Gulcin Kazan Doger
October 13, 2023•Update: October 14, 2023
ISTANBUL
British journalist Harry Fear has accused Western media of exhibiting bias in its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, saying the "overarching storytelling" is based on the Israeli narrative.
Speaking to Anadolu, Fear, known for directing the 2019 documentary, Gaza: Still Alive, critiqued the language used by mainstream Western media while reporting on the conflict that flared up last week after a surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel.
Since then, Israel has continued heavy bombardment of Gaza, and has cut its water and electricity supplies, further worsening the living conditions of the territory that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.
"What we are looking at now is a bloodbath, a bloodbath designed to exact revenge on the Gaza population," Fear said.
He said the Western media focused on unverified information about Israeli civilians, while neglecting the suffering of Palestinian civilians, especially children who were killed over the years.
Singling out the BBC and other reputed media organizations for their choice of words when covering the Gaza conflict, Fear said the British public broadcaster used distinct terminology in its reporting, referring to those killed in Gaza as "died," and those in Israel as "killed."
Fear also criticized other mainstream outlets for their apparent lack of empathy towards Palestinian civilians.
"Because Palestinians have basically been categorized effectively as unpeople, humans that are just, well, 'human animals', to use the word of the Israeli officials," he said. "And that's very much how the mainstream narrative captures the story as well."
He said "the framing of the conflict in this latest round of fighting usually completely silences the context of 16 years of strangulation and siege, an ongoing war on Gaza, complete denial of Palestinians, human rights, civil rights, political economic rights, really that dignity as humans at all, largely based on an ideology of racial supremacy and domination."
The British journalist also highlighted the rapid dissemination of false and manipulative news regarding the conflict, saying: "The point is, of course, this is an ongoing war between Israel and Palestinians, and part of that is an informational war. It is a propaganda war."
Commenting on an allegation by an Israeli journalist who claimed live on air that Hamas beheaded 40 Israeli babies, Fear said: "Is it true that Hamas carried out beheadings of 40 children? Well, it looks like that that isn't true, because there has been no evidence."
But, he added, "the story was then fed effectively throughout the English speaking western media landscape, including landing on the front pages of major London newspapers."
Children "have already been beheaded by Israel's aerial bombardments, but that is of little to no report in the Western reportage," he said.
