The Power of the Media
Following the horrors of the Holocaust that transpired during the second world war, many Jewish refugees and displaced peoples collaborated with the Zionist movement. They packed up the little that they had left, if anything at all, and migrated to Palestine. Many of these people had just survived a great deal of physical and mental trauma, never to be forgotten as long as they survived on Earth.
Yet, in 1948, Palestine was not an empty oasis waiting to be settled. Instead, it was a land already populated and governed by Muslim people who were living full lives there. They supported families, education systems, and even a fairly respectable economic system. And then the Jewish people arrived on their soil. Now, a large question would need to be answered. Who is to have control over this mutual land? The answer to that question is still debated over today and is arguably no closer to a concise answer now than it was in 1948.
The picture above represents the world view of the controversy in Palestine/Israel. The Jewish peoples will forever be known as the victims of the 20th century Holocaust. The Zionists, many of European decent, are easy to relate to in the Western world; whereas both past and modern day Western civilized people have a harder time understanding and connecting to Muslim people. Therefor, the media paints those easy to relate to as the victims in a balanced tragedy, often ignoring the horrors and genocide attempts made against the Palestinian people.
Imagine growing up in your neighborhood, in your country, living comfortably and proud of your heritage. Now imagine, a new race of people move into your neighborhood and claim it as their own, going as far as to toss out your language and replace it with their own. That is essentially what the people of Palestine endured when the Zionists settled on their lands and continued to expand for what is now nearly 3/4 of a century. Their homes were taken from them and many were forced to emigrate to foreign nations for their own safety. According to Lila Abu-Lughod in chapter three of Nakba, her father considered a man lucky to have died in a tragic car accident prior to their peoples’ forced emigration. To people like him, to never know the horrible future for their heritage was fortunate. But to live it, as most Palestinians did, was a travesty. Many of the Palestinian peoples that fled were fearful of returning to their homelands many years later out of worry that their memories would be soiled by the changes. Ultimately, the further the Zionists expanded their territory, the closer to extinction the heritages of Palestine became.
Because of these events, and the tendency for the media to ignore the issue altogether with an equal sympathy for both sides, it is our generations duty now, more than ever, to preserve a history of a disappearing people. In all conflicts, even the weakest of victims can be viewed as a victor.
I really liked the image you included in your blog post. It unfortunately shows the truth about how the media is biased towards issues in the Middles East. I agree that the media does have more of a soft spot for the Jews because of the Holocaust, but that does not mean that they should overlook the devastation and destruction they caused to the native Palestinians. The Palestinians had to flee their homes and some still cannot return today. I think the media overlooks the Palestinian refugees far too much and needs to portray both sides of the Palestine-Israel conflict fairly.
i like how you briught up the role of the media in this conflict. I personally think that the media played a big role in victimizing the jews and allowing the world to look over the plight of the arabs that they had displaced.
Great Post. Your image immediately pulled me in, due to how hauntingly accurate it is. Unfortunately, the media has a large role in our opinion on certain conflicts around the world. In all honesty, I did not know very much about this history of the Palestinian plight prior to this class. I did, on the other hand, know that holocaust survivors as well as Jewish victims of discrimination fled to Palestine to seek asylum. Just being aware of one side of the conflict really stopped me from knowing the severity of the issue. Posts such as yours have made me consider taking a History of the Middle East class. One cannot simply rely on the media to begin to understand all sides of these conflicts.
I appreciate how you bring up the Western perception of the situation and how there is a tendency to of the West to sympathize and associate more with the Israelis due to their relationship with the West and the suffering they endured in the past. It is West’s continued sympathy for the Israelis that has allowed today’s current situation to unfold. Following the Second World War, the West, which were essentially the powers that be, were willing to displace a foreign and largely irrelevant people such as the Palestinians in order to accommodate their Jewish allies. Today however, this is not the case; the world will no longer allow the blatant mistreatment of such people as well as the denial of their rights, but by this point, both the Israelis and the Palestinians are far to invested to give up their fight to exist, so an agreement of peaceful coexistence must be made, possibly and hopefully resulting in a single state where both people can live as one.
The image is a great image and I agree. Media does have a political agenda, which side it leans towards is not for this discussion because we can argue for hours HOWEVER, there is bias. I believe it is almost impossible to be completely objective about anything, me writing this is biased towards my views, if there wasn’t a subjective aspect then all the information would be the same and critical thinking would be useless. I do think that the media is biased as well and heres why. For starters as you mentioned they moved there because of the horrors they witnessed and I believe for that they received sympathy. Thats a moral issue, these people had been killed and used as experiments and they were helpless. But does that mean they should push out the native Palestinians is the question. Moving on I feel strongly that the Western Worlds are based towards Israel because the Middle East hasn’t been to kind to us, and vise versa. We are to blame for much of what happened. I also feel that the issues of religion as you mentioned plays a key factor. If you add that all up the Middle East makes for a great enemy, and how do you keep that image up?? By showing them in a negative partrayel. I think that the Western World sees Israel as well for their geographical location. They offer a great foothold in the Middle east from which to mount an attack from. Also the Western World does a lot of arms deals, for example the American Patriot Missile Defense System is being used by the Israelis. So in conclusion I think the US media shows the Palestinians in a bad light and the Israelis as the victim to gain support for their allies and their friends. Its basically what Hilary’s campaign is based off, a philosophic l quote that states someone/something is great because they are MORALLY good. If we were backing war criminals, which we’ve done before, the media won’t show it, it reflects poorly on the nation as a whole.
I really love your image and I’ve seen a lot of things that paint the same picture. I agree that the media definitely over blew the side of the Jews in this case. But I’d also say that the media felt bad about putting a blame on the Jews due to what recently happened to them in WWII. Great post!