601). In early 2000s, pressure increased on Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and in august 2005 Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza strip (Sloan and Mackay, 2007, p.16). 3.0 Independent Biased Reporting of Israeli Crimes in Palestine 3.1 Overview Israel-Palestine Mission Network (n.d, p.1) postulates that numerous international observers for instance former US president Jimmy Carter identify a pervasive and persistent biasness in news reports as well as analysis of the conflict between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza strip/West Bank. In his own words, jimmy carter described the situation as follows: “Abominable! There is no degree of objectivity.” According to the Israel-Palestine Mission Network (n.d, p.1), this biasness has yielded news reports which indiscriminately favors Israelis more than the Palestinians. The mainstream news reports and analysis lack gross and general terms for fair and objective media reports hence leading to skewed coverage of the conflict between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza Strip. This skewed, biased and non-objective news reports significantly influence the opinions of the everyday people in the Arab world in an adverse manner. The Israeli unilateral disengagement in the Gaza Strip received significant applaud from the mainstream international media. The American mainstream media for instance, endorsed overwhelmingly Israelis disengagement action. However, biased resentments and blame of the Arab world as instigating acts of terrorists activities in the region would not go under estimated. At that time the New York Times reiterated that the action taken by Israel symbolized an emerging current of democracy which would undermine the activities of terrorists groups who take advantage of the Gaza Strip crisis to justify Jihad while committing grave crimes against humanity in the region. Allan Cowell reporting from Ramallah claimed that the then newly elected Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, intended to rein in Hamas, the Palestinian militia group in order to freeze status by then indefinitely (Sloan and Mackay, 2007, p.16). This seemed to favor the action by Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon while laying blame on Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. The Washington Post considered the Israelis disengagement in Gaza strip to be “a major personal and political triumph for Sharon.” The Washington post’s columnist Charles Krauthammer on the hand indicated that he hoped that the Palestinians “be forced to the collective conclusion that they can not drive the Jews into the sea and must therefore negotiate a compromise for permanently peace.” These sentiments though applauding the intended unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip by the Israelis were biased in indicating the need for such disengagement amid massive crimes committed by Israeli soldiers on innocent Palestinians. In addition, the American mainstream media failed to acknowledge the effort made by the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people in finding a peaceful resolution to the Gaza Strip conflict (Sloan and Mackay, 2007, p.16). Both local and international media have significant role in enhancing or rather promoting peaceful coexistence between the Israelis and the Palestinians especially with reference to the Gaza Strip. However, there are immense claims by both the pro Palestinians and pro Israelis that news reports by both local and international media are characterized by lack of objectivity, fairness and biasness. For instance, Israel closed more than 21 settlements occupied by the Jews in the Gaza Strip in August 2005. News coverage and reporting of the much publicized event were met by competing claims by both sides that they did not exhibit fairness in reporting the latest rounds of conflict in the Gaza Strip region (Sloan and Mackay, 2007, p.16). Such lack of fairness significantly influence the opinion of the of everyday people in the Arab world in an adverse manner. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult in ensuring or rather guaranteeing objectivity in finding an amicable solution to the land dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians over the Gaza Strip (Winstanley, 2013). According to Israel-Palestine Mission Network (n.d, p.4), international media have significantly failed the “balance test” in their reporting of the Israeli crimes in Palestine. The US media for instance, in their reporting are sympathetic and provide a lot of detail on Israeli casualties while on the other hand dehumanizing and generalizing the Palestinian causalities. A report by the media watchdog organization indicate that the American international mainstream media such as NBC, San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, ABC, as well as Portland’s Oregonian reports the deaths of Israeli children at rates seven to 40 times more than the deaths of Palestinian children resulting from the dispute between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza Strip. In spite of disproportionate suffering of Palestinians resulting from Israeli war crimes, the international independent media become biased by trying to balance the story. This is through the provision of extensive treatment with photographs of fearful and anguished Israeli causalities in addition to the adverse impact that the war is having on them. 3.2 Implications The fact that Jewish journalists’ representation in the mainstream international media particularly the US media is widely disproportionate as compared to their Arab and Muslim counterparts considered to be sympathetic to the struggle of the Palestinians cannot be disputed. This is a strong precursor or rather a fact that can significantly lead to biasness in news reports concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict. This disproportionate representation of journalist of Arab and Muslim journalist in the mainstream international media adversely affect the opinions of everyday people in the Arab world (Saario, 2012, p.144). In essence, the everyday people in the Arab world feel left out or rather discriminated against. This is one significant factor which as led to the claims of biased news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine since 2000. As a result, the news reports in the opinion of the everyday people in the Arab world are that they are fabricated, unfair and lack objectivity as they do not represent their interests. The use of euphemistic terminology or rather emotionally charged language especially with reference to the Palestinians by the mainstream media is another source of biased independent news reports of Israeli crimes in Gaza Strip since 2000. Many mainstream media outlets especially from the west prefer emotionally charged language such as “anti terrorism fence”, and “security barrier” among others in their reporting on the Israel-Palestine crisis of the Gaza Strip. Such euphemistic terminology demonizes or even obscures the