Over 1 million Palestinians are trapped in a living hell as they are bombed day and night, living in the rubble of their historical communities while running out of food and water supplies.
Meanwhile, the world debates the value of their lives over the value of lives lost in Israel on Oct. 7 from the comfort of their social media screens.
Media narrative is often biased, and in this case, for many who want the primarily young, innocent Palestinian civilians of Gaza to have a chance at life, media bias could not be any more transparent. It’s not what they are reporting as much as what journalists do not report.
For example, tens of thousands protested in San Francisco yesterday, but our local media simplified the protests. “Crowd of protesters,” or “Thousands gather to demand ceasefire.” The narrative around the world has been the same, “Pro-Palestinian protests demand a ceasefire against Hamas,” which seems misleading, as if the goal is to protect Hamas and not the people trapped in Gaza.
This leaves a lot of key questions for pro-Israel advocates, namely, what about Hames? It also leaves out the history of the Israeli government’s aggression towards eradicating Palestine’s legitimacy while allowing settlers to take over territory illegally. The U.N. has often called this issue out, but allies of Israel, like Britain and the United States, have not enforced any consequences.
Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle covered a Pro-Israel rally filled with heartfelt personal interviews from participants who were heartbroken over the loss of lives and filled with worry over Israeli hostages while briefly mentioning a Pro-Palestinian rally that garnered thousands of participants from the previous day as an unpermitted protest. The Chronicle did not cover the Pro-Palestinian rally that Saturday, which had garnered thousands of supporters. The Chronicle did cover a protest at Nancy Pelosi’s house with a headline leading on the central freeway being shut down with a few quotes requesting a ceasefire and specific demands that Nancy Pelosi take action. This week, the Chronicle attended the largest Pro-Palestine protest, gathering many interviews and quotes. Much of the messaging from protesters was focused on not wanting to support genocide, leaving a disconnect for those who fear Hamas. As the article describes, the protest had tens of thousands in attendance, with calls for politicians to be held accountable. The article did not make the top of their website for the weekend news, which leaves some to wonder why.
Many in media—including journalists, politicians, and commenters on social media—argue that Pro-Palestinian advocates are also Pro-Hamas as a result. For example, San Francisco D.A. Brooke Jenkins called Pro-Palestine protesters Pro-Hames.
Part of the problem is the messaging from Palestinian advocates. It’s much easier to present a self-defense argument for Israel when the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas is fresh in the public mind. Hamas is the elected government for Palestine since its last democratic election in 2006. For whatever reason, an election has not been held since.
It is hard to explain the long history of Israeli occupation and decades of failed diplomacy between U.N. Nations to create a peaceful two-state system in the region. Stating you want a ceasefire after a war was started against Israel does not speak common sense to many people who see Israel as a safe place for Jewish people who have a long history of being terrorized and oppressed.
It’s hard for those privileged enough to never worry about their freedom being taken away to understand those who constantly need to fight for their freedom, feeling their sovereignty. It is consistently under threat.
Additionally, there is another tricky component here. Arguments will equate Jewish people with the extreme right-wing Zionists who advocate for an Israeli ethnostate and the destruction of Palestine. Ethno States are something White Nationalists advocate for as well, and if that’s not confusing enough, people are pointing out how Israel controls the media narrative. Instead of saying Zionists or the Israeli government, White Nationalists have always blamed Jews for “owning” the media narrative, giving some basis of truth to their arguments against Jewish people.
Jewish hate crimes are rising. There is no watch for Arab and Muslim hate rising, but if history tells us anything, there is plenty of room for the hate to rise towards these communities as well. Why are we picking sides for the safety of either of these people?
Advocates who are for the liberation of Palestinian people and their land are not focused on Hamas, so when they are called Pro-Palestinian, people equate them to advocating for Hamas as if the Palestinian people and Hamas are the same. They justify the bombing of Gaza to target Hamas because Israel says Hamas is hiding in tunnels there. No covert operations are needed. No need to work with civilians or allow them to escape. Just blow it all up.
The biggest issue with this mainstream narrative is splitting sides. There is no narrative of human rights for all people. The narrative regarding Israel’s occupation of Palestine has long been for Israel, and if you speak out, you could lose your job or your educational standing. You have to choose a side when it comes to war. Who are you allied with? If you are allied with Palestinians, then you simply must be allied with Hamas.
Those who know Palestinian history and the occupation of Israel may see a just cause for Hamas’s terrorism, especially if their ancestry is martyred with colonial oppression. After all, the attack has forced the world to finally stop and take a look at how the Israeli government and its settlers treat the Palestinians. And the United States has declared Black Lives Matter a terrorist group. How can anyone who has supported the BLM movement take any government official seriously when the F.B.I. treated anyone supporting BLM protests as a potential terrorist threat while ignoring the Jan. 6 insurrection threats?
Hamas is not the freedom fighters Palestinians need right now. Their actions have given reason for Israel’s far-right extremist government to commit war crimes while hiding behind the history of Jewish people surviving mass genocide and hate.
The reason Palestinian advocates overlook Hamas is that it is a symptom of the problem, not the root source, and advocates wishing for humanitarian rights for the people in Gaza want the problem addressed.
Bombing Gaza in the hopes of killing Hamas is only going to create a new generation of radicalized people, especially when you consider how many survivors are children who watched their homeland be destroyed along with their families and community.
The solution to the problem is to go to the root of the problem, where the virus of terrorism began. Believing that Palestinians were the original aggressors is blatantly wrong, and blaming the Jewish Diaspora and the people of Israel is just as wrong as well. There are no sides to choose and no symbols or flags to die for, and this is not like picking a sports team. It is about the survival of humanity.
