When, for example, the [neocolonial] and U.S. governments suggested — with no evidence whatsoever — that the Palestinian Health Ministry had inflated the number of Palestinians registered as killed in Gaza, many news agencies uncritically adopted this talking point. By engaging in such unfounded speculation — driven by the propaganda of the [neocolonial] war machine — media organisations are facilitating the mass death of Palestinians and laying the groundwork for a genocide.
As the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, we note that:
Since Oct. 7, 25 Palestinian journalists and nine workers for media agencies have been killed by [neocolonial] bombardment. Over the same period, there have been direct attacks on the homes of 35 journalists, killing dozens of their family members, including the strike against the house of Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh, killing his wife, two of his children, and his young grandchild. Based on the information obtained by the Syndicate, at least 20 of the 25 journalists killed since Oct. 7, were intentionally targeted by strikes on their homes or during their work covering [neocolonial] attacks. These atrocities are part of a long pattern of [neocolonialism’s] lethal targeting of Palestinian journalists. The [neocolony] has killed 55 Palestinian journalists between 2000 and 2022, most famously Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022.
[Neocolonialism] severed all communication with the Gaza Strip and cut off internet, telephone, and mobile communication on Oct. 28 and communication continues to be heavily disrupted and restricted. As in previous wars, they have also prevented foreign media from entering into the Gaza Strip. These actions, taken together, are intended to allow [the neocolony] to commit its massacres in the dark, away from the lenses of the world media.
[Neocolonialism] has a well-established track record of misleading the media and world public, including by repeatedly and systematically producing fabricated ‘evidence’ to justify its war crimes and crimes against humanity. We have documented numerous such cases in the recent weeks alone.
On Oct. 18, 250 leading journalism, media and communications scholars issued a public statement in which they denounced the biased media coverage, the omission of key context and facts, the selective use of evidence, and double standards and discrimination against Palestinians by the British media. (tinyurl.com/y6ajjpyc) These critiques are applicable to Western coverage more generally.
More than 800 international legal scholars have published a statement (tinyurl.com/4fkkvfu3) warning of the “possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated […] against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” and the Center for Constitutional Rights has issued a detailed legal and factual analysis describing “[the] unfolding crime of genocide.” Leading genocide scholars have noted that [these] actions, along with statements about intent by [neocolonial] officials, together point to the commission of acts of genocide against the Palestinian people. One of these experts—prominent […] Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholar Raz Segal—has described [the] actions in Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide.” (tinyurl.com/yc8xynj9) Scholars have also warned that the media’s dehumanization of Palestinians is enabling this genocide.
Much of the global media, particularly Western media outlets, have mindlessly repeated [neocolonial] talking points and used dehumanizing language when referring to Palestinians. In so doing, these media organizations have utterly failed to adhere to fundamental journalistic principles of objectivity and integrity. They risk becoming accessories to genocide.