WHAT
WOULD MUHAMMAD DRIVE?
This assignment examines perceptions, images, and portrayals of Arabs and Islam
in the media with a focus on three controversies. There are five steps to
this assignment:
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Step 1: Read through this Global
Connections web page on misperceptions and stereotypes Westerners hold of
Islam and the Middle East, and vice versa. Once you have done so, look
at the ad below and read the protest of it by Ali Abunimah,
who writes for The Electronic Intifada, an online source that bills
itself as "the leading Palestinian portal for information about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media." |
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Examiner
ad demonizes Palestinian children
by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada,
25 January 2005
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The
Electronic Intifada calls on its readers to protest an advertisement
for the San Francisco Examiner and Washington Examiner
newspapers demonizing Palestinian children. The advertisement appeared in the
24 January 2005 of Media Week, a trade publication. "Many
killings of Palestinian children by Israeli armed forces have been unlawful,
as wilful, killings resulting from acts including
reckless shooting, tank and aircraft shelling and bombardments and house
destruction. As such these killings are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva
Convention and therefore war crimes. Such killings have been part of
widespread, as well as systematic, acts against Palestinian civilians. They
have been carried out by Israeli armed forces pursuant to government policy,
evidenced by the knowledge and approval of government authorities who are
fully aware that for over four years such practices have consistently
resulted in the killing or injury of civilians and who have declined to take
effective steps to prevent such killings of civilians. They, therefore, meet
the definition of crimes against humanity under international law." Amnesty
also highlighted that: "In
their daily lives, Palestinian children throughout the Occupied Territories
have also been exposed to an increasingly high level of violence and
violations of many of their rights including the right to education, to an
adequate standard of living, to the highest attainable standard of health, to
safe and secure housing, and to freedom of movement. For four years many have
been confronted with Israeli army aircraft circling the sky or launching
missiles, and with Israeli army tanks outside their homes and schools. Their
villages and neighbourhoods have been kept under
siege and they have often been confined to their homes for days and weeks at
a time by curfews and closures. They have been forced to go through military
checkpoints to get to school or to take long detours and to climb over
blockades or in and out of ditches in order to visit relatives or to go to
the doctor." Source: Amnesty
International The vast majority of killings are
never investigated and rarely are the killers punished by Israeli
authorities. While these human rights abuses continue unabated, some
pro-Israel groups have aggressively used unrepresentative images similar to
the one in The Examiner advertisement in campaigns designed to
demonize Palestinian children and portray them as violent and Israel-hating
and thereby justify or explain away violence against them.
At
the same time, equally disturbing images of Israeli children are readily
available but have not been used by advocates for Palestinian rights to try
to depict Israeli children in a similar manner. While many news organizations
have taken seriously debunked claims that Palestinian children are routinely
taught anti-Israel "hatred" and "incitement" in their
schools, they have largely ignored evidence that Israeli children,
particularly in West Bank settlements are indoctrinated with anti-Arab
hatred. A lengthy report by Ada Upshiz
in Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper on 21
January, for example, revealed how some Israeli children routinely terrorize
Palestinians and call for the killing of all Palestinians if they do not
leave their homeland.
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