As the slaughter continues in Gaza, the Western world appears content to remain oblivious while the media chooses its words carefully, writes Lyn Bender.
AS STORIES and visions emerge from the “war” in Gaza, questions surround the words that can be used to describe these “events.” At first, we were all warned that Hamas had to be condemned for its atrocities of 7 October, before Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians could be mentioned.
Words were guarded against: Genocide, holocaust, atrocities, Palestine, occupation.
As reported in New Lines Magazine, satirist Bassem Youssef noted the exchange rate for Palestinian lives compared to Israeli lives was “very good”:
“So my question is today, what is the going rate today for human lives?” he asked, noting that, during the 2014 assault on Gaza, there were roughly 27 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. “That is a very good exchange rate.”
“I can’t remember what happened in 2014 and there was no music festival,” he added. “It had to be something. It’s their fault.”
I have written about the absurdity of Israeli Hasbara so I will endeavour to avoid being repetitious. The point is that the non-dialogue around what is happening in Gaza is on a repeat cycle with some slight amendments.
As former BBC journalist Mehdi Hasan puts it, ‘Everyone is Hamas’.
The list he offers of those denounced contains among many distinguished organisations and individuals the following:
- Amnesty International is Hamas;
- the EU Foreign Affairs chief is Hamas;
- Harvard is Hamas;
- hostages’ families are Hamas;
- Human Rights Watch is Hamas;
- Jewish professors are Hamas;
- Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP) is Hamas;
- Jonathan Glazer is Hamas;
- José Andrés is Hamas;
- Kamala Harris is Hamas;
- Keir Starmer is Hamas;
- Kenneth Roth is Hamas;
- Norman Finkelstein is Hamas;
- Oxford University Press is Hamas;
- South Africa is Hamas;
- Spain is Hamas;
- the State Department is Hamas;
- Susan Sarandon is Hamas;
- the United Nations is Hamas;
- the UN humanitarian chief is Hamas;
- the UNRWA is Hamas;
- the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine is Hamas; and
- the World Health Organisation is Hamas
Has the media already forgotten former U.S. President George W Bush’s declaration: “You are either with us or against us”?
“The coalition of the willing” participated in the slaughter of Iraqi and Afghani civilians. Operation Shock and Awe was a show broadcast on television that was suffered by the ordinary people of Iraq. Over 200,000 ordinary everyday Iraqis are believed to have died in order to “free” Iraqis from one accused tyrant who did not, in fact, have weapons of mass destruction. Not surprising that the U.S. under President Joe Biden has supported Israel in its own version of shock and awe.
The accusations and attributions are also eerily like the McCarthy era (early 1950s) with its resounding question: ‘Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?’ Conspiracy theories were rife and Senator McCarthy rose to prominence as he hunted down and subjected many to inquiries on scant evidence. He asserted that communist spies had infiltrated the State Department and other agencies.
The film industry, writers and actors were easily charged with being communist sympathisers. The far Right does not seem to understand nuance or irony. Even Charlie Chaplin was forced to flee the USA in 1952 under a communist cloud.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has excelled in using the Hamas slur by calling Labor, the Teals and the Greens ‘Hamas’s useful idiots’.
This is a term used in the Cold War to impute that a person was being fooled by communist ideology to support the enemy, viz communism.
MP Zali Stegall accused Dutton of racism in his call for a ban on all Gazan refugees being given refuge in Australia. Dutton is no stranger to racist slurs.
Dutton claimed in 2018 that Melburnians were afraid to go out at night to restaurants because of the threat of African gangs. This was reported largely uncritically by mainstream media.
With each new atrocity, passive grammar comes to the fore. Notably, concerning Israeli actions. Palestinians have died, but Israelis have been killed.
Most recently, thousands of Lebanese people, including children, have been injured or killed via electronic devices. This is largely portrayed as an attack on Hezbollah (a group designated as terrorists) despite explosions occurring in public places. The victims are not portrayed as innocent ordinary people. Discussions are underway as to whether these are war crimes.
Meanwhile, our own government remains impotent and abstains from a UN vote that demands Israel end its “unlawful occupation”.
How long does it take to call out war crimes?
We all know that an unrestrained rampage will just escalate. Australia knows this, having advised Australians to leave Lebanon.
Meanwhile:
- Israeli soldiers have forcibly closed AlJazeera in the West Bank;
- Israel has warned the Lebanese people on the southern border to evacuate for their safety and the safety of their families;
- Israel is claiming that this area will be a target due to Hezbollah being present or storing weapons in some houses; and
- Israel is now bombing towns and villages on the border.
Ask the Gazans how that evacuation worked for them.
We are now witnessing ethnic cleansing and war crimes on a repeat cycle. The “civilised West” urges restraint and the U.S. sends obscene amounts of weapons.
After the Second World War, many claimed they had not known about the Nazi Holocaust. In his book, The Escape Artist, journalist Jonathan Freedland reported on the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world. World leaders were told. They didn’t want to know.
Will Australia Britain and the U.S. try to claim the same willful ignorance?
Lyn Bender is a professional psychologist. You can follow Lyn on Twitter @Lynestel.
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