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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/16/israel-palestine-us-news-headlines-mysterious-deaths">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/16/israel-palestine-us-news-headlines-mysterious-deaths</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">In America's news headlines,
Palestinians die mysterious deaths</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Moustafa Bayoumi - May 16,
2018<br>
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<p><span><span>I</span></span>t is the peculiar fate of
oppressed people everywhere that when they are killed,
they are killed twice: first by bullet or bomb, and next
by the language used to describe their deaths. A common
condition of oppression, after all, is to be blamed for
being the victim, and that blame gets meted out in
language designed to rob the oppressed of their very
struggle.</p>
<p>Such a situation has for decades been the tragic
destiny of the Palestinians, who are themselves so
routinely assigned the blame when they are killed by <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/israel"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Israel</a> – and not
just by the Israeli government but by the American media
and political establishment – that we have now basically
come to expect it.</p>
<p>But we don’t have to accept it. By paying close
attention to the language of the media, we can see how
this double death of the oppressed occurs, and we can
learn how to resist such an insidious way of framing the
Palestinian struggle.</p>
<p>Consider the headlines. On Monday, the Israeli military
killed more than 60 protesters in <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gaza"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Gaza</a>. The deadly
violence was one-sided – no Israelis were killed – and
disproportionate. In the midst of the carnage, the New
York Times sent out a tweet about its story on the
bloody events. “Dozens of Palestinians have died in
protests as the US prepares to open its Jerusalem
Embassy,” read the tweet.</p>
<p>Have died? Really? We should note how the passive voice
in this tweet hides the one performing the action, which
is exactly what passive voice constructions can do. In
this tweet, Israel is assigned no responsibility for
killing protesters. On the contrary, Palestinians
appear, simply and almost mysteriously, to “have died”.</p>
<p>The tweet was too egregious for many, including the
director Judd Apatow. “Shame on you,” he <a
href="https://twitter.com/JuddApatow/status/996030778260602880"
data-link-name="in body link">tweeted</a>. “This is
like calling Trump’s lies ‘factual inaccuracies’. Please
tell me an intern is running your Twitter feed.” Good
for him.</p>
<span></span>
<p>To be fair to the New York Times, the <a
href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/05/15/nytfrontpage/scan.pdf"
data-link-name="in body link">headline</a> in
Tuesday’s physical paper (still a thing) was much
clearer. “Israelis Kill Dozens in Gaza,” it read, though
one is still left wondering who these “Israelis” are.
Wouldn’t “Israel” be a more accurate noun? The military
represents the state, after all, and not individual
citizens.</p>
<p>But the Times is hardly alone in these obfuscating
headlines. The Washington Post’s <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/toll-for-gaza-protests-rises-to-59-as-baby-dies-from-tear-gas-with-more-protests-expected/2018/05/15/ee4156f8-57c6-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html"
data-link-name="in body link">lead story</a> on the
massacre is headlined “Gaza buries its dead as death
toll from protests at fence with Israel rises to at
least 60.” Again, the headline leaves us wondering who
killed the people of Gaza? Are we to assume that the
protests – and not the Israeli military – killed these
people?</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal has a <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/video/clashes-over-new-us-embassy-in-jerusalem-leave-dozens-dead/803AEB54-131C-4108-8943-CB34A7F13F13.html"
data-link-name="in body link">video</a> on its website
with the headline “Clashes Over New US Embassy in
Jerusalem Leave Dozens Dead”. Frankly, this headline is
even worse than the others. To label this massacre as
“clashes” is not only disingenuous but also grossly
misleading, as is the idea that the Palestinians were
only protesting against the new US embassy in Jerusalem.
Gaza’s Great Return March was organized in significant
measure to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian
refugees, who make up around 70% of the <a
href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip"
data-link-name="in body link">population</a> of the
Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>And then there’s the ever-present “leave dozens dead”
in the headline, which again tells us nothing about who
shot whom, suggesting instead that “clashes” rather than
people kill while insinuating that Palestinians are,
once again, basically responsible for their own
slaughter.</p>
<p>It’s almost as if bullets just hang in the air, waiting
for Palestinians to walk deliberately into them.</p>
<p>Headlines like these are the journalistic equivalent of
US ambassador Nikki Haley telling the UN’s security
council that “no country in this chamber would act with
more restraint than Israel has”. Such language works not
only to buffer Israel from criticism but also and more
fundamentally to shield Israel from accountability.</p>
<p>Over 70 years ago, George Orwell wrote that modern
political language “is designed to make lies sound
truthful and murder respectable”. It saddens me to see
how nothing has changed. And nothing will change until
we demand more from the purveyors of today’s political
language. Palestinians deserve better. We all deserve
better. And no one should have to die more than once.</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the
award-winning books How Does It Feel To Be a
Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America </em></li>
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