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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinians Are Not Liars: Confronting the Violence of Media Delegitimization</h1>
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<h5>
<a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/romana-rubeo/">
Ramzy Baroud - Romana Rubeo</a> - January 30, 2023<br></h5></div></div></div></div></div><hr><div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>On
January 19, during one of its raids in the Occupied West Bank, the
Israeli military arrested a Palestinian journalist, Abdul Muhsen
Shalaldeh, near Al-Khalil (Hebron). This is just the latest of a
staggering number of violations against Palestinian journalists and
freedom of expression.</p>
<p>A few days earlier, the head of the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS), Naser Abu Baker,<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230109-55-palestine-journalists-killed-by-israel-since-2000/" target="_blank"> shared</a>
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.</p>
<p>The<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/04/shireen-abu-akleh-documentary-faultlines-israel-biden-palestine" target="_blank"> murder</a>
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, <i>Al Jazeera Network</i>. Still, Israel and
its allies labored to hide the news, resorting to the usual tactic of
smearing those who defy the Israeli narrative.</p>
<p>Palestinian journalists pay a heavy price for carrying out their
mission of spreading the truth about the Israeli oppression of
Palestinians. Their work is critical not only to good and balanced media
coverage but to the very cause of justice and freedom in Palestine.</p>
<p>In a recent<a href="https://jerusalem.24fm.ps/18482.html" target="_blank"> report</a>
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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2><b>The Violence of Delegitimization</b></h2>
<p>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 <i>Palestine Chronicle. </i></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>As outrageous – let alone Orientalist – such thinking may appear, it
dwarfs in comparison to the state-operated hasbara machine of the
Israeli government.</p>
<p>But is it true that Palestinians cannot be trusted with the little details?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Naturally, al-Samoudi was the primary eyewitness to what had occurred that day. He<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/fellow-journalist-narrates-slain-al-jazeera-reporters-last-moments/2585442" target="_blank"> told</a>
journalists from his hospital bed that there was no fighting in that
area; that he and Shireen were wearing clearly marked press vests; that
Israeli soldiers intentionally targeted them, and that Palestinian
fighters were not anywhere close to the range from which they were shot.</p>
<p>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.’</p>
<p>However,<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/05/israel-investigation-shireen-abu-akleh-killed-idf" target="_blank"> investigations</a> by international human rights groups and, eventually, a bashful Israeli<a href="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." target="_blank"> admission</a>
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,
facts are revealed too little too late.</p>
<p>The tragic<a href="https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/1597" target="_blank"> murder</a>
of 12-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Durrah remains the most
shameful episode of western media bias. 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.
Unfortunately, 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.’</p>
<h2><b>(No) Permission to Narrate</b></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Nearly four decades after the publishing of Edward Said’s<a href="https://oldwebsite.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/38869" target="_blank"> essay</a>
“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2><b>A New Generation’s Search for the Truth </b></h2>
<p>Indeed, times have changed, and Palestinians no longer require
filters – as in those speaking on their behalf since Palestinians are
supposedly inherently incapable of doing so.</p>
<p>The authors of this article have recently<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-RSbP7FEE&t" target="_blank"> interviewed</a>
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.</p>
<p>Shalash is a West Bank-based<a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/i-feel-he-is-cold-israels-inhumane-practice-of-withholding-palestinian-bodies/" target="_blank"> reporter</a>
who discussed media coverage based on Palestinian priorities, counting
many examples of important stories that 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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>For his part, Alnaouq, the<a href="https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/contributors/ahmed_alnaouq/" target="_blank"> head</a>
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.”</p>
<p>“It is also the editors’ fault,” he said. “Sometimes they make big
mistakes. When a Palestinian is killed in Gaza or the West Bank, the
editors should say who the perpetrator is, 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.”</p>
<p>When asked how he would change the coverage of Palestine if he worked
as an editor in a mainstream Western publication, Alnaouq said:</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<h2><b>Prioritizing Palestine </b></h2>
<p>Only Palestinian voices can convey the emotions of highly charged
stories about Palestine, stories that never make it to mainstream media
coverage. When they do, these stories are often missing context,
prioritize Israeli views – if not outright lies – and sometimes 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.</p>
<p>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 deemed more credible and truthful.
Anything less than this can be rightfully mistaken for Orientalist
thinking of a bygone era; or worse.</p>
<p>Feature photo | Nasser Ishtayeh | Associated Press</p>
<p><i><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong> 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 ‘</i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440" target="_blank"><i>Our Vision for Liberation</i></a><i>:
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 </i><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/" target="_blank"><i>www.ramzybaroud.net</i></a><i>.</i></p>
<p><i><strong>Romana Rubeo</strong> 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.</i></p>
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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy. </p><p><span>
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