Israel-Palestinian Conflict in the Media: 2014

Monday, December 15, 2014

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera's headlines are typically fair, but lead to a story with a slight pro-Palestine slant.

MSNBC

Headline showing how MSNBC often avoids mentioning Palestinians in order to keep blame away from Hamas during the conflict.

BBC

This is a quote from a BBC Middle East reporter. This is obviously pro-Palestine and even goes so far as to misstate the facts. No matter what side you are on, everyone agrees that Hamas stores it rockets near civilians and even in UN schools (as verified by the UN itself).

Sunday, December 14, 2014

BBC

BBC calls the conflict the "Gaza Conflict" and calls it an "Israeli assault"while pointing out the large number of Palestinian deaths compared to the amount of Israeli deaths. However, its explanation of the background of the conflict is fair and accurate to both sides.

CNN

CNN brings in commentators to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza. While no one comes out specifically against Israel, there is some discussion on how the United States' should condemn this specific offensive that harms civilians. There is a distinctly pro-Israel commentator but the other commentators slam him for his comments. It could be classified as anti-Israel, but it could be considered more neutral as well.

CNN

CNN headlines showing that CNN displays its stories in a more even light and gives coverage to both Palestinians and Israelis.

FOX NEWS

Some Fox News headlines that show Fox's focus on Israel and its approval of Israel's fighting in Gaza.

Yedi'ot Aharonot

YNet hosts Tony Blair to ask him what he would do if he was the Prime Minister of Israel. While Blair points out that Palestinians are dying too, he and the YNet host make all pro-Israel remarks. It's exactly what you would expect from an Israeli news source.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

BBC

BBC reports on Israel-Gaza conflict. This news clip, titled "Israel Air-Strikes Kill 25 in Gaza", talks about Israel's attack on Gaza and how many Palestinians were killed. It barely mentions any Palestinian role in the conflict, giving a pro-Palestinian tone to the report.

AL JAZEERA

Al Jazeera hosts an Israeli spokesperson on the air. Al Jazeera consistently gives equal airtime to both Israel and Palestine to express the views of each side.

FOX NEWS

Israel's ambassador to the US is back, but this time he's on FOX agreeing with Megan Kelly and giving the Israeli version of what happened during a recent terrorist attack. This a clearly pro-Israel news clip.

Comedy Points Out Media's Pro-Israel Bias

John Stewart on American media's unwavering defense of Israel.

MSNBC

Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian journalist, calls out MSNBC for being biased and pro-Israel in their news reporting, something you wouldn't expect from a more liberal American news source.

CNN

Israel's ambassador to the US came on CNN and accused the news network of biased reporting against Israel. CNN responds with a fact check of the ambassador's accusations.

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Modern Conflict

Since the Oslo Accords negotiated under the Clinton presidency, the West Bank has been governed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its political party, Fatah, while remaining under Israel security control, and Gaza has been given more autonomy and the right to be governed on its own as well. Currently Gaza has elected Hamas leaders to power, which has caused problems for Israel since they label Hamas a terrorist group. In 2011, Hamas and Fatah, long-time rivals, reconciled, causing Israel to attack Gaza to stop the union. In 2012, Egypt brokered a ceasefire to end the attack, and it held until June 2014. In June, several events occurred, including the formation of the Palestinian Unity Government, increased attacks on Israel, and Hamas firing rockets into Israel, that led to Operation Brother's Keeper. The operation lasted until the end of August, and many Palestinian civilians and a relatively small amount of Israelis, mostly soldiers, died during the operation. This operation is the main focus of the research done for this blog.

History of the Conflict

Israel currently controls land in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel claims that it has a right to the land as its historical homeland promised to its people in the Torah, but the Muslim population living in the Palestinian Territories claim a right as well in accordance with the Quran. The main dispute is over the city of Jerusalem, which both Jews and Muslims claim as a holy site. Another point of tension is the Israeli creation of settlements in the West Bank and its occupation of the West Bank and the border of Gaza, which keeps the Palestinian people from having a sovereign nation. However, it was not always this way. Although Jewish-Muslim conflict is centuries old, the modern conflict begins with British control of the region. When Britain gained control over Palestine in 1917, they had several problems with internal violence between Israelis and Muslims, and so they proposed a United Nations resolution that aimed to stop the conflict by creating two separate states. The resolution passed in the United Nations, but was rejected by the Arab people living in the region, which led to greater violence and bloodshed. In 1948, the Jewish state was established and recognized by the United States. In a show of force against Israel, surrounding Arab states, including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, invaded Israel. Surprisingly, the smaller Israel army won a decisive victory, while keeping control of its own land and gaining control of 60% of the land designated for an Arab state. Since this decisive war in 1948, there have been several conflicts between Israel and neighboring states, but there has also been peace established with some states, such as the peace made between Egypt and Israel through the Camp David Peace Accords.