Othering, BBC style
This is how othering works.
I just listened to a long “in depth” radio report on BBC R4 about the release of the hostages/release of prisoners.
I am beyond happy that hostages are released. I am very happy to hear the personal stories and feel compassion for the families involved, especially for those interviewed who have remaining hostages, or family members murdered in the attack as well as family members released. It’s beyond sad that two hostages are released and only then get the news that their mother was killed.
And about the released Palestinian prisoners? Nada. The number of women and children released. That’s it. A bit of audio of a gnarly-sounding welcome on the occupied South Bank (compared to hymn singing on the Israeli equivalent — a clear editorial choice).
Any questions about why there are so many Palestinian children in prison? Any sharing of the anguish to the years of waiting, often without due process, any sense of a release date, lack of clarity about charges, unequal or no access to legal advice. Anything?
How about the moving story of a family welcoming their stone-throwing child back home? Or the child who was simply in the wrong place, wrong time? Nothing.
The message every single time: Palestinian lives don’t matter. They matter in aggregate. They matter in power politics. But in terms of real, human sympathy, compassion, fellow-feeling? Nothing.
The BBC assumes you can identify with Israelis (most being European or American, of course — “people like us”, much like Ukranians) but apparently it’s impossible to identify with Palestinians (or Afghans, Yemenis, Iraqis…. ) even though we (as a country) have done so much to tear up their lives. Even though we have so many valuable citizens from that same heritage.
It’s only if you accept that Palestinians aren’t fully human that you can cope with your government committing genocide in your name (if you are an Israeli citizen). Only sub-humans can be subject to apartheid. Only sub-humans can be herded into a concentration camp and the world look the other way for decades. Only sub-humans can have their country occupied for 75 years with not a murmur and then criticised for any fight back.
It is beyond racist. I don’t know whether it’s self-censorship, or the BBC actually has a hasbara department advising them. But even with good news, the narrative is solidly Zionist. Shocking in it’s banality and shocking in the everyday repetition.
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli goals: an explainer from JVL
