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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/10/how-to-report-on-gaza/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/10/how-to-report-on-gaza/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">How to Report on Gaza</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/drespu/"
rel="nofollow">Vijay Prashad</a> - April 10, 2018</span></div>
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<p>If you are a Western journalist and you have to report
from Gaza, the best thing to do is to treat the
Palestinians as a threat.</p>
<p>Their bodies are weapons, their existence is dangerous.
If a Palestinian is killed by an Israeli soldier, the
most appropriate thing to do is to call it a “clash.”
Clashes take place when two armed forces confront each
other.</p>
<p>Unarmed Palestinians are armed by the fact of their
existence. If Israeli soldiers shoot to death 15 unarmed
Palestinians, then the best way to tell that story is to
say that “deadly clashes” took place in Gaza (“Deadly
clashes in Gaza mark start of Palestinian campaign,”
March 31).</p>
<p>If you are a Western journalist and you have to report
from Gaza, don’t talk to any Palestinian officials. Talk
only to the Israeli military and to the Israeli
government. When the Israeli military says that the
Palestinians began the “clash” with rocks and “burning
tires,” repeat that as the origin for the Israeli use of
tear gas and live fire.</p>
<p>Don’t bother to report what you have seen with your own
eyes, or to watch videos on YouTube shot from both sides
of the perimeter fence. No need to see that video of
unarmed men kneeling down to prayer and then Israeli
snipers picking them off one by one. Better to be a
stenographer for the Israeli army than to be a
journalist of the facts.</p>
<p>If you are a Western journalist and you have to report
from Gaza, talk to a few Palestinians who say that they
will never give up, that they “have nothing to lose.”
Offer no context for these statements, nothing to make
these statements of futility make sense. Or to appear
sympathetic.</p>
<p>Don’t write about the permanent siege on Gaza – its
land and sea borders closed by Israeli authorities.
Don’t bother with the documentation from the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza City.</p>
<p>If you read their weekly reports, you will find that
the Israeli navy repeatedly has been bombing the Gaza
coastline over the past several weeks — including
regular attacks on Palestinian fishing boats off
al-Sudaniya. There you will find reports of Israeli
warplanes striking the Beit Hanoun Services Club stadium
in northern Gaza. You will find evidence that the
Israeli soldiers have been repeatedly shooting at
shepherds in the eastern part of Gaza Valley. Israel
will not let international human rights agencies to
enter Gaza. Israel does not want this context.</p>
<p>If you are a Western journalist and you have to report
from Gaza, don’t ask the Palestinian political groups
about the planned six weeks of unarmed protests at the
perimeter fence. Don’t bother to report that this is a
peaceful protest, something that liberals have often
demanded of the Palestinians. Don’t bother to ask why
the Palestinian leadership has urged people to be
peaceful and why they have asked for this gathering at
the fence.</p>
<p>Why mention that March 30 is the anniversary of the
1976 Land Day events in the Galilee, when Palestinians
fought to defend their way of life in northern Israel?</p>
<p>Why mention that there is a politics at work here and
not merely the instinct of an encaged people?</p>
<p><em>This article originally appeared in the <a
href="http://www.gazettenet.com/Columnist-Vijay-Prashad-criticizes-Western-reporting-from-Gaza-16600945?utm_source=Tricontinental+English&utm_campaign=d2bd4d56cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9fbe436b65-d2bd4d56cc-83955073">Daily
Hampshire Gazette</a>.</em></p>
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<p> <em><strong>Vijay Prashad’s</strong> most recent book
is No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism (New
Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2015).</em> </p>
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