07 Ocak 2009 Çarşamba
War on Information: Palestinian and Israeli side of the story
It has been 12 days, 12 short days for the ones who could sleep, and 12 long days, for the ones who could not sleep because of the bombings of all day and nights and moaning of the families praying for their death bodies lying on the streets in Middle East. Unfortunately, world is in one more time so much in need of information about the war zone and that is why these 12 days were also hectic for the war journalist. Quite recently, when I was skimming some of the newspapers, I have realized that the war is not just in the shabby streets of Gaza, but also on the coverage of newspapers. The authorities and leaders in the region do not want any journalists, being present in the region and covering well balanced stories.
War of information is an old trick
It is obvious that the both sides of the conflict some how needs to convince the public about the legitimacy of their final actions in the region. It is certainly not a new trick to use the mass media for wining the war with the help of mass mediums. In WWII Hitler (with the help of Gobbles) and Mussolini were to be the best in that, and then in cold war times US took the leadership to convince many to believe in “American dream”, with the 1st Gulf War, for the first time live war on news channels. From our houses, we could watch the planes dropping bombs in Iraq over and over. 2nd Gulf War also started as a information war, on one hand US was making claims about the mass destruction weapons hidden in Iraq and Saddam’s hidden agendas in the region and on the other hand there was Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf making “patriotic speeches” against US and the west. In the beginning, US was the first one to handle mass communication professionally, but after a while with the news and photos coming Abu Ghraib, US started to loose in the communication battle since these photos were telling more than the “claims of brining democracy” to the poor peoples of Iraq. Basically world reacted so much and some kind of awareness about war appeared and inside stories of the war started to be covered by world wide on TV channels and newspapers. There appeared a careful audience who do not approve any terrorist activity, and do not want to see war crimes taking place in other parts of the world with the help of internet, blog journalism, and even youtube. (The point where Hypodermic Needle and Magic Bullet Theories start shattering)
Control over the information
On 6th of Jan, on New York Times, Ethan Bronner (Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza) dealt with the information side of the war and how Israel State is trying to control journalist with the some reasons in order to keep the information in their hand and only release with their approval. Basically, Israel want “their stories to be covered about the region” in the world.
In his news, he states; “Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza.” He adds; “Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.”
It is not surprising to see that Israel seems to be much more in control and ruling and regulating how the world will see the war, because “wining a war in the eye of people” sometimes even more matters than “wining a war in a battle”. In his interesting news Bronner also states; “Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel’s history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.”
But there is also no surprise that Hamas wants to control the information in the region and it is not easy for the foreign journalists to work freely there and as it is stated in the news “…unable to send foreign reporters into Gaza, the international news media have relied on Palestinian journalists based there for coverage.”
It is clear that Israel is much more organized to keep the message controlled, and they are working very carefully to create their “own right public message” Avic Shir-On, Deputy director general for the Foreign Ministry states “We are trying to coordinate everything that has to do with the image and content of what we are doing and to make sure that whoever goes on the air, whether a minister or professor or ex-ambassador, knows what he is saying,”
Al-Jazeera and CNN
CNN has been always one of the major sources of the world, together with BBC and there is no doubt that their peak times were 1st Gulf War, when the world was watching the war on TV and trying to understand the reasons of war. There is in recent years another challenge by the east the visual and online journalism by Al-Jazeera and it seems that as a news source it is gaining more and more popularity to give some other stories which are not covered in elsewhere.
But it is important to see that CNN journalists are not happy with the fact that Israel is not letting journalists to be in Gaza. Campbell Brown anchors CNN's "Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull", states “We have been trying to report as accurately as possible on the fighting in Gaza. But that is without question a challenge when we do not have reporters on the ground who can bring you first-hand information about what is taking place” and adds “the reason we have no reporters on the ground in Gaza is because Israel will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza” On Tuesday night's broadcast.