function of the barrier in Israel settlement and expansion in the Gaza Strip and the underlying concomitant territorial dispossession of the Palestinians from the Gaza strip (Aked, 2012; Israel-Palestine Mission Network, n.d, p.4 and p.5). The opinion of the everyday people in the Arab world is thus adversely influenced by such use of euphemistic terminology in news reporting. This is more so because the use of euphemistic terminology or rather emotionally charged language against the Palestinians portrays them as being solely responsible for the continuing wave of violence as well as crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip (Saario, 2012, p.144). It also brings discontent among the everyday people in the Arab world. It is this discontent that can hinder commitment on the part of the aggrieved Palestinians to peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Militia groups such as the Hamas have continuously taken advantage of the media biasness to propagate violent attacks and terrorist activities due to this discontent. In their opinion, killing the Jews is holy since they base the attacks on the holy war of Jihad. According to Aked (2012), a significant characteristic of the Israeli-Palestine conflict over the Gaza strip is resistance of illegal Israeli occupation by Palestinians. Many lives have been lost due to recurrent conflicts and violence in the Gaza strip region. The mainstream media biasness has been depicted by the fact that they refer to Palestinians resistance to illegal Israeli’s occupation as “acts of terrorism” and “militia group” or “gunmen” activities. This is contrary to how the war crimes, illegal, oppressive and abusive activities of the Israeli soldiers are reported. They mainstream media simply refer to them as “soldiers”. Usually, news reports refer to the violence instigated by Israelis in Palestine since 2000 as “response” to the actions of Palestinians. On the other hand, in the opinion or view of the perpetrators of the actions of the Palestinians, they are usually initiated in order to respond to particular acts of violence by the Israelis as well as violations of Palestinian human rights (Effarah, 2007, p.343). The mainstream media also exhibit biasness in their reporting of Israeli crimes in Palestine by ignoring to capture settler violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank. The settler violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank is almost never depicted as acts of terrorism and is even rarely covered by the mainstream media news reports especially those based in the US. Contrary to the foregoing, the mainstream media especially in the US accentuates Palestinian militancy in the West bank region. At the same time, there is news reports biasness because the existence of well coordinated peaceful and nonviolent resistance by the Palestinians against illegal Israeli occupation goes literally unreported. For instance, routine protests against land confiscation and the construction of the Wall in the West Bank by Palestinians in conjunction with some internationals as well as Israelis goes unreported by the mainstream media. Instead, such peaceful routine demonstrations and protests are only met with significant violence and brutality from the Israeli police and military (Israel-Palestine Mission Network, n.d, p.5). This lack of fairness in reporting and independent biased news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine negatively affects the opinions of every day people in the Arab world. Every day people in the Arab world consider such reports as hindrance to just and objective resolution of the Israeli-Palestine crisis. Biased independent news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine are characterized by news stories or reports lacking essential context with regard to the international law as well as conventions on human rights. Israel-Palestine Mission Network (n.d, p.4 and p.5) indicates that the presence of Israelis in Palestine (Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT)) is an illegal act within the international law framework. In addition, the transfer of Israeli citizens to the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) violates international law whereas numerous practices and routines by the Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) for instance, collective punishment grossly violate the Geneva Conventions. The mismatch in news reports of Israeli crimes in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT) with the reality on the ground is not doing any justice to the people of Palestine whose territory is being occupied illegally by Israelis against international law (House of commons International Development Committee, 2008, p.81 to p.83). In the opinion of the everyday people in the Arab world, this biased independent news reports are not justified. The US support for many of the actions of Israelis on the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT); biased US media news reports; as well as the US foreign policy have significant influences on the opinions of everyday people in the Arab world (Aked, 2012). It is due to this that the US is considered not to be an “honest peace broker” in the search for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict over the Gaza Strip (Perry, 2003, p.187). For the past couple of decades, the US foreign policy has had a significant and profound implications and influences on the conflict between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza Strip. However, these implications and influences are largely detached from as well as entirely irrelevant with regard to how news reports in the field are carried out by the mainstream media (Israel-Palestine Mission Network, n.d, p.5). 4.0 Conclusion The purpose of this research paper was to examine how independent biased news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine affect the opinions of everyday people in the Arab world. According to the findings of this paper, there exists a significant mismatch, biasness/unfairness and lack of objectivity and context in news reports of Israeli violence crimes in Palestine since 2000. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has for a long time been described by the mainstream news reports as a justifiable quest for nationhood by the Jews jeopardized by intractable and unfortunate “Palestinian problem”. The biased news reports of Israeli crimes in Palestine since 2000 adversely influence the opinion of the everyday people in the Arab world. As a result, efforts to finding a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict are significantly jeopardized. The role of both local and international mainstream media is a crucial one in conflict management and resolution. Fairness in news reporting concerning the conflict between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza strip/West Bank can significantly facilitate speedy peaceful resolution of the conflict. Bibliography Aked, H 2012, BBC bias? 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