Here are some recommended media to understand the conflict:
- The Question of Palestine, a Brief History | U.N.
- History of Zionism
- History of Hamas
- Christian Zionism, the Religious Right, and Donald Trump: History’s Role in Contemporary Politics
- Ta-Nehisi Coates Speaks Out Against Israel’s “Segregationist Apartheid Regime” After West Bank Visit
- Israel-Hamas War: Piers Morgan vs Bassem Youssef On Palestine’s Treatment | The Full Interview
- Piers Morgan vs Bassem Youssef Round 2 | Two-Hour Special Interview
- Committee to Protect Journalists: Journalist death toll climbs in Israel-Gaza war 36 journalists and media workers dead
- Censored film names Adam Milstein as Canary Mission funder
- Canary Mission
- Analysis | Another Concept Implodes: Israel Can’t Be Managed by a Criminal Defendant
- The history of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was not started with Hamas but raising fears among Jewish people as a hateful threat
- Documentary: Peace Propaganda And The Promised Land U.S Media & the Israeli Palestinian Conflict 2004
- Jimmy Carter on Apartheid in Gaza
- Jimmy Carter on the Middle East – CNN
- Commentary: turn Gaza into luxury hotels
- Noam Chomsky: Prospects for Palestine
- Opinion | A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance
- CONFERENCE OF ZIONISTS; Elect Delegates at Their Meeting in Baltimore. WILL COLONIZE PALESTINE Rabbis Gottheil and Wise Were Chosen Members of the International Executive Committee.
- The Chris Hedges Report “Israel’s Final Solution for the Palestinians”
Ultimately, the mass public is being led into fighting each other once again, diverting their gaze away from the cause of the problems. The issue is the long-term effects of colonization, which started around the time of the slave trades and heavily oppressed indigenous people around the world during the industrial era. European nations normalized a race to dominate the world justified through biblical or genetic superiority they claimed to inherit for resources and land to produce the comforts much of the world now affords. It also produced economic systems that created extreme wealth disparity while stripping away people’s natural need to live off the land.
Land has been overly privatized with border lines only a very powerful few created without understanding the people of those lands, and people who do not align with powerful systems created are discarded as barbarians whose lives are not worth living. What happened to Palestine with British rule is no exception.
To overlook Europe’s thirst for resources, land, and exploitation of workers to gain profit for a privileged few is a grave error. It ignores how influential people in governing positions manipulate republics using honor, culture, and religion to make citizens feel morally righteous in waging war through propaganda. It is not in our nature as human beings to kill for no reason. There is always a root cause.
Combined with the hundreds of years of hate Jewish people faced throughout Europe and a Cold War against Marxism to prevent communism and socialism across the world, from a sociological standpoint, it’s hard to ignore the long-term impacts and trauma that haunt our societies to this day.
Analyzing the situation from that perspective, it makes sense why Israel is so important to the United States and other European countries. It is the stronghold that provides a powerful negotiating position against the rest of the Middle East. No country can take on the entirety of the Middle East alone. The United States has tried many times engaging in wars in the Middle East. It has caused only more hatred and radicalization over the decades it positioned itself in the region while putting our budget in an extreme deficit which causes inflation. Is this making us safe?
The question is, are we willing to let go? If you knew it could lower your gas prices, would you continue ignoring the United States’ influence in the region and allow your conscience to die on a hill of genocide? After all, those people are far away; for some people, it is easy to ignore the suffering and anguish of others using confirmation bias. Considering that anger and resentment fueled the events of 9/11, proving that our borders are not untouchable, it’s probably not a wise idea. Could you, instead, let go of the idea of violent revenge and focus on alternative diplomatic solutions?
That is just an argument for people who have no conscience for humanity. Many can not tolerate watching genocide unravel on their phones, TVs, and computers. Nor can American citizens tolerate 14 billion in aid to Israel while being told time and time again there is no money for housing our homeless, feeding children, free healthcare and education. Americans are plain out tired of footing the bill for war as they watch their communities fall into disarray and squalor.
So, are we willing to look at our own lives and question the wasteful use of resources we can let go? When will we reevaluate our endless need to consume that kills our planet? To live a life of luxury on social media tourists about in countries like Israel or states like Hawaii in which the natives are exploited and priced out of their homes, or to demand government accountability?
While the Israel conflict with Hamas continues, as Palestinians die not only from bombs but from dehydration and starvation trapped in the rubble, there is also another crisis going on in the Congo. Our current need for copper and cobalt for our phone and car batteries is fueling the Congo crisis.
I’m not saying we should stop using phones, get rid of cars, never take a vacation, etc. I’m saying we need to be mindful of how our resources are produced, how the people of other places we visit live and are treated as we have the privilege to enjoy their homeland, and how we can reduce waste while making sure indigenous people who live off their lands can also live freely, coexisting in a new modern world.
What is one thing we can all agree on? That aggression, no matter where it starts, should not be tolerated, and no one is above human rights laws. In this sense, that is why Israel needs to be held accountable for the destruction they have caused the Palestinian people. Hamas also needs to be held accountable for its aggression against the Israeli people. The American people will need to hold their politicians and corporations responsible as well. There is no excuse for crimes against humanity. The only reason it continues is that controlling high-power people, with the support of their cronies, can get away with it as people who have the privilege to enjoy the convenience of modern living carry on with their lives doing nothing more than voicing opinions on the internet.
In a way, we are all responsible for each other. In this globalized world where we share institutions and media, we need to start seeing our actions as they reflect on the rest of the world. We need to restore balance.