Systemic misreporting on the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Palestinian resistance

ByJohn Minto

Yesterday’s Hamas attack on Israel has bought the usual round of systemic misreporting by New Zealand news outlets as they repost stories from the BBC, AP and Reuters which bend the truth in favour of Israel narratives of “terrorism” and “victimhood”.

The worst comes from the BBC which is dutifully reposted by Radio New Zealand.

As we said in a media release earlier this year the systemic anti-Palestinian in reporting from the Middle East includes:

  1. The BBC, AP and Reuters typically talk about the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem when they should be reported as the occupied West Bank, occupied Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem. “Occupied” is the status these territories have under international law, United Nations resolutions and NZ government policy and should be consistently reported as such.
  2. The BBC, AP and Reuters typically refer to Palestinians resisting Israel’s military occupation Palestinian “militants” or “terrorists” or similar derogatory and dismissive descriptions.

We wouldn’t call Ukrainians attacking Russian occupation forces as “militants” so why do our media think it’s OK to use this term to describe Palestinians attacking Israeli occupation forces?

Under international law Palestinians have the right to resist Israel’s military occupation, including armed resistance and should not be abused for doing so by our media. Palestinian resistance groups should be described as “resistance fighters” or “armed resistance organisations” while Israeli soldiers should be described as “Israeli occupation soldiers”.

  1. The BBC, AP and Reuters typically give sympathetic coverage to Israelis killed by Palestinians but do not give similar sympathetic coverage to Palestinians killed, on a near daily basis, by the Israeli occupation (over 240 killed so far this year, including dozens of children. The vast majority of these killings are simply ignored.

Palestinians are the victims of Israeli apartheid policies, ethnic cleansing, land theft, house demolitions, military occupation and unbridled brutality and yet our media ends up giving the impression it’s the other way round.

  1. Wide coverage is given to Israeli spokespeople in most stories with rudimentary reporting, if any, from Palestinian viewpoints.

For example, so far Radio New Zealand has reported on the views of New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses but has yet to interview any Palestinian New Zealanders who suffer great anxiety every time Palestinians are killed by Israel.

New Zealanders overwhelmingly support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. They rightly reject Israel’s racist narratives and its apartheid policies towards Palestinians.

Our government policy needs to change.

We should not be calling for negotiations between the parties because Palestinians face both Israel and US at the negotiating table and this will never bring justice for Palestinians and will therefore never bring peace.

Instead we need a timeline for Israel to abide by international law and United Nations resolutions. This would mean:

  • Ending the Israeli military occupation of Palestine
  • Ending Israel’s apartheid policies against Palestinians
  • Allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land in Palestine

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38 Comments

  1. “The only way to end this war is for the international community to place pressure on Israel to end it’s occupation.”
    – Professor of International Law, Ottawa University; about 3:30 pm NZ time via Al Jazeera.

    Excellent work, John. The mainstream media has been appalling.

    Solidarity with the victims – on both sides!

  2. Wondered how long it would take for the anti-semite Minto to find a way to blame anyone but the terrorists in Hamas for terrorism

      1. Looking forward to the Hamas terrorists getting what’s coming to them – as for you Mohammed go back to shitholeistan.

    3. Palestinians are semites to by the way. It’s not anti anything to point out actual international law. It’s the same thing we would rely on if the worst happened.

      I am not justifying Hamas and their actions but it’s a bit rich to make out like it’s a bunch of Palestinians having a go at Joseph in his technicolor dream coat.

  3. There’s going to be a lot of calling anti Zionism anti Semitism. They are not the same thing. Isreali propaganda will insist they are. The standard slander and lie they hide behind whilst committing their crimes.

    1. Aha NJ. So you are outing yourself as an anti-Semite. I suspected as such. No doubt you deny the holocaust as well.

      1. Please explain what is so special about Israel that makes it wrong to criticise them when they do bad things? I do not deny the holocaust & I want them to live in peace but they need to respect the people who live there also.

