The Systematic Dehumanization of Palestine by the News Media

 

Language as an Instrument of the Dehumanization of Palestine

 

Maryam Sakeenah

 

A cursory look at the history of the implantation of the Zionist state in the heart of Palestine and the events that ensued is enough to make it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that Palestinians have been subjected to systematic oppression and injustice. When October 7 happened, it was not difficult for anyone with a very basic understanding of the history of the region to see that this was an inevitable reaction to 70+ years of brutal subjugation and state sponsored violence.

Yet for most people residing in the European or American continents, the writing on the wall had never been obvious. Ten months down the blood-splattered trajectory, many still debate whether Palestinians are also entitled to human rights…

For still more, it took thousands of excruciating images of unimaginable cruelty, death and destruction to stir the conscience into realization that the insistence that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ does little to vindicate the unspeakable agony being inflicted on vulnerable Palestinians.

It has taken ten months of relentless, brutal assault and incomprehensible suffering for some of us to abandon our indifference, insensitivity and smugness- and for many more, it is still not enough.

Yet psychologists and philosophers tell us that human beings are endowed with empathy as a part of their nature. It is the systematic dehumanization of a people that renders them unworthy of empathy. For Palestinians to reach that point, the Western media influenced by powerful Zionist lobbies has made a concerted and consistent effort. Through selective relaying of information, otherization of non Western narratives, prioritization of a single narrative and suppression of counter-narratives, the media has deflected human empathy away from the plight of Palestine. In addition, distortion and manipulation of facts and the ground realities in order to suit the interests of the West’s Blue Eyed Boy in the Middle East, stereotyping and propaganda are routinely used by the global media. This has made sure Palestinian voices remain unheard, their stories untold, their narrative marginalized as opposed to the Israeli narrative that is mainstreamed unquestioningly.

Language is used very insidiously to push forward the narrative of Israel as a victim of Palestinian ‘terrorism’, entitled to ‘defend itself’ against a battered, besieged nation of orphans, limbless youth, bereaved widows and traumatized, emaciated men.

For example, mainstream news media routinely refers to the Israeli assault on Gaza as the ‘Israel-Hamas conflict’. This is problematic because it puts the Zionist nuclear armed state at par with the Palestinian resistance whose arsenal only comprises of home-made primitive ‘rockets’ that work more like small fireworks and are nearly always intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome technology. It makes it seem like a war between equals- while on the one side is one of the most heavily armed nations in the world equipped by the wealth of the entire Western hemisphere, while on the other hand are stone-throwing, slingshot-wielding barefoot children without homes to go back to. On the one hand is an invincible military power and on the other hand is a stateless entity reduced to rubble, a population comprised of refugees and internally displaced people deprived of the most basic essentials for meagre survival. It is not a conflict, but a military onslaught, an assault, an offensive, a genocidal war on civilians- mostly children and women.  

Another problematic construct that is frequently used in stories from Agence France Presse (AFP) is that what is going on in Gaza is Israel’s ‘retaliatory campaign provoked by the Hamas attack on October 7.’ This conveys the meaning that the incursion into Israeli territory on October 7 was the reason why Israel launched its biggest military onslaught that pales the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on the defenceless people of occupied and besieged Gaza. It ignores the fact that October the 7 was itself a reaction or retaliation to ongoing systematic oppression unleashed on Palestinians since years. It ignores the fact that the Israeli attack on Gaza was well-planned, pre-meditated and orchestrated after decades of military buildup, planning, AI-assisted execution under the supervision of Israel’s ultra conservative rightwing government. Hardline Zionist warmonger Netanyahu presides over a cabinet dominated by radicals who openly reject the two state solution and any prospects of Palestinian statehood. Individuals like finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had been kicking up war hysteria well before October 7, and have never masked their intent to carry out the wholesale elimination of Palestine. October 7 certainly did not happen in a vacuum.

Similarly, referring to the Palestinian resistance as ‘militancy’ or worse, ‘terrorism’ implies that the resistance movement against illegal occupation is a sort of rebellion against a legitimate authority.

Referring to Israelis who have forcibly occupied and have illegally settled in Palestinian lands as ‘settlers’ ignores the fact that under international law, these ‘settlements’ are a violation and a breach of fundamental rights. It also ignores that these ‘settlers’ are in effect colonizers who use violence and terror to extort territory from those who rightfully own it.

A careful study of news headlines from mainstream media reveals that the passive voice is often used when referring to Israeli war crimes- for example, saying that a certain number of Palestinian deaths or casualties occurred as a result of a certain operation ‘targeting Hamas’ does not convey the fact that Israel killed children playing in a football field or sheltering in a school, or under treatment at a ramshackle hospital; that the attack was planned knowing fully well that children, families, women, grandmothers would be killed. Often, the ‘Hamas target’ the attack aimed for has no additional details provided at all other than a vague reference, and the death toll of innocent civilians is minimized as ‘collateral damage’ in an operation for self-defence.

