Journalists should not dance around the gravity of atrocities in their articles
Kavya Racheeti | Opinion Editor
“Ayensur Eygi was a Turkish-American woman who was killed by Israeli forces while protesting for Palestinian farmers in the West Bank Sept. 6.” If you have seen any coverage about Palestine in western media, chances are it looks like this. This sentence is not difficult to write down in the active voice, that being, “Israeli forces shoot American activist.” This story, and its incredibly harrowing implications, should not be difficult to convey. Anyone who writes anything about Eygi’s death should classify it exactly as it is: a needless death that Israel’s military caused. However, when I looked to other newspapers for coverage, I saw a bizarre trend in the headlines. “American activist fatally shot in head in West Bank,” “US-Turkish activist dies after being shot in head by Israeli forces,” and “Ayensur Eygi, American killed In West Bank remembered by loved ones.”
These headlines skate around an essential question: why did Israel forces shoot her? There is also a sentiment of refusing to properly blame the Israeli army for the crime itself, stemming from seemingly bizarre implementation of quotation marks or the adage of “sources/eyewitnesses say.” Israeli forces are not “reportedly” or “allegedly” killing Palestinians en masse: they just are. And it is the responsibility of the media to convey as much, since it is the truth. Any deviation from this is a disservice to not just the Palestinian people but to the general public.
Whenever a report comes out regarding another devastating bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp, or really, any killing resulting from Israeli forces, western news headlines are quick to say that these deaths are “alleged” or “reported.” Obviously, the headline is only one facet of an article, but it is the most important. Headlines do not only grab the attention of the reader, but also help to give context to the topic being discussed, and thus, having an engaging headline is an essential part of having an engaging article. These headlines, riddled with usage of the passive voice and unsettling rhetorical presentation, remove responsibility from Israel and downplay atrocities in Palestine — which contributes to how mainstream news minimizes Palestinian people’s suffering. Western media’s general apathy to Palestinians causes Palestinian journalists of all ages to not just deal with the horror of ruthless mass murder, but also struggle to ensure that the suffering they undergo is documented as accurately as possible — a job that should be shared by journalists worldwide, as one of the fundamental principles of journalism is to spread the truth.
Consider, conversely, coverage about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Various western news articles about horrific mass killings happening in Ukraine almost always have headlines written in the active voice and the perpetrator, Russia, is present when appropriate, without overly justifying Russia’s actions as militarily necessary at the expense of sympathy for the victims. Coverage on Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine is written with sympathy for Ukrainian suffering, and should be written as such. However, this humanitarian facet that shines in the coverage on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should also extend to Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israel.
Not only does this inhumane coverage do a disservice to the Palestinian people, it is also a failure to the global public. Everything we know, and thus, everything we will continue to know, comes from the inherently brave act of writing it down. We should be able to place our faith in all western journalists, as journalism exists to tell silenced people’s stories and to hold larger forces, i.e. global states and politicians, accountable. When we look back at these accounts of the Palestinian genocide, we deserve to have accurate, sensitively-presented information from sources other than the journalists in Gaza, or any other war-torn territory. Otherwise, the lack thereof sets a harrowing precedent for the future of journalism, the mortifying notion that only some people deserve the truth to be told about their suffering.
Public and self-criticism, like a headline, are an important facet of journalism — so much so that the majority of publications publish entire pages of corrections in pursuit of truth and self-improvement. Making your voice heard collectively through emailing any publication that downplays needless suffering is a step toward ensuring that, now and in the future, Israeli violence and Palestinian resistance are immortalized.
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