UN rapporteur calls out Western media’s ‘misleading coverage’ of Al-Aqsa raid
The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday called out Western media for their “misleading” coverage of Israeli military raids, saying such an approach contributes to the regime's unchecked occupation.
In a tweet, Francesca Albanese condemned “renewed violence against Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa mosque.”
She was referring to the headline of a BBC news article that used the word “clashes” to refer to the brutal assault unleashed by Israeli forces against unarmed Palestinian worshippers at al-Aqsa mosque early on Wednesday.
Renewed violence against Palestinian worshippers at #AlAqsaMosque on yet another Ramadan turned into suffering,must be condemned,investigated & accounted for.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 5, 2023
Misleading media coverage 👇contributes to enabling Israel's unchecked occupation & must also be condemned/accounted for https://t.co/JI6YzNgCju
Albanese, who has frequently criticized Israel's occupation of Palestine and the regime’s relentless crimes against innocent Palestinians, has been barred by the regime from entering the occupied territories since her appointment as the UN special rapporteur in April 2022.
In January, 116 human rights and civil society organizations, academic institutions, and groups condemned the Israeli regime’s “targeted smear campaign” against Albanese.
Albanese’s tweet ignited a heated debate among netizens on Western media’s treatment of the Palestine conflict, with some users slamming the Western media’s scandalously pro-Israel tilt.
@BBCNews these are not ‘clashes’ they are deliberate attempts to provoke Palestinian responses. Intrusion to Holy sites, disrupting peaceful worship is just another means of ethnic cleansing! Do your own investigation don’t repeat ‘Hasbara’!
— Greville Mills (@grevillemills) April 5, 2023
As expected from the BBC, no wonder less and less people tune and instead have going to other broadcasters for unblinkered news.
— MIchael Marlowe (@mikemarlowe6) April 5, 2023
Oh yes, it's those pesky 'clashes' again. When will @BBCNews start holding Israel to account?
— Arvind Howarth (@arvindicate) April 5, 2023
Western media accused of bias
Western media have long been accused of misreporting and downplaying Israel’s military occupation of Palestine and whitewashing the regime’s daily atrocities against Palestinians.
Human rights activists say Western media generally aids and abets the regime’s propaganda that its military violence is simply a response to Palestinians' actions, referring to the resistance.
They argue Western media mostly give equal weight to both sides, ignoring the fact that one side is an occupier and the other is occupied.
They say Western media have time and again sought to portray Palestinians as aggressors, notably misreporting Israel’s aggressions in Gaza as “clashes” or “flare-ups" of violence.”
After Israel killed veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin last year, Western media received flak for putting a spin on her cold-blood murder by Israeli troops.
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