The overall effect of the use of language to vindicate the Israeli narrative is that of desensitization of the Western public towards the suffering of Palestine and the routinization of atrocities committed against innocent people- as if this was the Palestinian ‘normal’, ongoing indefinitely in the background. In employing language to undermine the cause of Palestinian freedom so deliberately, systematically and strategically, the international media bears responsibility and culpability as a diabolical party to the genocide of Palestinians.   

Commemorating the Srebrenica genocide 30 years on as Gaza bleeds...

 

REMEMBERING A GENOCIDE IN THE MIDST OF ANOTHER

 

Maryam Sakeenah

 

This month on 11th July 2024, the UN commemorated the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995 with official statements and speeches by dignitaries, memorial services, moments of silence and designating a day for remembering what has been called the greatest atrocity in modern Europe.

What is ironic, however, is the fact that the world comes together to remember Srebrenica in the midst of another harrowing genocide- one that is live-streamed straight into every waking moment, all over the world. Ten months into the nightmarish bloodbath in Gaza that has cost nearly 40,000 lives, world leaders are still haranguing over the events of October 7, still unsure and half-hearted towards the urgent and pressing need to enforce a cease-fire to end an unimaginably horrific war, most victims of which have been children.

Alija Izetbegovich, the iconic Muslim leader of Bosnia during the Bosnian war and Srebrenica massacre had once said, ‘Do not forget this genocide. If you forget it, another will happen…’ The words bear premonition as they echo the age-old cliche that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Here we stand, remembering a genocide while having unleashed another one thirty years on, with the bloody tide showing no signs of abating- as if human lives were like the flies that the wanton boys kill for sport.

To learn the right lessons from Srebrenica, one must revisit in 1992, the Muslim majority republic of Bosnia immediately after it seceded from Communist Yugoslavia as a result of a popular referendum. Bosnia’s Orthodox Christian Serb minority, however, refused to accept this and began a rebellion. Given how well-armed Serbia was as an ally of powerful erstwhile Communist Russia, what started as ethno-religious strife quickly flared up into a war against which Bosnia was nearly defenceless. Several appeals for help by Alija Izetbegovic resulted in no more than humanitarian assistance from the Arab-Muslim world. Izetbegovic feared a genocide, given the violence displayed by the Serb forces under Ratko Mladic, known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’. Mladic, as the commander of the army of Republika Sprska (the self declared Serb autonomous zone inside Bosnia), had earlier threatened: ‘You Muslims cannot defend yourselves if a civil war breaks out.’

 Bosnia’s countless appeals ultimately led to the arrival of UN peacekeeping forces in the area. Not surprisingly, the UN forces proved utterly ineffectual as the Serb army carried on its atrocities with over 100,000 Muslim Bosniaks killed.

Serb violence against the Bosniaks was neither isolated from context nor sudden. It climaxed after centuries of endemic structural violence built on nationalist Islamophobic narratives rife in the region.  When Mladic began the genocidal operation in Srebrenica, he said on camera while addressing his troops, ‘This is the time to take revenge on the Turkish rabble and return Srebrenica to the Serbs…’

The reference to Bosniaks as ‘Turks’ reeks of ethnocentric hate deeply embedded in a prejudicial understanding of history. Serbia had been under Ottoman rule for three centuries, and the reference to ethnic Bosniak Muslims as ‘Turks’ aims to build on the Islamophobic nationalist narrative of victimhood by Turkish-Muslim rulers centuries ago.

As the Bosnian war raged on from 1992 to 1995 with terrible atrocities including the blockade of Sarajevo which prevented fuel, food and water to the area, rapes and mass murders, UN peacekeepers from Netherlands were unable to halt the violence. They were outgunned and outnumbered, and could neither expect the scale of the violence nor were they equipped or even really willing to take decisive action against it. As late as in 2022, twenty seven years after the Srebrenica genocide, the Dutch government acknowledged partial complicity of its peacekeepers in Bosnia and offered ‘apology’ for not taking effective action to stop the Srebrenica genocide- too little, too late.

During the war, Srebrenica in Eastern Bosnia had been designated as a ‘safe zone’ where hundreds of thousands were sheltering. However, when the international community warned of action against Republika Srpska and Serbia, driven by a misdirected vengeance, the Serb leadership decided to violate the safe zone and besieged Srebrenica. As the Dutch peacekeepers looked on, Bosniak men and women were segregated, and all men including minor boys, were herded together and shot fatally, their bodies huddled together and thrown into mass graves.