  4. What was that about sowing the wind?and protesting about Israel’s activities carried out under the excuse of their right to self defense does not necessarily make one anti semitic.

    1. “…. protesting about Israel’s activities carried out under the excuse of their right to self defense does not necessarily make one anti semitic. Kiwijoker

      The Russian Federation has used the very same excuse of “Self Defence”
      for their invasion and occupation in Ukraine.
      Counsel for the Russian Federation in their submission before the UN International Court of Justice explicitly repeated the Russian Federation excuse for the invasion of Ukraine and the shelling of its civilian population as “Self Defence”.
      This excuse rings hollow in both cases.

      https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/07/if-you-support-ukrainian-resistance-to-occupation-you-must-also-support-palestinian-resistance-to-occupation

      Nathan J. Robinson

      If the seizure and occupation of territory is wrong when Russia does it, it is wrong when Israel does it. Why does the U.S. support the resistance in one case and th occupiers in the other?

      For that matter; Why does NZ support the resistance in one case and the occupiers in the other?

      The other excuse the Zionist colonisers and the Kremlin imperialists have in common to justify their aggression and land grab is to demonise the victims of their aggression as “fascists and Nazis”.
      Again in both cases this accusation rings hollow.

      https://apnews.com/61ead35a427a408e9d93d43f41cfa064

  5. “New Zealanders overwhelmingly support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination.”

    An informed New Zealand might behave this way but we are not informed. We are either uninformed or misinformed thanks to “systemic misreporting”, typically by mainstream media. Money and powerful interests has kneecapped the media but our own apathy towards doing our own due diligence towards the news we choose has also helped in shaping the misinformed news that swamps the information waves. In this instance, the lack of protest and push back against government inaction on this issue just highlights how uninformed we really are.

    The world is what it is because of what we know, or think we know, as such, we really know stuff all…we gotta do better!

  7. “New Zealanders overwhelmingly support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. They rightly reject Israel’s racist narratives and its apartheid policies towards Palestinians.” Really? You can speak for the whole country? How could you possibly know? An insight into the minds of NZers of Orwellian capacity?!

    1. Would it make you happier if he had said “Thinking New Zealanders support Palestine…”?

  8. Didn’t take long for the terrorist supporters to start brigading the site. Too bad about the civilian hostages so long as you all can show your support for the muslim death cult

    1. The papal church murdered around 50 million people during the Dark Ages which allows other religions a bit of leeway for mistakes. What is wrong with other people having different views, caring for suffering people does not make you a terrorist supporter & having the freedom to choose what we believe is the most important freedom to have.

  9. Thank you John! It is so hard to find correct information amidst NZ’s mainstream western narrative! I appreciate you!

  10. Hamas terrorists clearly have no problems shooting kids armed with nothing but glo sticks – problem for Hamas is those same kids all receive military training and are going to come back with more than glo sticks.
    You reap what you sow.

    1. These “military trained”, “kids” would have known that they were literally dancing on the graves of Palestinians.

      People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive…
      ….Despite reports that millions of Israelis are living in terror of Hamas rockets, they don’t deter these hilltop war watchers whose proximity to Gaza puts them within range of the most rudimentary missiles. Some bring their children…..
      …In the border town of Sderot, which has been struck by countless missiles from the Gaza Strip in recent years, one family gathers on a top-floor balcony, draped with an Israeli flag and banner of the army’s legendary Golani Brigade. A house with a war view may even command a premium price these days.

      ….Given the dramatic views, media crews are coming to the area to cover the fighting. On a nearby hilltop, an ugly scene develops as a group of Israeli men threaten a photographer, accusing him of being a “leftist”. We are warned against asking for interviews, as another cheer goes up.

      Harriet Sherwood in Sderot
      @harrietsherwood
      Sun 20 Jul 2014 14.38 BST

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing

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