Aibu to be incensed at the lack of coverage of the protests against Israel by the mainstream media?

[runes]

Over 100,000 people descend on London to protest against Israel slaughtering the people of Gaza. Where are the reports on the bbc, sky etc?? I'm appalled, not only at the horrendous mass murder of the Palestinian people, but the obviously corrupt and biased pro Israeli media

[ScottishInSwitzerland]

Hmm, I don't think you need to be anti Israel to think some of their actions are wrong.

Certainly I'm anti what they are currently doing. I don't know what the solution is. It's a majorly messed up situation which was I think handled appallingly from the beginning. But I don't think blowing the shit out of captive innocents is the right thing. Nor for that matter do I think firing rockets into Israel is a good thing.

[MyFairyKing]

No, you're right. I don't necessarily agree with all of Israel's actions. I have empathy for the innocent civilians on both sides.

[prh47bridge]

That thing is a member of the Israeli government

No she isn't. She is a member of parliament, not a member of the government.

[Scousadelic]

The BBC failed to report a huge protest against the government's austerity measures a month or two ago. Their bias is becoming ever more evident and more and more people are realising they can't be trusted

[ScottishInSwitzerland]

Anyway. Back to the perceived media bias re covering the protests...

Apparently there's a Palestinian arch bishop speaking in Edinburgh tomorrow. My mums going - no idea of the specifics but if any of you Scottish lot are interested pm me and I'll get details.

[Backinthering]

He spoke at the Glasgow rally today too.

[partialderivative]

The Islamic State group has threatened Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul with death if they do not convert to Islam or pay a tax, Al Jazeera has learned.

Hope you will be trying to raise the media attention to this as well.

www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/iraq-christians-told-convert-face-death-2014718111040982432.html

(I do not support either side in the current hostilities)

[Backinthering]

Well yes, Iraq is an utter fuck-up now, as predicted before the invasion. Wonder how Blair sleeps at night.

[Revenant]

It is not only the lack of coverage but the tone of the coverage when there is some - and specifically the language used- that annoys me. For example, hamas are always "militants", palestinian victims are rarely accorded names, there are Israeli "settlements" rather than colonies. And there is never mention of the occupation that led to the current situation.

[Scousadelic]

I have just looked and the BBC have got an article online now here

[Revenant]

Thanks Scousadelic. Even in this coverage you'll note
"Israel launched ground operations in Gaza following 10 days of air strikes, which failed to stop Hamas firing rockets across the border."

"It says the ground operation is necessary to target a Hamas tunnel network, which the Israel military could not do only from the air."

So the action by Israel is presented as defensive rather than offensive, and there is no reason given for the existence of the tunnel network, namely that Gaza is (illegally) under siege by land, sea and air.

[Revenant]

And sadly I don't think the reason for the poor coverage is even down to bias and opinion, it is just lazy journalism - if you can even call such poor reporting journalism...

[JohnFarleysRuskin]

I hope we see mass protests against Russian sponsored terrorism and mass protests against the murder of 20000(?) Syrians soon.

[HeeHiles]

I attended a march in support of Venezuela - the people are starving and in daily fear of their lives, lawlessness and people dying in there thousands - it's horrific what is going on there but very little gets reported in the media - I don't know why? but they need help badly over there it's all terribly sad

Why can't they all just stop?

[JohnFarleysRuskin]

Goodness, I don't know anything about whats going on in Venezuela. :(

[JohnFarleysRuskin]

Sorry, that's 150000 dead in Syria.

I don't know if protests haven't been covered by the media or if there haven't been any mass protests.

[HeeHiles]

Here is quite an informative article

Venezuela

[Yruapita]

Taken from Independent:

On Tuesday, protesters presented an open letter from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and other groups to the Director General outside Broadcasting House.

It claimed news coverage was “devoid of context or background” about the previous Israeli occupation of Gaza.

“We would like to remind you that Gaza has no army, air force, or navy, while Israel possess one of the strongest militaries in the world,” it continued.

“When you portray the occupier as the victim, and the occupied as the aggressor, we would like to remind you that resistance to occupation is a right under international law.”

I am glad that people are protesting against The bombing and are angry at the lack of coverage, despite our leaders siding with the oppressor. If it wasnt for social media, many of us would be none the wiser (especially me)

[superstaary]

brokenhearted one of the reasons that people are "pissing their pants" about what the west are doing is due to the lack of condemnation of these acts of terrorism by Israel. The USA in particular continues to supply billions in aid to Israel and as a permenant member of the UN Security Council the US has continually vetoed any UN resolutions against Israel for its illegal occupation of Gaza. The US also supplies the vast majority of weaponry that is being used to kill Palestinian women and children. That is the reason that so many people are "pissing their pants". Western governments have been quick enough to intervene in the middle east when it suited their own agendas with catastrophic results, but for over 50 years they have stood and watched while the Palestinian people had suffered and been killed.


Gaza is surrounded on all sides, a vast open air prison. No foreigners can enter without Israeli permission and all supplies go through Israeli checkpoints. There is continual shortage of food and medical supplies in Gaza and the many of the children are growing up malnourished.

There is constant reference to Hamas being a terrorist organisation without any consideration of the fact that were it not for Israeli actions ever since land was stolen from Palestinians, Hamas would not exist. Prior to 1948 all Arabs -jews, christians and muslims lived peacfully in Palestine.

Israel doesnt want peace if it did it would have stopped stealing Palestinian land a long time ago. Instead it continues to build illegal settlements knowing that the west will not take any action. The ultimate aim of Israel is to remove all Arabs and gain their Jewish state and whats frightining is that for over 50 years this ethnic cleansing has just been allowed to happen. The UNs own figures show that over the last 14 years over 1500 children have been killed by the IDF.

Please note that when I refer to Israel above I refer to its Zionist government. I am well aware that not all Jew are zionists and I dont tar them all with the same brush. I applaud all the Jewish people who have condemned these actions they at least have had the courage unlike most western governments.

[MexicanSpringtime]

Very well said superstaary

[ChillieJeanie]

runes, given that you're incensed about perceived bias in news reporting, you would be better off not continually pushing an article from an Iranian news agency. What with Iran being an oppressive regime not noted for freedom of the press, whose leaders have called for Israel to be wiped off the map and who routinely equip and train the likes of Hezbollah.

[DogCalledRudis]

Well, it was the West who created the situation in Palestine.