Western media finally confronts Israel's actions in Gaza

THE silence, nay, collaboration of the Western mainstream media with Israel’s genocidal military onslaught against Gaza and the Palestinian people in general has been mind-boggling.

Since October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise violent attack in Southern Israel that resulted in some 1 200 people killed, life for Palestinian men, women and children has been akin to hell on earth.

Israel’s fury, vengeance and retribution against the people of Gaza have been brutal, ferocious and limitless. In a relentless wave of reprisals, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has killed, maimed and arbitrarily detained largely powerless Palestinians, many without charge.

The IDF’s reign of terror in every corner of Palestine has known no bounds. Since October 2023, Israelis have killed no less than 60 000 Palestinians amid a systematic annihilation of the Gaza population, and displaced nearly 2 million, according to the UN. Thousands remain trapped under the ruins of what was once a normal Gaza Strip, despite occupation by apartheid Israel.

What triggered me to pen this piece this week has been the rare public criticism of Israel by four leading Western media outlets that echoed the views of the UN and more than 100 aid organisations that have accused Israel of starving Palestinians. Although this deliberate mass starvation and killing of dozens queueing for food is ubiquitous, Israel has thus far enjoyed biased support by the West.

The British public broadcaster BBC, Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Agence-France Presse (AFP) this week issued a statement they wrote collectively in which they decry Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war.

The media outlets above revealed that their own employees inside Gaza were starving and unable to fend for their families. “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the rare joint statement read, before continuing: “It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”

This departure from the norm is significant for many reasons. Finally, it removes the veil of Israel’s protection from critical public scrutiny that has unwittingly aided the extinction of the people of Gaza.

Together with CNN, among other impactful Western media outlets, the West has remained largely blind and speechless to Israeli excesses in its merciless military operation against the Palestinians. It is in this context, therefore, that the public denouncement of Israel by Western media carries massive weight.

Inevitably, breaking the silence by the Western media and abandoning their apparently collective complicity in what South Africa and others have described before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as sheer unadulterated genocide changes the game altogether.

Not only does it cause Israel to adjust its dubious public relations drive, but it also punches holes for the Western publics and their governments to reconsider the free pass that Israel has thus far enjoyed.

In the last 21 months, some 200 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire, without any iota of consequences. Of greater concern, in my book, has been the glaring absence of international outcry by the self-righteous Western media outlets in particular. The silence of Western governments has been utterly deafening, too.

The Qatari news network, Al Jazeera, has lost some of its journalists to Israel’s deliberate targeting of their staff due to their tough reporting approach that exposes the truth, as seen on social media worldwide. In fact, Al Jazeera is banned in Israel and the West Bank. Israel accuses their journalists as well as foreign correspondents as “terror operatives” without evidence.

Disturbingly, the Western media has turned a blind eye to the suppression of media freedom by Israel. Actually, the four media outlets that jointly issued a statement critical of Israel have themselves been previously criticised for their sheepish approach to news reporting.

They have been accused of accepting the narrative of Israel about the war without any question — apparently too content to publicise the statements of the Israeli military officers as gospel truth.

Last November, some 100 journalists from the BBC accused the corporation of Israeli bias and of lacking “consistently fair and accurate evidence-based journalism”. The BBC denied the claims, just as AFP, Reuters, CNN, AP and others contemptuously reject any criticism levelled at them.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has triggered the reconfiguration of global relations beyond measure. It has exposed the weakness and bias of Western-led global governance systems such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the shortcomings of the ICJ’s lack of enforceable rulings and the ugly spectre of unilateralism in international relations.

Additionally, the persistent failure of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to obligate the cessation of hostilities in Gaza has further exposed the hidden rot that plagues global bodies. The veto power possessed by the five permanent members of the UNSC has also proved to be archaic and susceptible to abuse, particularly by the US in defence of attempts to rein in Israel.

The US is one of the five permanent members of the UNSC. Others are the UK, France, China and Russia. The Majority World has been campaigning for urgent reforms of the UNSC, so that all nations can exercise equal authority reflective of the 21st-century architecture of the international world order.

At the UN General Assembly, any condemnation of Israel remains largely muted and unenforceable anyway. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is all but a talk shop that is past its sell-by date. The UN Charter, which is supposed to be based on the principle of “dialogue among equals”, has become a doormat where heads of state wipe their feet on entrance.

The plain disability to stop Israel’s genocide against Gazans and the blatant fear by the large majority of the nations of the world to emulate South Africa and call it for what it is — genocide — is an indictment of our global governance system.

Israel’s impunity reminds the international community that Western hegemony still reigns supreme. Its various poles of power can be seen through the activities of the EU, Nato and the G7, among others.

The concerns and voices of the Global South seldom make any impact. By and large, the persistent legacy of colonialism that thrives on the notion of divide and rule still keeps like-minded weaker economies apart and unable to cooperate. It is a separate development. In its defence, its architects describe it as “separate but equal”.

The role of the media in society is to hold authorities accountable. Anarchy thrives when the media shirks its fundamental responsibilities. Additionally, appropriate media is the one that consciously stands with the weak against the powerful. Pardon the cliché, but the media that is morally upright is the one that plays the role of being the “voice of the voiceless”.

Amid the ongoing Israeli genocide, it is refreshing to note the adoption of a more responsible posture by the leading Western media networks. This is highly commendable. As they say, better late than never. Their public rebuke of Israel will certainly not go unnoticed. It would most probably be safe, whatever is left of those that are still lucky to be alive in Gaza. A media that is embedded is a media that has outsourced its responsibility and function to its handlers, be they the IDF, politicians or big business interests.

Journalism that fails to question authority is a dismal failure. It is nothing short of sunshine journalism whose modus operandi is to sing for its supper to the detriment of the public they are supposed to serve.

It is tempting to lambaste the Western media outlets as a collective, but that would be tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bath water. The four media houses outlined above will go down in history as having broken ranks by speaking out against Israel’s monumental war crimes, albeit belatedly.

* Abbey Makoe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Global South Media Network (gsmn.co.za). The views expressed are personal.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.

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