The horrific reality of the war crimes later surfaced, and it was established after investigations that in July 1995, a massacre of 8,372 Muslim men and boys by Serb forces over just three days had been systematically committed- known now in the annals of history as the Srebrenica Genocide.

Some months later, as the world came to know of the horrors that had been unleashed, there was an attempt by the Serb leadership to cover up the evidence. The mass graves of 8,372 Muslims were bulldozed and whatever remained of the bodies was scattered in unmarked areas all over the region. To this day, search for human remains continues in Srebrenica. Some 1,200 of those who went missing in July 1995 have still not been identified or given the dignity of a proper funeral and burial.

While the Dayton Accords of 1996 enforced a ceasefire after what the Bosniaks had endured, peace in the region is still tenuous. Tensions are rife as the Serb Autonomous Zone inside Bosnia continues with its ultraconservative nationalism and ethnic prejudice, refusing to acknowledge what was done to the Bosniaks from 1992-1995 as a genocide. The current UN Peace Representative for Bosnia- Hans Christian Schmidt- has warned earlier this year that ethnic tensions between Bosnia and the autonomous Serb community remain dangerously high still, and the possibility of internecine violence once again cannot be ruled out.

There are some clear parallels between the Bosnian genocide three decades ago and the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza in 2023-24. Like the Serbs, Israelis justify their actions on the narrative of historical victimhood. They present their victim as the perpetrator, stereotyping through Islamophobic propaganda that makes you believe Muslim Palestinian children are fair targets as potential ‘Islamist terrorists’ and ‘jihadists’ in the making. Like in the case of Bosnia, the world was never moved to decisive action to end the bloodbath until too late. Not surprisingly, the victims in both cases happen to be Muslims. While Serbia had been armed to the teeth by its mentor Soviet Russia, Israel has been heavily armed by the US, Germany, UK and other Western allies that continue to send military supplies to the Zionist state. In both cases, the population against whom these lethal weapons are unleashed is extremely vulnerable, unarmed and defenceless. In both Bosnia and now in Palestine, the UN proved a complete failure. And perhaps most poignantly, in both cases the Muslim world failed to stand up and act together, other than sending some humanitarian supplies for the victims.

Yet there are aspects in which the Gaza genocide emerges as a unique and unprecedented case in point. Gaza’s suffering has been long and historic, since the Nakba of 1948- and the world has continued to ignore its plight. Gaza has for years been under severe blockade, with many observers describing it as an ‘open air prison.’ Israel on the other hand, seen as the Middle East’s only beacon of democracy with  Western liberal values and culture is considered as the West’s only reliable ally in the volatile region- the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the Western world. It enjoys tremendous influence and solid support from its Western benefactors, even after having committed gross defiant violations of human rights and international law. The ongoing siege and death toll in Gaza is more protracted, and the scale of devastation far greater- surpassing anything we may have witnessed in modern history.

Bosnia found some solace with the trial of Serb war criminals at The Hague, as a result of which 21 perpetrators of the genocide were pronounced guilty- including Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, Republika Sprska leader Radovan Karadzic and Serb army commander Ratko Mladic. The case for Palestine, on the other hand, given the global power and influence of the Zionist lobby, has found no echo in the corridors of power, and any wholesale transparent accountability for the genocidal far right Israeli regime seems to be a remote possibility.

This is precisely why the global commemoration of the Bosnian genocide seems meaningless when the UN and the international community have proven so utterly spineless in the case of Gaza. Remembering and honouring Srebrenica means learning its lessons and promising ‘Never Again’. With humanity abysmally failing to show any resolve to end Israel’s relentless and brutal assault on Palestine, carefully crafted words for Srebrenica from high podiums ring hollow indeed.

 

Poetry for Palestine

 A Little Too Late

Maryam Sakeenah

Father, you kept your promise

To bring my favourite biscuits, 

From the coin you had discovered

In the pocket of the old coat

While scavenging in the rubble

Of our home in Gaza. 

Sorry I broke your heart, father... 

For I couldn't run to you

With that dimpled smile

And the twinkle in the eye

To grab that special treat

I had longed for

Since the bombs began... 

But I am gone, father

To where there is no longing, 

No fear, no pain, 

Upwards and onwards

To the Divine embrace

Sweeter than the treat I awaited. .. 

Hold on, father, 

With the sweetness of faith, 

Patience and hope... 

I'll meet you on the other side

With the dimple and the twinkle

To claim this biscuit pack

You promised. 

It'll taste sweeter then, 

Taking away the bitterness

Of this unfair parting

Between a promise

And its fulfillment...