How Do Global Events, Such as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Take Shape in the Media Coverage?

                                                                                                                   Student ID: 4262982

How do global events, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, take shape in the media coverage?

On the 14th of May 1948 Israel was established as a country. Its creation came after a long period of suffering amongst the Jewish people, and since its creation one of if not the biggest conflict in human history was born. The Israel-Palestine conflict has extended far beyond its borders turning into a transnational phenomenon. Nations from all over the world have covered such conflict and subsequently fed its population with the information and images captured by their media outlets. The way in which both sides are portrayed in the media can be seen to be very biased and has globally affected and created opinions surrounding the ongoing conflict. Such conflict has caused tensions to escalate outside the ‘war zone’ and in a way the media has ‘exported’ the violence beyond the conflict centre point. It has created an imaginary border between Arab Muslims and the rest of the world.

There are a variety of views that exist in the world in regards the issue, but it’s the global reaction that it receives which makes such conflict so interesting and complicated. For example, tens of thousands of people in Syria have gone out to the streets and showed their support for Palestine yet there has been no protest in regards to their own internal problems. Pakistan also serves as an example, as quite often thousands will meet right outside the U.S.  consulate and protest against the violence in the Gaza strip but yet again it’s a rare occasion to see Pakistani people protest about the constant Al-Qaeda assaults that exists in their country. The clear explanation into why people around the world have taken this conflict far more into consideration and interest is due to the way the media has unravelled the issue.

                                                                                                                   Student ID: 4262982

Media outlets such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Manar are constantly feeding the Muslim communities with footage and images from the Gaza strip. Such footage and news coverage has truly touched the heart of people around the world, especially among Muslim communities. Such media like Al-Jazeera broadcasts and covers the crude reality of what is happening, in contrast  to most  media outlets they express a Pro-Palestinian image.

The mainstream western media outlets are infused with a pro-Israeli ideology, and portrays them as good and peaceful. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are shown and portrayed  as violent and in comparison to us ‘ foreign’ . When Israel commits atrocities, it is  quite often justified by western news to the extent where its suppressed. Journalist called Amena Saleem reported that BBC News advised and instructed its reporters to report Israeli violence in a positive way during the operation carried out in d November 2012 which cause the death of 200 Palestinians.  When the Israeli Prime Minister appeared on CBS, the host allowed the Prime Minister to elaborate a lengthy case to give an explanation of  the military attacks, with the reported accompanying him with more and more sympathetic questions.  

Palestine Centre, a media monitoring group, analysed all reports done by CNN on the eight-day attack of Israel in Gaza in November 2012. A total of 45 Israeli officials were interviewed and on the other hand only 20 Palestinian officials spoke to CNN. A study carried out by Matt Viser in 2003, International Journal of Press/Politics highlighted  in much more depth the Israeli deaths and ignored the Palestinian deaths. In 2001 National Park radio covered 20 percent of Palestinian child deaths and instead focused on the  coverage of  

                                                                                                                   Student ID: 4262982

89 percent of Israeli child deaths. Howard Friel and Richard Falk  argued  in their book , Israel-Palestine: How the New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East, that New York Times coverage diminished the Palestinian side and also found that most Israeli violence was made seen as self-defence . Palestinian casualties are being undermined constantly and treated as background noise.