JOURNALISTS are not speaking out about fellow reporters being killed by Israel because of a widespread belief Palestinian life “does not matter much as other life”, an expert has claimed.
Overnight, Israeli forces bombed a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis which killed a Palestinian reporter and wounded several others.
It comes after Hossam Shabat, of Al Jazeera Mubasher, and Mohammed Mansour, from Palestine Today, were killed by Israeli airstrikes within hours of each other on March 24.
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has said Israel’s war on Gaza is now the deadliest ever for media workers, according to its Costs of War project.
The United States-based think tank’s report released last week stated that Israeli forces have killed 232 journalists and media workers since the war in the enclave began following the October 7 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
The figures demonstrate that more journalists have been killed in the conflict than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia and the US war in Afghanistan combined, the report said.
Yet Dr Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, has picked up on a lack of journalists expressing solidarity and empathy.
Speaking about why he thinks this is, McNeil-Willson said there is a general acceptance across a variety of professions that Palestinians are “less worthy”, resulting in a lack of international sympathy.
He told The National: “It’s partly because of war on terror rhetoric by Israel, but also by the US and by the West and Europe of framing Palestinians, framing Arabs, as being linked to terrorism.
“As soon as you do that you negate basic human rights, you negate the right to life that Palestinians have.
“As a result you have the embedded lack of empathy with Palestinians, even just to exist, that is not applied in other settings.”
McNeil-Willson (below) went on: “It’s not just in journalism, it’s everywhere. It’s politicians who don’t see Palestinians as having the same rights, it’s academics, it’s journalists, it’s international organisations.
“Because of the way in which Palestinians are framed as being less worthy and linked to terrorism, international sympathy is just not there.”
McNeil-Willson said the way in which Palestinian life is framed by the media is “inherently dehumanising”.
“Even as victims, Palestinians are not seen as being good enough victims and you have to be a certain kind of victim in order to get sympathy,” he said.
In some cases, he said journalists will be scared to be speak up even if they feel compelled to call out the killing of colleagues by Israel.
He said there is a “dangerous” framing in society that the Israel/Palestine issue is “too complicated” and so people, including reporters, feel afraid to share opinions about it in public.
Asked if journalists would be scared to speak up about the murders of journalists in Palestine, McNeil-Willson said: “Absolutely. I have encountered this in academia, people saying ‘don’t speak out because it will hurt your job prospects’.
“It’s also that issue of framing Palestine as being an issue that’s too complicated, that’s also quite dangerous. This idea that we can’t understand it so we won’t speak about it, or we’ll try and present two sides of a genocide.
"Why do we need to do that? We don’t need to do that and it’s ethically wrong to present two sides.”
