The War on the Media Front

Ayub Khan, Chicago, IL

The current Israeli-Palestinian battle is being fought not only in the streets but also on another stage, namely, the internet and TV screens. Gone are the days when the world used to see Palestinians as terrorists and Israelis  as victims. In today’s fast-paced world of instant communication, the Palestinian David has finally challenged and seems to have overpowered the mighty Israeli Goliath.

The horrifying images of the killing of Muhammad Al Dura at the hands of Israeli soldiers have marked as a turning point in the way the western media covers the Middle East. The images proved to be a total nightmare for the Ehud Barak government. They had such an impact on the viewers that the Israeli government, which has so far ignored foreign journalists, immediately set up a press center at the Hotel Isrotel Jerusalem  close to the offices of BBC, CNN and other media outlets. Not only that but they complained to the CNN for what they alleged was its “biased coverage” of the events.  The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Consulate in Atlanta both lodged a complaint to the CNN. Likud member of the Knesset, Uzi Landau, even went to the extent of saying that both CNN and BBC have a “clear anti-Jewish bias.”

CNN’s Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jack Hanna, however, responded in these words: “The network has attempted to be as fair and comprehensive as possible, covering both sides and giving as wide a spectrum of opinion as possible. CNN constantly monitors the balance of people interviewed.”

So bewildered were the Israelis by the beating at the media front that top Foreign Ministry spokesmen at the Sharm-e-Shiekh summit at the Movenpick Hotel distributed cassette tapes of images of the Ramallah lynching of two Israeli soldiers as well as images of Palestinian children at the Islamic Jehad camp.

Despite their lack of “sound and byte”, the Palestinians seem to have advanced on the media battleground because they believe that their cause stands on its own and they don’t have to resort to any false propaganda. As Keith Graves from Sky TV recently wrote in The Independent, “In Jerusalem, the Israelis have taken over a floor of a hotel next to the bureau of foreign television stations. My telephone rings constantly with offers to put Israel’s case. And yet the Israelis still complain that they are misrepresented. It does not seem to have occurred to them that this could be because they occupy Palestinian land in breach of UN resolutions. That they stand condemned by the UN for excessive use of force. Maybe the facts speak for themselves, despite the propaganda blitz.“