Palestinians suffer from media’s use of derogatory labels

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Why, in our news media, is an Israeli with a gun a “soldier”, but a Palestinian with a gun a “militant”, or even a “terrorist”?

The terminology is clearly prejudicial to the Palestinian cause, because New Zealanders are more likely to identify with a “soldier” than a “militant”.

If “militant” is a label which implies extremism, then perhaps it would be best applied to those in the Israeli armed forces who are now bombing and shelling Gaza.

You can’t get more extreme that to target private residences, knowing that whole families are inside and are likely to be killed or injured. Yet that is what Israel is doing and anyone in the Hamas administration (civilian or military) seems to be fair game. This is both inhuman and a War Crime under the Rome Treaty.

Under this Treaty a War Crime involves “intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects”, “attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives”, and “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians”.

We can identify with the ordinary Israeli’s fear of Hamas rockets, which can also cause “incidental loss of life or injury to civilians” without diverting our attention from the horror of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the huge toll of dead and wounded. The root of the problem lies in Israel’s long-standing economic blockade of Gaza and its refusal to talk with Hamas, on the grounds it is a “terrorist” organisation.

Anyone who really wants peace should be demanding of Israel that it end its assault on Gaza, lift the economic blockade and accept Hamas as a negotiating partner.

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This is something our government should be promoting. Our media could assist by ending the pejorative “militant” labeling of Hamas; and not allowing Israel to get away with presenting its military strikes as “anti-terrorist”.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Absolutely right.

    Israeli’s in the West Bank are called “Settlers”. Palestinians in Israel are called “invaders” or “terrorists”.

    Pretty soon, when Israel has “accomplished” its long-term aim of pushing the remaining Palestinians residents into the sea (because all of the other other borders of Gaza are closed), we will be told that the Gaza strip has been “liberated”.

  2. It’s staggering when one sees the amount of coverage and moral indignation expressed after the downing of flight MH17 while Israel seems to be able to bomb Gaza with impunity.

    • Convenient timing and distraction? Remember the shooting down of the Iranian airliner by two surface to air missiles launched from the USS Vincennes in 1988 with the loss of 290 lives. That was called a regrettable “accident” while MH17 is an act of “terrorism”. Kerry, himself a “hero” of the bombing of North Vietnam will presumably call for the same punishment that was given to Will Rogers III the captain of the Vincennes and his crew which was…………(?) (Midnight Oil: ‘Short Memories’!) Meanwhile in Gaza the slaughter by Israeli State terrorists continues, under the concealing cloak of darkness, as families sit to break their fast during Ramadan and the body count grows higher..

  3. ” Why, in our news media, is an Israeli with a gun a “soldier”, but a Palestinian with a gun a “militant”, or even a “terrorist”?

    Maybe it has something to do with the content of these excellent documentaries .

    Try this exceptional series on Aljazeera .

    ‘ Meltdown ‘ . Global financial chaos . Guess who had his flat , greasy , pig trotters wedged firmly into that particular trough . You guessed it ! Johky-stien !
    http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/meltdown/2014/01/2014125111339594423.html

    … and another must-see to complete the picture .
    You may ask yourself ? What’s the connection between slaughtered Palestinian children , billionaire Wall Street bankers and New Zealand ?

    http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/05/lab-20145475423526313.html

    • ”Johky-stien !”

      Seriously? If you’re going to be antisemitic , at least learn to spell ”stein”. Moron.

  4. It’s quite easy really. Gaza is part of a sovereign state, Palestine. As such, combatants operating from Gaza are required, if soldiers of said State, to wear uniform and abide by the Geneva convention, neither of which Hamas and it’s terrorist militant wing does. Ipso facto, the Hamas fighters are terrorists by UN convention.

    • Get real, Iain, surely you don’t think the Israelis would allow Hamas to have a regular army!
      From Wikipedia, Palestinian National Security Forces…”As part of the Oslo Accords, the PNA was authorized to recruit and train a police force with paramilitary capabilities, but was not permitted to have a military force.”

  5. “This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
    Malcolm X

  6. Two things:

    1) wouldn’t it be easier for Israel to destroy tunnels from the Israeli end. They could throw down some grenades and kill lots of terrorists then flood them.

    2) if there are 18 tunnels from Gaza then according to the Israeli narrative you would expect there to have been many attacks within Israel.

    just saying.