In the article, named “In USA, Gaza is a different war” by Habib Battah, there is an attempt to show how the conflict differently represented in the western news sources according to them. For example, Battah emphasizes the claim that the news are not balanced on Washington Post by stating that “when the front page photographs of the two women were published on December 30, over 350 Palestinians had reportedly been killed compared to just four Israelis. What if 350 Israelis had been killed and only four Palestinians - would the newspaper have run the stories side by side as if equal in news value?”
It is certainly a hard case to decide how much the coverage will take and considering the death and wounded people in one side and Israel’s standance in the other side. But it should definitely a journalistic responsibility to present both of the claims and how the people are feeling in the both sides of the history.
I do believe that there are not just Palestinians who are already fed up with living under the bombs with in poverty but also Israelis, desiring so much a peaceful life in the region. Civil people should be more in focus rather than the politicians to tell their own stories. Journalists should be really careful to not to be the voices of politicians whose voices are already heard quite loud and frequent, but being the “voice of quiet people”, “voice of unheard people”, from streets of Israel, and from the streets of Gaza and elsewhere in the world.
Gokhan KURTARAN
04 Ocak 2009 Pazar
Gaza is under attack; 10.000 Israeli troops are going deep in Gaza
Just before the Christmas time, rocket shooting started from the Palestinian side to Israel, known as fired by Hamas and Israel has started a heavy bombardment against Gaza Strip of Palestine and caused more than 500 to die and around 900 civilians are wounded in the region. The situation is escalating and a serious attempt from the world power is waited to come calm down the situation and end the war with a ceasefire.
Hamas is hold responsible by the Israel authorities since they kept shooting rockets to the Israel side and it clear that Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by Israel Government. But more importantly, it is crucial to understand that Hamas is generally supported by the public in Palestine. Mark Tran from Guardian, uses some of the comments taken from the blogs around the world and Tom Sagev writing in Ha’retz, thinks Israel is repeating the mistakes of past and believes that they can get rid of Hamas militarily. In the same news, published in Guardian, Sagev adds, "But Hamas is not a terrorist organisation holding Gaza residents hostage: It is a religious nationalist movement, and a majority of Gaza residents believe in its path.”
It is not a surprise that Hamas is strongly supported with in Palestine and also in other countries of Middle East undercover, because "Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another” and it seems that Israel do not want to work on changing the minds of Palestinians and politically moving them to any other milder alternative which might even take some part in cooperation with Israel and neighbouring countries. The solution seems to be easy and sharp; kill them all! Unfortunately, just as it had happened before, this reckless decision of Israel is far from being rational and it seems that extreme groups of Middle East will gain more and more public support in the long run.
Humanitarian side of the story seems to be one of the most disastrous one ever took place in Middle East in such a short time, Red Cross and ambulances are not allowed to carry any help and open air markets, universities, mosques, hospitals are even under bombardment according to recent news. More than the pain and the sorrow in the region, it seems that the tension is bound to rise immensely, if there would no emergent measure taken by US, EU and UN. There is no doubt that the Bush is still in his office and even in his last few days refuses to take a serious action to end the war. Except France, EU is also tented to emphasize the need to take an action after the rocket shootings of Israel. UN Security Council is one more time, could not function and come up with a serious resolution which would guide the sides of the conflict.
Jackson Diehl from Washington Post also points out the same important side of the story by looking at Israeli PM Olmert last actions; “he will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini wars in les then three years in power” and he also adds “The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza and retain the capacity to strike Israel."
Politicians and the decision makers are, in general, expected to be rational and making sensible decisions, but it is obvious that rather than calming down the already boiling pot of Middle East, adding a bit “more gasoline on the fire” might also discomfort Israel as well as Palestine in the long run. Extreme religious groups in both sides can well be see the situation as a “new crusade” or a kind of “jihad”, but more than these word, rational politicians should start thinking peace in the region and showing the needed efforts urgently, since the each casualty creates more hate and sorrow which are the main fuels of the any extreme groups taking violent actions in the region.
Gokhan KURTARAN
Reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attacks-motives
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