Amid the billowing smoke over Gaza, words turn into weapons, images into battlefields, and facts into the first casualties. Western journalism presents itself as an impartial judge, yet in reality, it operates with a colonial mindset—one that entrenches the Israeli narrative, strips Palestinians of their humanity, and buries massacres under the rubble of convoluted language. This is not a case of fleeting biases but rather a systematic propaganda machine designed to sustain occupation and justify genocide through distortion of the truth.
The Western media apparatus relies on pre-constructed narratives: a Palestinian resisting occupation is labelled a “terrorist,” a child killed in their home becomes a “victim of complex circumstances,” while Israeli soldiers bombing schools and hospitals are portrayed as “defenders of their homeland.” Such language is far from neutral — it is a tool for constructing a parallel reality, one in which an entire people’s struggle is reduced to a “conflict between two equal sides,” and war crimes are whitewashed under misleading slogans like “the right to self-defence.” For fifteen months, relentless bombardment rained down on innocent civilians, setting homes, shelters, and hospitals ablaze, leaving thousands dead—children buried beneath the rubble. Yet, as live broadcasts captured the devastation, Western media covered these atrocities in passing, instead focusing on Israeli claims that Hamas operated from beneath civilian infrastructure and hospitals—claims reported without independent verification. Justifying a massacre had become part of the news itself, in a blatant violation of journalistic integrity.
When an Israeli prisoner is released, cameras zoom in on the tears of their family, accompanied by dramatic music, weaving stories of heroism and suffering. But when it comes to thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of children and women, the story is reduced to the “release of Palestinian detainees,” without mention of years of administrative detention without trial, systematic torture, or the heart-wrenching images of Palestinian mothers waiting behind bars for an impossible reunion with their sons.
In 2023, statistics from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission revealed that 95 per cent of detained Palestinian children were subjected to physical violence, yet Western reports refer to them merely as “suspects.” Meanwhile, entire investigative reports are published in the West detailing the personal lives of captured Israeli soldiers — as if suffering were measured by the victim’s nationality.
This double standard is not limited to event coverage but extends to shaping collective consciousness. Palestinian resistance, in all its forms, is depicted as an isolated evil force, devoid of historical context, with no mention of how Third World nations — from Vietnam to South Africa — resisted occupation through various means. Meanwhile, Israel’s deliberate bombing of civilians is framed as a matter of “security necessities,” as if international law permits the use of white phosphorus against children.
Even when Palestinian victims are interviewed, their words are cut short with pre-scripted questions: “Do you condemn Hamas’ attacks?”—as if victims must first prove their innocence before speaking of their wounds. This is not journalism; it is an imposed guardianship over historical narratives.
The greatest sin of Western journalism is not its bias but its claim of neutrality while reproducing the very symbolism of violence. Every time a war crime is labelled “retaliation” and an occupied people are reduced to a mere “party to a conflict,” another wall of deception and falsehood is erected—one that the free peoples of the world no longer accept.
Today, the world needs journalism that refuses to be a mouthpiece for justifying wars of extermination. Journalism that remembers its fundamental duty: not to wear the executioner’s helmet. Truth is not a media privilege—it is a moral obligation. As the poet Mahmoud Darwish once said, “Every victim has a name, and every name has a story.” It is time for global journalism to tell the stories of Palestinian victims without fear of being accused of “antisemitism.” Justice does not recognise double standards, and truth cannot be divided between East and West.
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