In the battle for public opinion, Israel’s enemies often claim that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on racial discrimination, apartheid laws and segregation. The goal is convince the public that Israel is like apartheid South Africa and therefore lacking in legitimacy.
In the latest effort to draw false analogies based on race, a Palestinian media stunt has attempted to twist the spirit of Martin Luther King and the American civil rights movement of the 1960s as six Palestinians boarded an Israeli bus in the West Bank in order to demonstrate Israeli “segregation” of Palestinians.
Judging by the amount of coverage, the international media was only too happy to give this publicity stunt exactly what it craved.
As the BBC acknowledged:
The West Bank Freedom Riders punched above their weight, drawing a lot of publicity for what was a relatively small event, reports the BBC’s Jon Donnison in the West Bank.
The comparison to the Freedom Riders of 1960s America seemed to capture the imagination as dozens of journalists gathered to see the small group board the bus, our correspondent says.
McClatchy mentions nearly 100 journalists waiting at a bus stop with the six Palestinians in the settlement of Kochav Yakov. Others reports refer to a veritable media scrum as the Palestinians boarded the bus.
So who bothered to include some vital context?
- “Israel has no law barring Palestinians from its public transport in the West Bank” – Reuters
- “no specific rule prevents Palestinians from riding the “Israeli” buses” – Associated Press, Daily Telegraph
- “Palestinians are not explicitly barred from riding the Israeli buses” – Christian Science Monitor
- “It is not illegal for Palestinians to travel on Israeli buses in the West Bank” – The Guardian
And who preferred not to challenge the false narrative?
The LA Times, BBC, Washington Post, AFP, The Independent all pointedly failed to make it clear that there is no law banning Palestinians from riding on Israeli buses, omitting this vital context.
Sheera Frenkel, however, went one step further writing for both McClatchy and The Times of London (subscription-only):
- “Six Palestinian activists were arrested Tuesday when they attempted to enter Jerusalem on buses designated for Israelis alone.”
- “Israel operates two bus lines in the West Bank that run through the circuitous mountains and into Jerusalem. Only Israelis, however, are allowed to use the bus system.”
- “Many of the Jewish passengers said they were surprised to learn that Palestinians were not allowed on the Israeli bus system.”
- “For some Jewish passengers it was a surprise to learn that Palestinians were not allowed on the Israeli bus system.”
Perhaps the passengers expressed surprise because Frenkel had told them something that is not actually true.
No comments:
Post a Comment