– Media institutions, mirroring the narratives pushed by the US and Israeli governments, have manipulated the public perception of events unfolding on the ground, Rad tells Anadolu
– ‘Palestinians are dehumanized because they are nameless. They don’t have stories. But when there are victims on the Israeli side, you see profiles that talk about these people because they are, in fact, people,’ says Rad
ANKARA
Media outlets, especially those in the Western mainstream, have drawn sharp criticism throughout Israel’s devastating campaign in the Gaza Strip, as many point to evidence of bias and misleading coverage of the broader conflict.
According to historian Assal Rad, this skew is no new phenomenon. Rather, it is part of a long-standing pattern that portrays Israel’s actions, especially its military campaigns, in a way that minimizes their impact on Palestinians, while reinforcing the narrative of Israeli security and victimhood.
“The media is where the public gets its information,” she said in an interview with Anadolu, highlighting how Western media has played a major role manipulating the way many people perceive the conflict, mirroring the narratives pushed by the US and Israeli governments.
“The media’s role is complicit with that of the state and just repeating certain PR and propaganda that justifies Israel’s actions even as far as genocide in Gaza.”
It usually does this through whitewashing and misleading headlines, rather than outright censorship.
Headlines on Tel Aviv’s military actions since Oct. 7 have often stated them as objective facts, such as “Israel targets Hezbollah,” without questioning the legitimacy or consequences of those actions. In contrast, when reporting on civilian casualties resulting from Israeli attacks, outlets often attribute information to sources like Palestinian authorities or Lebanon’s Health Ministry, subtly casting doubt on the veracity of the reports.
This double standard, according to Rad, serves to legitimize Israeli actions, while dehumanizing Palestinian victims.
Framing the narrative
Rad argues that the language used in Western coverage often de-emphasizes Israeli responsibility for civilian casualties.
When Israeli strikes hit schools or refugee camps, for instance, reports are framed in a way that suggests that the civilians there were collateral damage in Israel’s efforts to target Hamas or Hezbollah.
“That is not how international humanitarian law works,” asserts Rad, who added that Israel, as the state carrying out the attacks, has a responsibility to avoid civilian casualties. The lack of accountability in reporting, she argued, distorts the reality of the situation on the ground.
Naming and accountability
One of the most glaring issues is the reluctance of Western media to directly name Israel as the perpetrator of violence when it comes to civilian deaths. Rad describes how headlines about Palestinians being thrown by Israeli soldiers off rooftops in the West Bank were framed as “apparent lifeless bodies,” something that would have been unthinkable had the victims been Israeli.
This language, she suggested, not only sanitizes the violence but also implies that Palestinians are less deserving of empathy or justice.
Rad also criticized the normalization of Israel “investigating itself” after committing potential war crimes, a practice she believes has been internalized by both political discourse and media reporting. “When you see these repeated patterns of the way that information is presented, it becomes normalized to the point where people accept it without questioning,” she warned.
Selective outrage and dehumanization
There is also a stark difference in how the media covers Israeli and Palestinian victims, Rad points out, citing the now-debunked story of “40 babies beheaded” by Palestinian resistance fighters on Oct. 7 as an example of how quickly disinformation can spread and how the media perpetuates outrage selectively.
The story remained in circulation even after being proven false, while verified reports and footage of Palestinian children killed in Gaza received far less attention.
This selective outrage, argued Rad, is the result of the dehumanization of Palestinians. “Palestinians are nameless. They don’t have stories,” she said, comparing this to the personalized profiles often published about Israeli victims. The unequal treatment in media narratives, she explained, makes it difficult to comprehend the scale of suffering experienced by Palestinians.
“Palestinians are dehumanized because they are nameless. They don’t have stories. But when there are victims on the Israeli side, you see profiles that talk about these people because they are, in fact, people.”
The role of social media and independent journalists
Rad noted that one of the major differences between this conflict and those in the past is the role of social media and independent journalism. Live-streamed footage and reports from Palestinian journalists on the ground have provided an unfiltered view of the situation, challenging the narratives pushed by mainstream Western media.
“What we have that’s different in our contemporary world than what we’ve had in the past is live footage of what is happening on the ground,” she said.
However, Rad cautioned that these images and stories are still not reaching the broader public in the West, especially those who rely on the mainstream media for information.
Institutional vs. individual responsibility
Rather than individual reporters, it is the media institutions themselves that are responsible for these failings, according to Rad, who acknowledged that journalists often work under editorial constraints and may not have control over headlines or final edits.
“The criticism is of the institutions,” she clarified, pointing to leaked memos from media organizations like The New York Times instructing reporters not to use words like “occupation” or “genocide.”
She stated that the US government’s support for Israel is what enables the ongoing violence and that this complicity is reflected in the media coverage. “If the Biden administration had chosen to take a different path, it could stop everything that is happening,” she stated, underscoring the role of US policies in perpetuating the conflict.
As long as media institutions continue to align their narratives with those of the US and Israeli governments, Rad fears that public understanding of the conflict will remain skewed, delaying justice for Palestinians.
