Manufacturing Consent For Genocide
Journalists have blood on their pens
On Saturday October 7, Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel, firing 500 rockets into the occupier state which has held the territory of Gaza under blockade for 16 years. This blockade has restricted the movement of goods, food, water and electricity, and stopped the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are children, from leaving the “open-air prison”. The blockade has long been decried by as breaking international law.
Between March 2018 and December 2019, thousands of Palestinians peacefully protested in the Great March of Return ( مسیرة العودة الكبرى ). Every Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered to walk towards the border fence, demanding the end of the blockade and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. 223 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli snipers.
Despite this, Israel has enjoyed close allyship with the Western world, who depend on its leading surveillance technology. Importantly, Israel is the West’s one foothold in the oil-rich Middle East, where 50–65% of what’s left of the world’s oil remains.
The hypocrisy of the West’s close relationship with Israel, which sees it turn a blind eye against the settler state’s crimes, and its commitment to upholding international law and protecting civilians in Ukraine has not gone unnoticed. It took the EU just five days to impose sanctions on Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine.
But when Israel retaliated against Gaza with the full force of its military might, blasting civilian homes, schools, hospitals, safe passageways, and withholding water, electricity, food and supplies—illegal under international law—and even feeding propaganda to journalists, the West responded with one party line: Israel has the right to defend herself.
Despite the death toll in Palestine murdered by the Israeli forces surpassing 3000, most mainstream media has incessantly portrayed the settler state who has been breaking international law for 16 years as the victim.
British newspapers led with propaganda about beheaded babies which, mere hours later, turned out to be false information fed from Israeli media.
Israel demanded 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate in 24 hours—even though they have nowhere to go. Mainstream media failed to raise the alarm of yet more war crimes.
An American politician incited genocide on Fox News—to no recourse.
The US Secretary of State gaslit the world, saying what separates the USA and Israel and other democracies is their respect for international law.
Muslim presenters in the USA were taken off-air.
And business executives demanded “black lists” of students supporting the Free Palestine movement on Ivy League campuses to stop them from being hired.
Israeli politicians blasted British journalists for daring to mention Palestinian casualties.
And American journalists dutifully justified Israel’s murderous crimes.
The narrative of Israel’s victimhood was so entrenched, a press agency failed to say the state targeted and killed their own journalist.
Journalists who fought back in the USA were ignored and belittled by the government.
Far from the eyes and ears of most Western audiences, overseas networks did their job. Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern channel, pushed an Israeli minister into admitting Israel’s use of “collective punishment”—a war crime.
And one of China’s news networks caught the devastation of Southern Gaza live—the victims of another bombardment in South Gaza after Israel had told all Gaza residents to evacuate to the South.
Hamas has committed atrocities in Israel, including slaughtering 250 festival-goers. There are victims on both sides of the border fence. But this is not a conflict of two sides. One is a heavily armed and Western-backed state. The other is a group of self-trained civilians who were gunned down when they marched for peace.
But you wouldn’t know that from the story.
In good news, Spain’s Social Rights Minister, Ione Belarra, accuses Israel of an “attempted genocide” in Gaza and calls to bring Netanyahu before the International Criminal Court.
Colombia’s left-wing president is threatening to break ties with Israel.
The Jewish people are protesting Netenyahu’s fascism, calling for him to resign.
Tens of thousands are marching around the world for justice.
This unity comes despite Western governments trying to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, with France even banning them. The West is now trying to bribe Egypt into facilitating the displacement of Palestine rather than call for a ceasefire and peace negotiations.
There is always more than meets the eye. Consent is manufactured and its impacts are devastating. A six-year old Palestinian boy was murdered and his mother attacked last weekend in Illinois by their neighbour. Wadea Al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times. The attack was reportedly a hate-crime fuelled by Israel’s attack on Gaza—and, no doubt, the press’ coverage of it.
On Monday, the UN Security Council held a vote on calling for a ceasefire. The USA, UK, France and Japan voted against the motion. The BBC then framed the USA as leading “diplomatic efforts” in the territory.
Crucially, members of the US Congress are heavily invested in war—and making a fortune. Why would they call for ceasefire when there’s money to be made?
The BBC also said pro-Palestine demonstrations throughout the nation were in support of Hamas. They later apologised for this libellous claim being “poorly phrased”.
Hours earlier, the BBC implied Hamas had a network of tunnels under schools and hospitals. On Monday night, Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people seeking shelter and treatment.
Despite the indisputable crime, the media’s treatment of it was very different to the certainty with which they reported outright lies about Palestine’s resistance.
Israel’s Prime Minister tweeted a shocking statement, since deleted, riddled with genocidal rhetoric before the hospital bombing. It did not take the mainstream media by storm.
Thankfully, citizen journalists are tracking the propagandist state’s every move.
The victims of grotesque imperialism are not limited to “the colonies”. The Western Empire has undoubtedly been the most murderous regime in the history of mankind. It cloaks itself under the guise of freedom and democracy. The IDF boasted about bombing the hospital—which it had given orders to evacuate—before the Israeli government then claimed the hospital had been hit by a misfiring Hamas rocket.
Their claim was debunked. No major outlet reported on it.
Empire has only ever sought one thing—access to others’ resources to expand its power base.
We are watching this play out in realtime, with the people’s last line of defence—journalism—revealing themselves to be the Empire’s cavalry.
In August, Rachel Donald, creator of Planet: Critical, interviewed the Chairman of the Free West Papua Movement, Jeffrey Bomanak. The self-trained Papuans have been fighting against the Indonesian “genocide” of their land for half a century, and says in the interview their fight is the same fight as all oppressed people.
WE WILL BEAR WITNESS to this moment in history. This media project features stories from earth's citizens, recording destruction, devastation, resilience and hope. Tell your story.
Thankyou for this. It's taken me a while to be able to respond. After watching so many leaders and media openly support Israel to "do whatever they want" to Gaza. It's like someone slipped you drugs in a scary funhouse. And this report is the most I depth I've seen from any current affairs writer for a long time. I read it,the n went back and watched the videos, ending in th Chinese correpondent.
I cried for some time. That was also maybe the most humane and brave reporting on the ground I've ever seen. I hope she's okay.
And today I realise that nowhere is reporting this bombardment of Southern Gaza.
I am deeply moved. My heart has been torn open. Somehow, though, that makes me feel calmer and stronger in the face of all the lies.
(And thanks Rachel for this project, too)
We are being ruled by evil madmen and as long as we leave them in power, there is no hope for humanity. I was shocked by my youngest son yesterday (age 20), quoting Tupac Shakur: "If you cannot find something worth living for, you had better find something to die for". Do not believe that you can fool the young generation.
This being said, Israel is now behaving exactly as Hamas wanted them to do. Rage is very predictable. Or as I wrote in a previous comment to a post to Michael Moore:
The simple recipe for bringing down powerful nations and empires is to provoke and enrage them. When Gavrilo Princip shot crown prince Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the Austrian empire had hundreds of options for dealing with the problem. Unfortunately, they chose war, and the rest is history. Likewise, 9/11 was a horrible terrorist attack, but the main damage it did to the USA was self-inflicted. Israel now seems to be repeating the mistakes of previous empires. Nobody is questioning Israel's right to defend itself, but unfortunately it failed to do so October 7th. Nobody denies Israel the right to punish the perpetrators of the horrific terrorist attack. However, killing innocent civilians as an act of revenge is madness.
“An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.”