[News] Palestinians Are Not Liars: Confronting the Violence of Media Delegitimization

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinians-are-not-liars-confronting-the-violence-of-media-delegitimization/>
Palestinians Are Not Liars: Confronting the Violence of Media
DelegitimizationJanuary 24, 2023
------------------------------
Israeli occupation forces often commit violations against Palestinian
journalists. (Photo: via ActiveStills.org)

*By Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud-romana-rubeo>*

On January 19, during one of its raids in the Occupied West Bank, the
Israeli military arrested a Palestinian journalist, Abdul Muhsen Shalaldeh,
near the town of Al-Khalil (Hebron). This is just the latest of a
staggering number of violations against Palestinian journalists, and
against freedom of expression.

A few days earlier, the head of the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS),
Naser Abu Baker, shared
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230109-55-palestine-journalists-killed-by-israel-since-2000/>
some tragic numbers during a press conference in Ramallah. “Fifty-five
reporters have been killed, either by Israeli fire or bombardment since
2000,” he said. Hundreds more were wounded, arrested or detained. Although
shocking, much of this reality is censored in mainstream media.

The murder
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/04/shireen-abu-akleh-documentary-faultlines-israel-biden-palestine>
by Israeli occupation soldiers of veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen
Abu Akleh on May 11, was an exception, partly due to the global influence
of her employer, *Al Jazeera Network*. Still, Israel and its allies labored
to hide the news, resorting to the usual tactic of smearing those who defy
the Israeli narrative.

Palestinian journalists pay a heavy price for carrying out their mission of
spreading the truth about the ongoing Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
Their work is not only critical to good and balanced media coverage, but to
the very cause of justice and freedom in Palestine.

In a recent report <https://jerusalem.24fm.ps/18482.html> on January 17,
PJS detailed some of the harrowing experiences of Palestinian journalists.
“Dozens of journalists were targeted by the occupation forces and settlers
during the last year, which (recorded) the highest number of serious
attacks against Palestinian journalists.”

However, the harm inflicted on Palestinian journalists is not only physical
and material. They are also constantly exposed to a very subtle, but
equally dangerous, threat: the constant delegitimization of their work.

*The Violence of Delegitimization*

One of the writers of this piece, Romana Rubeo, attended a close meeting
involving over 100 Italian journalists on January 18, which aimed at
advising them on how to report accurately on Palestine. Rubeo did her best
to convey some of the facts discussed in this article, which she practices
daily as the Managing Editor of the *Palestine Chronicle. *

However, a veteran Israeli journalist, often touted for her courageous
reporting on Palestine, dropped a bombshell when she suggested that
Palestinians cannot always be trusted with the little details. She
communicated something to this effect: Though the truth is on the
Palestinian side, they cannot be totally trusted about the little details,
while the Israelis are more reliable on the little things, but they lie
about the big picture.

As outrageous – let alone Orientalist – such thinking may appear, it dwarfs
in comparison to the state-operated hasbara machine of the Israeli
government.

But is it true that Palestinians cannot be trusted with the little details?

When Abu Akleh was killed, she was not the only journalist targeted in
Jenin. Her companion, another Palestinian journalist, Ali al-Samoudi, was
present and was also shot and wounded by an Israeli bullet in the back.

Naturally, al-Samoudi was the main eyewitness to what had taken place on
that day. He told
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/fellow-journalist-narrates-slain-al-jazeera-reporters-last-moments/2585442>
journalists from his hospital bed that there was no fighting in that area;
that he and Shireen were wearing clearly marked press vests; that they were
intentionally targeted by Israeli soldiers and that Palestinian fighters
were not anywhere close to the range from which they were shot.

All of this was dismissed by Israel, and, in turn, by western mainstream
media, since supposedly ‘Palestinians could not be trusted with the little
details’.

However, investigations
<https://www.axios.com/2022/09/05/israel-investigation-shireen-abu-akleh-killed-idf>
by international human rights groups and, eventually a bashful Israeli
admission
<https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.html#:~:text=The%20Israel%20Defense%20Forces%20have,May%2C%20the%20IDF%20announced%20Monday.>
of possible guilt, proved that al-Samoudi’s account was the most honest
detailing of the truth. This episode has been repeated hundreds of times
throughout the years where, from the outset, Palestinian views are
dismissed as untrue or exaggerated, and the Israeli narrative is embraced
as the only possible truth, only for the truth to be eventually revealed,
authenticating the Palestinian side every time. Quite often, true facts are
revealed too little too late.

The tragic murder <https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/1597> of
12-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Durrah remains the most shameful
episode of western media bias, to this day. The death of the boy, who was
killed by Israeli occupation troops in Gaza in 2000 while sheltered by his
father’s side, was essentially blamed on Palestinians, before the narrative
of his murder was rewritten suggesting that he was killed in the
‘crossfire’. That version of the story eventually changed to the reluctant
acceptance of the Palestinian reporting on the event. However, the story
didn’t end here, as Zionist hasbara continued to push its narrative,
smearing those who adopt the Palestinian version as being anti-Israel or
even ‘antisemitic’.

