suffering

More than a hundred Palestinians died in northern Gaza at the end of February when they starved and stormed an aid convoy and were shot at by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army released a video and denied, in varying versions, that the deaths were caused by Israeli bullets. That was the end of the story for most Israeli media.

For them, the big news that day was that two Israelis had been shot dead by a Palestinian in the West Bank. Only gradually did people realize that the ‘incident’ with the aid convoy had caused an international commotion. US President Joe Biden was so shocked by it that American planes have since also dropped food aid over Gaza.

“In Israel the next day, all the major headlines, such as in the popular daily Israel Hayom, were about the two dead Israelis in the West Bank,” says Oren Persico (47), journalist at the independent Israeli news organization The Seventh Eye. “At most, there was a small box asking whether the incident involving the aid convoy would harm Israel internationally. Any humanitarian angle was missing.”

“When the US and other countries subsequently started dropping food from planes, the approach was not that the situation is so terrible that food now has to come by air. Well: ‘Look, now they even get macaroni and cheese there by parachute’.”

International news channels show images of starving children in Gaza. Doesn’t Israel want to see that?

“Very little appears in our media about famine or about children dying there. If this does happen, it is often with a framing that makes it easier to accept the situation. Death figures are always attributed to the ‘Hamas ministry’, so that everything is immediately put into perspective, even though it always turns out that the Ministry of Health in Gaza provides reliable figures.”

“Israeli media publish a lot about the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Israeli media should also show the rest of what is happening in Gaza, but they often self-censor.”

How can that be explained?

“Israel has been living in a bubble for fifty years. Terrible things have been happening in our name in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967: there is a military dictatorship there, children are shot dead for throwing stones. Israelis have learned to live comfortably with that. Commercial media do not want to upset their audience, critical media such as the Haaretz newspaper are dismissed as ‘left-wing’ or even ‘illegitimate’.”

“Moreover, everything is now disappearing under the shadow of the atrocities of October 7. The average citizen thinks: the Palestinians started this, they will pay the bill; we are strong, and we don’t want to hear anything about the situation in Gaza until our hostages are released there. There was a general mobilization of society for the war. Journalists are also part of that society, they too often personally know victims of October 7 or soldiers fighting in Gaza.”

In Israel, almost everyone, both boys and girls, does mandatory military service. Does that play a role?

“For the media it goes one step further. Young people who want to work in journalism do their military service in the army radio. It was once a broadcaster for the soldiers, but now it has been a mainstream media channel for decades. In Israel you learn journalism in a military unit, which is the profile with which you can then work for the major media. Naturally, this has an effect on reporting.”

“Israelis, of course, have access to international media. You just have to make some effort to consult them, most people prefer not to do that. Current social media also does not help to burst bubbles: the algorithms of Twitter or Tiktok know after swiping twice which news you do or do not want to see. Wipe away your horror from Gaza, and you will only get a relatively peaceful view of Gaza.”

Part of the Israeli media is very critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Is that criticism separate from Gaza?

“When President Biden criticizes Israel, the approach in the media is not: Biden wants an end to the war and is trying to free the Israeli hostages. Well: look what Netanyahu is doing to our country, we are receiving international criticism. The pro- or anti-Netanyahu struggle is so dominant in society that it overshadows every other discussion.”

“Netanyahu has had a huge impact on the Israeli media, he has done everything he can to weaken it. There is still a corruption trial against him, all three charges also involve media influence. A small television channel, N14, which was founded to promote Judaism, has been expanded by a Georgian oligarch into the Netanyahu channel.”

“I was born in 1976, I have known prime ministers other than Netanyahu. Yet Netanyahu has been so dominant for so long that even I have difficulty separating the nation from that one leader.”

Even if a great Israeli friend like President Biden criticizes what Israel is doing in Gaza, does that not get through?

“The immediate trend is: ‘The world is getting it wrong’. Or: ‘It is an election year for Biden, he is under fire from his left wing’. Or simply: ‘Gaza did this to itself’. It does not change the complete indifference with which most Israeli media cover Gaza.”