Note: The views and opinions expressed in blog/editorial posts are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of Misbar.
“Israeli nationalists clash with Palestinians over housing in Jerusalem.” This was the title of a report by CNN’s Andrew Carey on what CNN had called “the tension, that sometimes turns violent, between Israeli nationalists and Palestinians over housing in Jerusalem.”
In its first version, the CNN video report caption referred to “Palestinian homes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as settlements and Palestinians as settlers.”
This context soon went viral, forcing CNN to put the following statement:
“A previous version of this incorrectly referred to Palestinian homes in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as settlements and Palestinians as settlers.”
The Palestinians incorrectly referred to as settlers in their own land was not the only misleading information in their report caption that was later fixed. This is how the U.S. media channel CNN falsifies the truth about the Israeli forceful expulsion of Palestinian native citizens in the occupied Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
When reporting on Palestine, several mainstream media outlets in the West use ambiguous language that misrepresents Palestine. CNN and its friends regularly promote a “conflict” among Palestinians and Israelis, skipping the truth that the latter are – legally and objectively speaking – occupiers. They communicate of “contested lands” – as though there may be no unlawful settler-colonialism occurring in Palestine, pushing Palestinians out of their land. They might regularly refer to the Israeli army's violence towards nonviolent protesters as “clashes”, as though the two parties are equal.
The overreliance on the term "clash" instead of blatantly speaking in terms of occupation and resistance clouds the information. These journalists strategically manipulate terminology and the order of events in order to pass on their own version of the narrative.
The uninformed reader may also be unaware that these "clashes" have occurred as a result of Israeli police systemically assaulting Palestinian worshippers at one of Islam's holiest sites, Al-Aqsa mosque. In fact, in one particularly egregious case, the New York Post deliberately misled readers by attributing an Israeli airstrike to Hamas; the Post later corrected the headline.
Similarly, a recent BBC website report provides yet another example of this "objective" style. A "conflict," "rockets and airstrikes," a "concentration of militant rocket fire," and "Israeli airstrikes" are all terms used to describe the violence.
To describe casualties, Israelis were killed "in rocket attacks" while Palestinians were referred to as "death toll."
Over 250 journalists, including VICE News, WSJ, and LA Times reporters, signed a letter in June 2021 urging the media to stop obscuring Palestinian oppression.
Misbar's Sources:
