On May 3rd we celebrated World Press Freedom Day. Certainly, a free and open press is one of the greatest assets possessed by modern society. Events from around the world are made accessible to people across ethnic, religious and geographic lines. There is no doubt how powerful a tool the media is and how crucial it is to protect the rights to free speech that facilitate it. With that said, we currently occupy a more media-saturated world than ever before. With the advent of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, traditional journalism and reporting have undergone significant change.
Today, there is an unprecedented shift in the manner news is presented. With data quickly becoming among the most valuable currencies around, we are witness to a wholesale proliferation of information. People are now satisfied to receive their information in the form of a post or a photo, with little or no regard to the source. In order to remain relevant, or indeed, solvent, mainstream media outlets must compete with the lightning pace and flash of social media, a challenge that has led to a tangible decrease in scholarship. The narrative, in media reporting today, is all too often more important than the facts.
There is perhaps no example more poignant to highlight the false media narratives of today than Israel. Much of the world’s fascination with the Arab-Israeli conflict is fed by carefully curated, heavily edited content that at best does little to reflect the reality on the ground and worse, is often intentionally biased against Israel in a manner that sets it apart from any country.
Jamal and Muhammad al-Durrah (Fair use: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1100533)
Perhaps one of the most salient examples of the media’s manipulation of reality in Israel is the case of Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old boy who, in September 2000, was reported as killed by the IDF. Footage filmed by a Palestinian cameraman freelancing for France 2 showed al-Durrah crouched with his father behind a concrete slab. The report goes on to register gunfire followed by images of the boy lying at his father’s feet. These images spread globally and became a rallying cry for Israel’s detractors while spurring the devastating violence of the Second Intifada. In the years since, the entire event has been called into serious doubt, with evidence of France 2 apparently manipulating the footage, expert analysis that the fire could not have been directed by the IDF and inquiry findings that it was entirely possible that the al-Durrah’s were never even injured. Despite its lack of veracity, the story managed to become a lynchpin of anti-Israel rhetoric.
Palestinians carry their “wounded” comrade off for “treatment”. April 2018, Gaza-Israel border.
More recently, social media platforms have been the forum for a newer type of anti-Israel content that has since become known as “Pallywood”. For years, images and footage of heinous acts of violence and barbarism have been attributed to Israel by both casual and mainstream media sources. What has been consistently pointed out, however, is that these images are fabricated, misattributed, or both. A BBC report, for example, showed footage of a Palestinian man being carried away after allegedly being “injured” by an Israeli air strike. The same man can later be seen in the same footage moving around freely, clearly fine. Even more sickeningly, footage of actual devastation and death from countries like Syria are all too often promoted online as evidence of Israeli crimes.
The irony that is too often ignored when assessing media coverage and media bias with respect to Israel, is the extent to which its own system allows for such conditions to exist. Israel proudly boasts one of the most open and accessible media cultures in the world. Conversely, journalism in the Palestinian territories is strictly controlled, if it is to be allowed at all. Footage that is aired by western media is more often than not provided to them by “reporters” working directly for, or who are sympathetic to, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Journalists who film or report on matters not approved by the local Palestinian powers face the very real threat of being black-listed, kidnapped or even killed.
A former Associated Press (AP) correspondent, in the aftermath of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), decided to blow the whistle on such practices, feeling it was necessary to draw attention to the targeted and relentless media campaign against Israel. The journalist, for example, acknowledged AP’s counting Hamas fighters (who intentionally dress as civilians), as part of the civilian death toll during the 2008 Gaza conflict. The journalist admits to having participated in this fraudulent practice herself due to threats to their reporter in Gaza, explaining that the policy then, as now, is not to inform readers that the story is censored unless the censorship is Israeli. She further went on to lament the fact that for most mainstream journalists, the expedients of completing stories by their required deadlines, and promoting the prevailing narrative that fuels the conflict further, is simply standard practice. To make her point, the journalist pointed to 
evidence of Hamas launching rockets from civilian areas towards Israel during OPE. What made this evidence so compelling, however, was not the content. Hamas using civilians as human shields and residential areas as launch sites is a part of their standard operating procedures. What set this apart was who reported it. It wasn’t any of the larger, established media sources. Journalists from Finland and India, with little to no exposure to the conflict previously, were the ones who captured the footage and decided to publish it despite the risks. They admitted to seriously deliberating whether to report on what they saw, fearing Hamas reprisals, but ultimately deciding not to acquiesce to the pressures most of their more established colleagues do.
As the world’s attention is once again focused on the latest events transpiring in Gaza, this time the weeks-long violent demonstrations at Israel’s border fence, we are being pummeled with violent imagery and savage tales of Israeli violence against innocent Palestinian protestors. Details continuously unfold, such as the extent to which Hamas is both orchestrating and participating in all aspects of the protests, but that doesn’t prevent the media narrative from remaining steadfastly anti-Israel.
Israel then, must contend daily with a vicious double standard. Not only is a majority of the world’s media fixated on it, but the prevailing narrative is one that highlights, emphasizes and proliferates every negative image it can, often with little or no regard to facts.
It is unfortunate that we have reached a time in which freedom of the press is manipulated and used to advance hatred and attack. The fight for free press took decades if not centuries, yet we have allowed our society to take it for granted. Instead of raising awareness about the global tragedies, and realities of today, we are sold a storyline that is no more realistic than Hollywood’s latest blockbuster. Hopefully, one day the press and the people will remember that with freedom comes responsibility, to protect and respect that freedom.
