Mainstream media headlines are clever creatures. Short, punchy, often conveniently leaving out critical context—perfect for stirring emotions and fuelling clicks, yet woefully inadequate for genuinely understanding complex issues. Take the common refrain: “The IDF killed a Palestinian man”. Concise, alarming, and dangerously incomplete.
The devil, as ever, is in the details. For example, a man named Mohammad Jabbar from Jenin in the West Bank—referred to by Israelis as Judea and Samaria—was indeed killed by the Israeli Defence Force. But let's unpack what this headline conveniently skips. Jabbar wasn't innocently minding his business or strolling to his local hummus joint; instead, he was on his way to Tel Aviv, loaded with ammunition and a suicide vest containing 20 kilograms of explosives. His mission? Tragically simple—to kill as many civilians as possible.
That he was stopped before achieving this aim should be universally recognised as preventing a massacre. Yet, paradoxically, Jabbar was hailed as a martyr in certain Palestinian communities, his death prompting mourning rituals, school closures, and celebrations of resistance. This isn't merely troubling—it's indicative of a deeply entrenched cultural narrative where terrorism is not only condoned but glorified.
And Jabbar is hardly unique. Take the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre, for example. Two Palestinian cousins from East Jerusalem, Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, stormed a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood during morning prayers. Armed with axes, knives, and a gun, they butchered four worshippers and a police officer responding to the scene.
And yet, CNN’s live ticker at the time calmly scrolled: "Police Shot, Killed Two Palestinians"—as though the police had decided to go rogue on a leisurely Tuesday morning. The attack itself? Glossed over. No mention of bloodied prayer shawls or the murder weapons of choice.
Other outlets weren’t much better—some went with delicately vague lines like "Five dead in Jerusalem violence," as if the morning prayers had simply gotten a bit too lively. Because, you know, clearly the real headline is the unfortunate fate of the attackers—not the victims lying in pools of their own blood. Why trouble audiences with jarring realities when euphemism is so much more palatable?
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex and emotionally charged, and media coverage often struggles to capture its nuances. In December 2023, the BBC’s headline ‘Video shows Gaza detainees allegedly “surrendering guns”’ paired a photo of a man in his underwear with doubts about the scene’s authenticity, hinting at IDF staging. Yet it barely noted that stripping detainees is a global military norm to thwart hidden bombs—a tactic born from tragedies like Tel Aviv’s suicide attacks. Like ‘IDF killed a Palestinian’ for a bomber, or ‘Jerusalem violence’ for a synagogue massacre, the BBC’s framing obscures Israel’s fight against terror, turning security into spectacle. Recent examples include headlines like "Israeli Airstrike Kills Five in Gaza," which omitted that the strike targeted a Hamas command centre embedded within civilian areas. Similarly, reports titled "Israel Blocks Aid to Gaza" often fail to mention Israel's security concerns and Hamas's history of diverting aid for military use. Headlines such as "Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teen in West Bank Raid" frequently neglect the context that the teen was actively engaging in violent acts, throwing Molotov cocktails at soldiers during anti-terrorism operations. Another illustrative example is "Israel’s Strike on Beirut Kills Dozens," which ignored that the strike was a precise operation against Hezbollah command posts, misleadingly presented as indiscriminate bombing.
Such glorification and whitewashing of terrorism is no aberration; it's woven through societal institutions—from mosques and unions to schools. A culture that lionises individuals who seek indiscriminate slaughter does nothing to further peace or justice. Instead, it prolongs cycles of animosity and violence, harming both Palestinians and Israelis.
Then we have the media—ever eager to simplify, often bending reality through selective omission. Headlines frequently sidestep context, failing to mention the explosive-laden intentions of individuals like Jabbar or the brutal reality of attacks like the synagogue massacre. Curiously absent, too, is reference to Tel Aviv's grim history of suicide bombings, a context that transforms simplistic accusations into a nuanced, painful reality.
As someone who has delved deeply into the mechanisms of hatred in the research of my upcoming film "Mother of Hate," I've seen firsthand how narratives can inflame tensions or foster dialogue. Stories reduced to oversimplified headlines or soundbites perpetuate ignorance, feeding a cycle of misunderstanding and resentment.
This isn't a carte blanche defence of all IDF actions, nor is it an indictment of all Palestinians. It is, however, an urgent call for intellectual honesty. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complicated, tragic, and steeped in historical grievances. Refusing to acknowledge terrorism's role—and the troubling veneration of terrorists—only obscures the path to peace.
The world deserves more than fragments of truth. It deserves clarity, nuance, and an unflinching commitment to reality, however uncomfortable that may be. Only when we stop sanitising narratives can we hope to bridge divides and honour the dignity and humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians.