Amnesty International has said Israel’s actions and policies against Palestinians amount to apartheid. The global human rights group’s verdict has been met with anger from the Israeli government. But moreover, it’s been met with a whitewash from the corporate media.
‘Clearly apartheid’
You can read Amnesty’s full report here. Its secretary general Agnès Callamard said in a statement:
Our report reveals the true extent of Israel’s apartheid regime. Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights. We found that Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act
The coverage in the corporate media has been dire across the board.
The BBC and the Guardian
Media Lens looked at how two outlets covered the report. First up, it said the Guardian did “its best to downplay” the report:
As expected, @guardian does its best to downplay the new @amnesty report declaring #Israel an #apartheid state.
* Barely introduces report, then promotes #Israeli view
* Accusation of 'antisemitism' upfront
* Briefest article possible that hardly scratches the surface pic.twitter.com/UJf1RY9eb8
— Media Lens (@medialens) February 1, 2022
Media Lens also called out the BBC. It failed to mention Amnesty’s report on the 10pm news:
Remarkable, but predictable.
No space on last night’s @BBCNews at Ten to even *mention* @amnesty’s report declaring #Israel an #apartheid state.
But there *was* time to squeeze in a major item on #Wordle.
BBC News. #Propaganda by omission. pic.twitter.com/ea1hlgPOIF— Media Lens (@medialens) February 2, 2022
The BBC News article on the report also included the Israeli government accusing Amnesty of antisemitism.
Dire coverage
Other parts of the corporate media’s reporting was equally dire. The Financial Times headline said:
The Times also took Israel’s response as the lead. Sky News‘s framing of the report was somewhat better. It also included Israel’s response to Amnesty, but it ended its article noting that the International Criminal Court was investigating possible Israeli war crimes.
What also stood out was a general lack of coverage in the rest of the corporate media. UK outlets like the Mirror and the Daily Mail failed to report on it.
Israel’s apartheid: destroying lives
Callamard summed up by saying:
The international response to apartheid must no longer be limited to bland condemnations and equivocating. Unless we tackle the root causes, Palestinians and Israelis will remain locked in the cycle of violence which has destroyed so many lives.
Israel’s immediate backlash shows that it wants to do everything it can to stop this happening. The media’s response was dire. So, it’s up to activists and campaigners to amplify Amnesty’s message: that the Israeli government is indeed operating apartheid policies.
Featured image via BBC iPlayer – screengrab and Amnesty International Nepal – Wikimedia, reduced to 70×29 under licence CC SA 4.0