  7. Is this really so surprising, I ask?

    I notice this every day, with other news, that media are always somehow biased in their reporting, while “mainstream media” does usually also means “advertising” earning, commercial media, and the remnants of “public” media there still are having adapted to their inferior colleagues.

    Media persons are usually “white”, or “near white”, mostly “middle class”, well trained graduates or self starters, who do their “hard work”, “feeling the pulse” of what happens.

    The Israelis are again considered, members of an organised, structured, successful, “decent” state, mostly educated, again “middle class”, and thus similar to the average media hack, and also the wider public there and here in New Zealand (from “the centre”).

    Palestinians are seen as “trouble makers”, same as the “activists” and “protestors” we sometimes have go up the Queen Street or other streets, “blocking” traffic lanes “law abiding” citizens want to use to go about their “rightful” daily “tasks” or deserved “shopping”.

    Kiwi soldiers killed in Afghanistan are celebrated and respected as dutiful “heroes”, they are mourned, while any Afghan killed is at best “a poor civilian victim” or “collateral damage”.

    It is the same like, being rich or better off, is often seen as being “more successful”, and therefore a “better person”.

    It worked in many suppressive regimes, and also does work in any other “democratic” society, to look after supposed “deserving”, and look down on the “lazy” or at best “unfortunate”.

    Class systems have many faces, and they cross many lines on this globe, and New Zealand is no different to Israel in that, I fear.

  8. @yogibare
    Thanks for the reply, but the PA and their police are not HAMAS. It is HAMAS that is labeled a terrorist organisation and HAMAS the IDF is engaging. I am not aware of any current war between the IDF and the PA.

    • Iain,
      I seem to recall Hamas was also a democratically elected government, before being labelled a “terrorist organisation”, and I’m pretty sure they don’t have an regular army.
      Semantics: terrorist/ freedom fighter.

      • Yogibare, thanks again for the reply. Semantics? Well certainly debate. Firstly, here’s the Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the UNHRC specifically spelling out that unlike Israel, HAMAS deliberately targets civilians.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjzS27ylCZ8

        Secondly, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
        ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Terrorism_Convention )
        specifically states that
        “(b)Uses in any way radioactive material or a device, or uses or damages a nuclear facility in a manner which releases or risks the release of radioactive material:
        (i) With the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury; or
        (ii) With the intent to cause substantial damage to property or to the environment; or
        (iii)With the intent to compel a natural or legal person, an international organization or a State to do or refrain from doing an act.”

        Here’s HAMAS doing exactly that.

        http://nypost.com/2014/07/10/day-of-bombardment-in-israel-nears-nuclear-reactor/

  9. Thanks Iain. It is refreshing to read a point of view on a left-wing site that is backed up by facts rather than distorted beliefs and emotions.

    • Craig,
      See my post to Iain below for just a couple of salient facts about Israel’s illegal occupation.

  10. Iain,
    Pleased be advised that I’m not ignoring your latest response – I have twice typed out long replies that this iPad has deleted. Perhaps to give me a small taste of the frustration Hamas must feel when trying to deal with the Israelis!
    I do appreciate the politeness of your replies but know we are never going to agree on this subject.
    I’ll now quickly send this off into the ether before it disappears on me again.

  11. Fifth attempt,Iain, so I better keep this short…
    You say “unlike Israel, HAMAS deliberately targets civilians” – this eye witness account appears to prove you wrong, although I expect you will say it was just a mistake.
    http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/21/breaking_in_latest_attack_on_gaza
    I notice you haven’t addressed my point that started this exchange- Hamas was a democratically elected government that Israel prohibits from forming a regular army.
    Any reasonable person is horrified at the actions on both sides on this conflict but that doesn’t give Israel the right to kill innocent people confined in an overcrowded Gaza.
    Israel has blatantly disregarded a myriad of UN resolutions, including #242 calling on them to withdraw from all occupied land. When a whistleblower let the world know they had illegal nuclear weapons he was incarcerated. Does this, and other act against international laws,make the a rogue nation full of “terrorists”? Of course not, because the have the backing of the American government.
    Below is an article which may explain the real reason for Israel’s actions…
    http://rt.com/op-edge/172524-bibi-punishing-gaza-ethnic-cleansing/
    Now I better post this before it disappears on me again.

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