*(No) Permission to Narrate*

Though Palestinian journalism has proved its effectiveness in recent years
– with the Gaza wars being a prime example – thanks to the power of social
media and its ability to disseminate information directly to news
consumers, the challenges remain great.

Nearly four decades after the publishing of Edward Said’s essay
<https://oldwebsite.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/38869> “Permission
to Narrate”, and over ten years after Rafeef Ziadah’s seminal poem “We
Teach Life, Sir”, it seems that, in some media platforms and political
environments, Palestinians still need to acquire permission to narrate,
partly because of the anti-Palestinian racism that continues to prevail,
but also because, per the judgment of a supposedly pro-Palestinian
journalist, Palestinians cannot be entrusted with the little details.

However, there is much hope in this story. There is a new, empowered and
courageous generation of Palestinian activists – authors, writers,
journalists, bloggers, filmmakers and artists – that is more than qualified
to represent Palestinians and to present a cohesive, non-factional, and
universal political discourse on Palestine.

*A New Generation’s Search for the Truth *

Indeed, times have changed, and Palestinians are no longer requiring
filters – as in those speaking on their behalf, since Palestinians are
supposedly inherently incapable of doing so.

The authors of this article have recently interviewed
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-RSbP7FEE&t> two representatives of this
new generation of Palestinian journalists, two strong voices that advocate
authentic Palestinian presence in international media: journalists and
editors Ahmed Alnaouq and Fahya Shalash.

Shalash is a West Bank-based reporter
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/i-feel-he-is-cold-israels-inhumane-practice-of-withholding-palestinian-bodies/>,
who discussed media coverage based on Palestinian priorities, counting many
examples of important stories that often go unreported.  “As Palestinian
women, we have a lot of obstacles in our life and they are (all) related to
the Israeli Occupation because it’s very dangerous to work as a journalist.
All the world saw what happened to Shireen Abu Akleh for reporting the
truth on Palestine,” she said.

Shalash understands that being a Palestinian reporting on Palestine is not
just a professional, but an emotional and personal experience, as well.
“When I work and I am on the phone with the families of Palestinian
prisoners or martyrs, sometimes I break into tears.”

Indeed, stories about the abuse and targeting of Palestinian women by
Israeli soldiers are hardly a media topic. “Israel puts on the democracy
mask; they pretend that they care for women’s rights, but this is not at
all what happens here,” the Palestinian journalist said.

“They hit Palestinian female journalists because they are physically
weaker; they curse them with very inappropriate language. I was personally
detained for interrogation by Israeli forces. This affected my work. They
threatened me, saying that if I continued to depict them as criminals in my
work, they would have stopped me from being a journalist.”

“In Western media, they keep talking about women’s rights and gender
equality, but we don’t have rights at all. We do not live like any other
country,” she added.

For his part, Alnaouq, who is the head
<https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/contributors/ahmed_alnaouq/> of the
Palestine-based organization ‘We Are Not Numbers’, explained how mainstream
media never allow Palestinian voices to be present in their coverage. Even
pieces written by Palestinians are “heavily edited”.

“It is also the editors’ fault,” he said. “Sometimes they make big
mistakes. When a Palestinian is killed in Gaza or in the West Bank, the
editors should say who is the perpetrator, but these publications often
omit this information. They do not mention Israel as the perpetrator. They
have some kind of agenda that they want to impose.”

When asked how he would change the coverage of Palestine if he worked as an
editor in a mainstream Western publication, Alnaouq said:

“I would just tell the truth. And this is what we want as Palestinians. We
want the truth. We don’t want Western media to be biased toward us and
attack Israel, we just want them to tell the truth as it should be.”

*Prioritizing Palestine *

Only Palestinian voices can convey the emotions of highly charged stories
about Palestine, stories that never make it to mainstream media coverage;
and when they do, these stories are often missing context, prioritize
Israeli views – if not outright lies – and, at times, omit Palestinians
altogether. But as the work of Abu Akleh, al-Samoudi, Alnaouq and Shalash,
and hundreds more, continues to demonstrate, Palestinians are qualified to
produce high-quality journalism, with integrity and professionalism.

Palestinians must be the core of the Palestinian narrative in all of its
manifestations. It is time to break away from the old way of thinking that
saw the Palestinian as incapable of narrating, or of being a liability on
his/her own story, of being secondary characters that can be replaced or
substituted by those who are deemed more credible and truthful. Anything
less than this can be rightfully mistaken for Orientalist thinking of a
bygone era; or worse.

*– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine
Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with
Ilan Pappé, is ‘**Our Vision for Liberation*
<https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440>*:
Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out’. His other books
include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a
Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global
Affairs (CIGA). His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net*
<http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>

*– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the Managing Editor of The
Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appear in many online newspapers and
academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and
Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.*
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