Secretary-General of the of the United Nations, António Guterres tweeted on X(formerly twitter) “This most recent violence does not come in a vacuum. The reality is that it grows out of a long-standing conflict, with a 56-year long occupation and no political end in sight. It’s time to end this vicious circle.”
This is precisely the understanding lacking among the most liberal journalists in India and around the globe. Their arguments do not extend beyond the tragic event of Israeli civilians being killed in an attack carried out by Hamas. They are quite stuck there or, alternatively, they are amplifying the colonial Israeli government’s narratives. They do not dare to ask fundamental questions such as why this occurred because doing so would inevitably provide no space but to question on Israel’s 56-year illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
The world and Indian media rightly condemned Hamas’ killing of Israeli innocent civilians. But they forget conveniently and willfully as always to ask the right questions and deliberate on the root cause of the occurrence of such abhorrent incidents. I am confident that they will never raise questions on the root cause of the problem because if do, like many of us, the loss of innocent civilians killed by Hamas militants will squarely fall on the colonial state of Israel. If the illegal state of Israel is dismantled and the rights of the Palestinians are fulfilled by upholding the international law as repeated by UN and many international human rights organizations, there will remain no material circumstances responsible for the emergence of militant organizations like Hamas or Hezbollah. Instead, they are acting like an offshoot of Zionist media and demonizing the entire Palestinians by peddling fake news like baby killing and what not. They should get relived that such an incident did not happen. But they quite agitated when questioned on peddling such a fake news amid a raging war where millions of innocent lives are at stake.
A famous liberal Indian journalist Barkha Dutt was quite insistent on the happening of such an incident despite clarifications both from the US government and Israeli army and many pro-Israel International News channels like CNN. This is almost the case of every liberal journalist right now (lest not talk about the rightwing media ecosystem which is making genocidal appeals and peddling fake propaganda against Palestinians) doing clickbait journalism instead of asking genuine questions on why this happened or happening. Their continuous refusal to do so conveniently leaving out any mention of Israel’s structurally entrenched occupation and daily humiliation and subjugation of Palestinians altogether can only be explained by their disdain for Muslims and islamophobia and nothing else. As in the normal days, they give lecture in oxford that the British owes us Billions of pounds in reparation and the violence and racism were the reality of the colonial experience.
The deafening silence of the media on Israel’s bombardment on an unprecedented level and scale killing innocent Palestinian civilians – including children is criminal. These same media and liberal journalists’ argument on the moral objection to the ‘killing of innocent civilians no matter the context’ undergoes a transformation and twist to become Israel’s staunchest defenders by justifying it under “self-defense” by repeatedly touting ‘Israel has the right to defend itself. This is certainly a hypocrisy of the highest level. This is the same hypocrisy that labels one criminal a terrorist and another a regular criminal for committing the same crime in normal days.
Their silence regarding Israeli missile strikes that are killing innocent Palestinians destroying their homes, schools, hospitals, media offices is nothing but their innate hate for Muslims lives. This hypocrisy not borne of ignorance but willful duplicity by those who internalized Zionist propaganda that Palestinian blood who are mainly Muslims is expendable, bodies dispensable and their pleas irrelevant in keeping up the status quo.
Their silence and refusal to deliberate on the root cause of the problem is loaded with an attempt to omit the core truth that this is a fight between the military of an occupying colonial power and a captive occupied population made stateless and rendered devoid of basic rights by Israel’s apartheid policies. The Indian media echo chamber consistently erases the historical and contemporary realities that shape Palestinian resistance while amplifying Israel’s security considerations as uniquely paramount, effectively justifying its use of disproportionate force against civilians.
Indian media is at the forefront right now advocating the Israeli narrative that claims it has the right to maintain Palestine as an open-air concentration camp and bomb its captive population. From primetime TV anchors to liberal commentators, India’s media landscape is viciously defending and amplifying this view.
Loss of life and livelihood for Palestinians is being seen as inevitable while relatively few Israeli casualties as shown by UN and many international Human rights organization are mourned as tragic events. I am in no way justifying the killing of any innocent lives either of an Israeli or Palestinian. I am just trying to expose this criminal hypocrisy and double standards of the liberal media and journalists that help to perpetuate this vicious cycle of violence and killing with no permanent solution. This plays out atrociously whenever Gaza or Westbank comes under Israel’s fire – with only a token measure of concern shown for Palestinians usually couched as “both sides”, suggesting there should be equal treatment between a militarily dominant occupying power and captive population occupants.
Indian media’s proclamations of this as an equal conflict is indicative of its inherent Zionism and islamophobia which seeks to whitewash Israel’s structural violence while demonizing Palestinian resistance as “irrational terrorism.” They conveniently ignore that this clash between an army engaged in ethnic cleansing and an illegally besieged people with virtually no shelter from bombs raining down upon them is far more unequal in scale than many imagine. This pro-Israel narrative by the Indian media is largely driven by hate for Muslims everywhere rather than supported by our historical legacy and commitment to anti-colonialism.
It is ironic and intellectually perplexing that a nation which has historically endured colonial oppression finds itself in a situation where a significant portion of its population today, including individuals with liberal leanings, are advocating for the recognition of a colonial state’s right to defend itself ,bombard and kill the colonized , primarily due to the fact that the majority of the colonized people happen to be adherents of the Islamic faith.
Abdul Moid is a PhD Scholar at Maulana Azad National Urdu University in the Department of Political Science. His area of research interest is in the field of Gender,Identity politics and and Minority rights. He holds a postgraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Hyderabad and a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University. Prior to his university education, Abdul Moid received his early education in the Madrasa system.
