“How come u haven’t spoken out about Palestine… You’re normally a big activist when it comes to big humanitarian issues so I’m just curious, I’ve always looked up to you for that.”

A text message I received from someone I know. I’m choosing to keep their identity hidden to protect their privacy.

It’s true, I haven’t spoken about it. The truth is, I’ve been scared to speak out, afraid of retaliation. I’ve felt isolated and heartbroken – and most of all I’ve felt sickened by how mainstream American media outlets have misrepresented what’s happening in Gaza. 

I’m a trained journalist with two journalism degrees. I studied print journalism, news and documentary and have taken media law throughout my studies. I’ve worked in the industry for 12 years. The reason I chose to work in media was to, “expose injustices in the world.” My six-year old self professed this to my mom while we were watching the news in Germany. Three years before that we were forced out of our home country, Bosnia, by people who tried to steal our land, kill us, ethnically cleanse us. 

When Israel began carrying out its deadly airstrikes targeting and killing thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza, I naturally turned to my go to media outlets to make sense of what was going on. I was bewildered by what I saw. They weren’t reporting on the brutality of the attacks in Gaza at all. Instead, most news outlets had positioned themselves as political pawns in a larger ploy spearheaded by Israel and backed by the U.S. government and President Joe Biden. The reporting heavy-handedly highlighted Israel’s plans to continue bombing Gaza – without showing the brutality unfolding on the ground. Media outlets were complicit in allowing the after-math of the mass bombings in Gaza to go unnoticed — merely slapping a rising death toll on each incoming news reader. It was lazy. It was irresponsible.

The reporting we’ve seen published and go on air has been oversaturated in bias, diluted and distorted by pro-war statements coming from Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden and the Israeli military. They have been leading sources that American media outlets have relied on – further spreading pro-war sentiments – without independently fact-checking the claims being made. When such statements are provided, it’s imperative to keep in mind the motives and interests of the sources you’re receiving information from. America’s political and economic interests lie with Israel. As stated by the U.S. Department of State:

“The U.S.-Israel economic and commercial relationship is strong, anchored by an annual bilateral trade of nearly $50 billion in goods and services.”

Biden’s interests have always been to strengthen and preserve this relationship with Israel. When asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza recently, Biden made it clear that  there’s “no possibility” of a ceasefire. He has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s targeted bombings of innocent civilians and children in Gaza – sending weapons and artillery to propel those efforts. As the headline suggests in journalist Jeremy Scahill’s report for The Intercept – “Biden’s legacy should be forever haunted by the names of Gaza’s dead children.” 

American media outlets have sourced and broadcast footage produced by Israel’s military – IDF –  and have shown these videos on air without ever vetting, analyzing, or fact checking them first. They’ve simply taken the Israeli military’s word for the claims they’re making and reported them as facts. This is not real journalism. It’s irresponsible reporting that further distorts public perception by taking viewers away from the heart of the issue —  the unjust killings of innocent civilians. This type of irresponsible reporting inundates people with unverified claims that could easily be perceived as the truth. Mainstream American media outlets have made a mockery of themselves while grasping for low hanging fruit and unverified claims fed to them by the IDF. 

The first pillar of ethical journalism, as outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists, states, journalists should “take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it.” This has not been the case.

The big news outlets my younger self had once dreamed of working for are failing to hold those in power accountable. They’re failing to make an impact. And they’re failing humanity during a humanitarian crisis where more than 12,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, including 5,000 children. 

At least 1,400 people have died in Israel since Hamas staged its strategic attack on Oct. 7. About 240 Israelis have been taken hostage during Hamas’ incursions. The Israeli government has exploited the suffering of those families. And Netanyahu has been criticized for prioritizing his deadly bombings on Gaza, over bringing the hostages home. 

Back to the text message I received. The one about me not speaking on Palestine. I’ve felt guilty about it every single day. A family member cautioned me against speaking out – out of fear for my safety. That’s the reality of the world we live in where censorship propagated by Israel has reigned far and wide. People are afraid to speak up. When did denouncing genocide and ethnic cleansing become problematic? Could the people’s resistance to Israel’s unjustified killings of innocent civilians be a fork in the road for the oppressors? 

I often turn to one of my literary heroes for context. In Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Pain of Others” – she contextualizes the media’s problematic model during war. Though it seems media outlets have gotten even more conservative when it comes to showcasing war imagery and telling the gut-wrenching truth about the realities of war – which in theory should include showing people sprawled out on stretchers, covered in blood with their wounds exposed. We clearly haven’t seen enough of it to make an impact and to stop the bloodshed. We’ve also largely had to seek out these images on our own.

