Jérôme Bourdon, media historian and sociologist, has lived in Israel since 1997. He analyzes The world the way Israeli television and newspapers cover the ongoing offensive in Gaza, and the impact of their work on society.
After six months of conflict, what do Israelis see about the war in Gaza in the media?
The small minority of people in Israel who think there needs to be a ceasefire or that the army is committing deliberate atrocities in Gaza read the daily Haaretz or independent news sites like Hamakom Hachi Ham Begehenom [« Le lieu le plus chaud de l’enfer »] Or +972 Magazine [en anglais], obtain information in the international press or through the sites of Israeli associations for the defense of human rights. Those who want to know what is happening in Gaza can also rely on the testimonies of humanitarians from all sides who all say they have never seen such a disaster. But these personalities are not interviewed in the media mainstream. Israeli journalists, like the rest of the world press, are banned from accessing Gaza [en dehors de reportages de quelques heures, « embedded », c’est-à-dire sous le contrôle de l’armée].
The vast majority of the Israeli Jewish population does not see or does not want to see the suffering of Gazans. On the far right, basically, we welcome it, and certain groups are trying to prevent humanitarian aid trucks from entering the Gaza Strip. Even people who call themselves left-wing, peace-loving people admit that they feel little or no empathy. The population remains stuck on what happened on October 7, 2023, where a milestone in horror was reached. The echo of the Shoah is powerful. Israelis remain convinced that the country has gone to war because “we had no choice”. They know that this suffering exists, but, deep down, Palestinian responsibility is always highlighted. It’s an old story, well expressed in a famous quote from Golda Meir [première ministre de 1969 à 1974] : “We cannot forgive the Palestinians for forcing us to kill their children”very popular today.
Israeli responsibility is not questioned, except by a very small minority of journalists, activists and intellectuals. The media therefore show the public what it wants to see, and this public does not understand that this pain, so present for them, already belongs to the past for the foreign media, and that, moreover, it is not commensurable with the disaster hitting the Palestinians due to the Israeli military offensive. Israeli media in English participate in the efforts of the hasbarathe “propaganda-explanation”, with regard to foreigners, but this only convinces the already convinced.
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