Hamas Stronghold
Updated 2023-11-22
2023-11-06 Here are 3 Ways the U.S. Media Tries to Justify Israel’s Attacks on Civilians in Gaza From the use of terms such as “human shields,” “terror tunnels” and “Hamas strongholds,” media outlets are covering for Israel’s devastating bombing campaign on Palestinians.
A breaking news alert Tuesday by the New York Times about an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which killed hundreds of civilians, revived an old racist trope used to militarize civilian populations by referring to them as living in, or being part of, a militant group’s “stronghold”:
The Times, of course, would never frame an ISIS attack in downtown Paris with a headline like “Deadly Blasts Hit NATO Stronghold in Paris,” but the paper of record has no problem doing this for Arabs in Lebanon for no apparent reason other than orientalist dehumanization. Referring to Paris, London, or New York, after an ISIS attack on civilians, as a “NATO stronghold” would be seen as bizarre, callous, and effectively doing free propaganda for ISIS.
While the context is obviously different, a similar dehumanizing effect is achieved when sites of mass civilian death are callously referred to as “Hamas strongholds.” Justifying airstrikes that kill hundreds of civilians by claiming that the struck site was an enemy “stronghold,” even though Israel cannot be bothered to produce evidence of any military personnel or activity at the site, serves no other purpose than to posthumously conscript the dead men, women, and children buried under rubble as apparent Hamas militants who deserved to die.
If spatial proximity to Hamas fighters means one’s collateral murder is already justified, then Israel already had its built-in justification for targeting Gaza and eliminating or displacing anyone and everyone living in the 25-by-5-mile open-air prison. https://inthesetimes.com/article/israel-palestine-media-hamas-human-shields-war-civilians-gaza
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