Israel-Palestinian Conflict in the Media: Al Jazeera

A well-respected international perspective comes from Al Jazeera Media Network, a network owned by the government of Qatar. More commonly referred to as simply Al Jazeera, this news source mostly focuses on Middle Eastern perspectives but has been praised for its contribution of free information to an underserved population and its ability to openly discuss controversial topics. Al Jazeera considers itself a globally oriented media service that follows an honorable code of ethics that places great emphasis on accurate and balanced news. The network has also received an incredible amount of prestigious awards ranging from Peabody Awards to an Emmy for their investigative coverage. Given their background, one could expect fairly unbiased news with a slight tendency to focus on liberal issues not commonly covered by the conservative media of that region.

Like BBC, Al Jazeera has received criticism regarding their reporting practices. These critiques mostly come from conservative, pro-Israel networks such as Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, and The National Review, a conservative political news source. Back in 2008, Israel threatened to boycott Al Jazeera due to their coverage of the release of prisoner Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese member of the Palestinian Liberation Front, or PLF (Gross, 2008). Convicted of killing three people during a PLF raid, Kuntar returned home to be celebrated as a hero on camera both by the Lebanese people and an official from Al Jazeera’s Beirut office. Al Jazeera recognized that the behavior in which that official acted was not in line with the purported code of ethics and declared that the station was taking steps to make sure incidents like that would not happen again.

Upon inspection of how Al Jazeera covered the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on its website and online media, one can plainly see a pro-Palestinian slant simply through reading the titles of the articles after a search on their website. Some articles that seem particularly sympathetic to Palestine address police brutality and casualty reports using highly emotive language (Lewis, 2014). One of the most jarring articles titled “Israeli forces kill suspects in teen death” is among the first headlines when you search the website (Al Jazeera Wire Services, 2014). However, the content of the article itself includes a summary from an Israeli Lieutenant Colonel detailing why the suspects were targets and why the situation condoned such aggressive action. The language used places emphasis on rightful action rather than augmenting a potential murder. In order to keep with their motto of presenting both sides of a story, Al Jazeera has given extensive airtime to both Israeli military spokesmen, such as in the article mentioned previously, and members of the Palestinian resistance. Instead of inciting greater animosity between Palestinians and Israelis, Al Jazeera reports factually sound information that presents a professional account of events.

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.

Israel-Palestinian Conflict in the Media

Al Jazeera

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