“Television news producers and newspaper and magazine photo editors make decisions every day which firm up the wavering consensus about the boundaries of public knowledge,” writes Sontag on p. 68 of ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’ 

Their decision-making process is flawed. It’s contingent on some executive producer’s or editor’s subjective opinions on what knowledge the public should receive. Every single major broadcast station and news outlet in America is currently missing the mark.

Sontag continues, “Often their decisions are cast as judgements about “good taste” – always a repressive standard when invoked by institutions.” 

Yet somehow the intent and act of mutilating a child’s body with air missiles is not considered distasteful? 

I have to question the media’s complicity and disregard of the brutality coming out of Gaza. It is a dismemberment of humanity. Yet, the graphic imagery has largely been gate-kept by media outlets. And while a larger pool of photos does exist within wire service archives – the majority of American broadcast stations have refused to show these images on air. 

It’s easy to get swept up in political ideologies during war time. But if you support the killings of innocent civilians and children, I encourage you to take a moment to assess your morals. I urge you to question your integrity, your complicity, your humanity. 

I nearly died while escaping my hometown, Srebrenica, when I was just three years old. I wasn’t targeted by air missiles during my escape, so I can’t conceive the horrors these Palestinian children are subjected to. My hometown, Srebrenica, was a predominantly Muslim enclave that was sequestered by Orthodox-Catholic Serb militant forces who wanted us dead. Similar to what we’re seeing play out before our eyes now in Gaza. What is it with the world’s hatred of Muslims?

International news organizations have little, if any, access to Gaza. Israel, which has been continuously bombing Gaza since Oct. 7, holds control over journalists’ access into Gaza.

If they allowed journalists in, we may actually get real documentation of what’s happening on the ground. It’s the images that become etched in our minds, that cling to our conscience, to our hearts. It’s the pain that resonates and echoes far and wide. Images are powerful. Images are power. Maybe that’s why journalists are being kept out.

Social media has been the silver lining. It has, in its graphic nature, shown the horrors of ethnic cleansing playing out before our eyes. It has given visuals to the word genocide. Without social media, we would have nothing. It would be like Srebrenica in 1995. It’s when social media didn’t exist to show my people being executed and mutilated. Gaza is worse. Israel’s military isn’t sparing children. They are targeting them. In a world where children are the future – the same rules don’t apply when you’re a Palestinian child.  You’re simply not allowed to have one. 

I’ve been following Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza on Instagram. He has been my truth in a web of lies. Motaz’s images have been the truth the Israeli and U.S. governments are working hard to keep hidden. Israel is murdering innocent children. They’ve brutally blasted pieces of their humanity. They’ve ordered bombings that have traumatized the ones who survive, to their core.

I’m sickened, outraged, disgusted and enraged. Thank you Motaz for helping me see truth in a world dominated and oversaturated by disinformation. 

“The war itself is waged as much as possible at a distance, through bombing, whose targets can be chosen, on the basis of instantly relayed information and visualization technology from continents away … ” p. 67, “Regarding the Pain of Others”

What’s happening in Gaza is reminiscent of when Serb forces tried to sway and convince the world that they were the real victims after they invaded our towns, tortured all the men and boys, raped the women and killed our people. It’s reminiscent of when they tried to pull the wool over the world’s eyes. Killers clad in sheep’s clothing. Their tactics worked long enough to kill thousands of us and claim our land as their own – much like what’s happening now in Gaza. But the world eventually woke up  – or did it? 

Sontag writes, “Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.” p. 89, ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’

An ‘unforgettable’ image Sontag references in this passage is one from war time in Bosnia in 1992. It shows a Serb paramilitary fighter kicking a dead Muslim woman in the head while she’s lying face down on the sidewalk between two other bodies. 

The image captures the perpetrator dehumanizing ‘the other’ in real time. Dehumanization  became second-nature to those who wanted us dead. Even after killing us, Serbs felt compelled to inflict violence on our corpses.

Dehumanizing ‘the other’ helps justify violent, oppressive, brutal and even deadly actions in the midst of war. 

“When there are photographs, a war becomes real,” writes Sontag on p. 104, ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’

She continues, “The feeling that something had to be done about the war in Bosnia was built from the attentions of journalists … which brought images of Sarajevo under siege into hundreds of millions of living rooms night after night for more than three years.”

It took three years and 100,000 people to die in Bosnia for the world to act – to do something. It would be a human tragedy to wait three years for a ceasefire in Gaza.