How media coverage of Israel can foster anti-semitism, by British writer Melanie Phillips
Published: 22 February 2009 Briefing Number 235	Click to Print

Summary: Israel’s war against Hamas in January 2009 produced a global upsurge in anti-semitism. In an article published on her blog at the height of the fighting, British journalist and social commentator Melanie Phillips explains how it is not Israel’s policies which are primarily to blame, but what she calls their “incendiary and distorted” misreporting in the media. By falsely depicting Israel as “deliberately slaughtering Palestinian babies in a criminally disproportionate war” this media coverage fosters hatred of Israel and by extension hatred of Jews. Over many years Phillips has spoken out against the atmosphere of hostility towards Israel, and the steady acceptance of radical Islamist attitudes, which have taken root in mainstream British society. See www.melaniephillips.com for her courageous and forceful writings on these topics. The article by Phillips which we reprint verbatim below was originally published on 8 January 2009 under the title ‘Britain turns ugly’. Beyond Images comment: The media outlets which have produced the coverage which Phillips criticises are mainstream outlets, which would sue any individual or organisation in court which claimed that their journalists or editors were anti-semitic. (Phillips refers to an article in the Daily Telegraph). But that’s the point. A key reason why anti-semitism is resurgent is because the demonisation of Israel – its depiction as persistently ruthless and inhumane, founded by crime in 1948 and sustained by injustice - has taken root in liberal public life among ‘pro-Jewish’ people. Context, balance, and a fair-minded narrative have been largely ignored. Resurgent anti-semitism is the symptom of this demonisation, not its cause. And any strategy to combat anti-semitism which does not place this issue at the centre of its efforts cannot succeed.

‘Britain turns ugly’ by Melanie Phillips, 8 January 2009

So let’s get this clear. You produce claims that Israel is slaughtering hundreds of civilians in ‘carnage’ in Gaza, even though the vast majority of the dead are said by both Israel and the UN to be Hamas operatives. You ignore totally the Hamas operatives and you focus instead emotively on the dead children and grieving parents.

You make no mention whatsoever of the fact that Hamas are hiding their arsenals in and under civilian houses and apartments, in schools and hospitals and ambulances and mosques, thus making the inhabitants targets for Israeli forces trying to destroy the infrastructure of terror; instead you blame Israel for the deaths of those inhabitants. You fail to report that Hamas are herding Gazan civilians, including children, into buildings from where they are firing missiles at Israeli soldiers in order that the civilians should be killed; instead you blame Israel for the deaths of those civilians and those children.

You fail to report that the Israelis are warning Gazans through leaflets and text messages to evacuate before an attack in order to safeguard civilian life; instead you blame Israel for the destruction of that civilian life, which you do not distinguish from the killing of terrorists. You do not tell the public that sometimes Hamas even use these warnings to bring civilians into these targeted buildings in order that they should be killed for propaganda effect; instead you simply add these deaths to the toll of casualties for which you hold Israel solely responsible. You make no mention of any of these crimes against humanity by Hamas, but instead you accuse Israel of massacring the innocent.

Just such a piece appears in today’s Telegraph by Mary Riddell. Much of the rest of the British media is just as incendiary and distorted. And then you tell the British government that you are very worried that people are being inflamed; and you issue a not-so-veiled threat that you cannot hold back the extremists unless it stops supporting Israel. The Guardian reports:

‘Anger within Britain's Muslim communities over the Gaza conflict has reached ‘acute levels of intensity’ that could have repercussions for national security, leading Muslims will warn Gordon Brown today... The letter adds: ‘As you are aware, the anger within UK Muslim communities has reached acute levels of intensity. The Israeli government's use of disproportionate force ... has revived extremist groups and empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict. For Muslims in the UK and abroad, we run the risk of potentially creating a loss of faith in the political process.’

...One of those present was Dr Hany el-Banna, youth worker and co-founder and president of the charity Islamic Relief. He told the Guardian: ‘We are all working tirelessly to try and cool them down. I am telling them to change and bring something positive, but they see these images and they trigger extremist thoughts in the simplest individuals. Many millions of people will see these images in the media, what do you think the affect will be?’

But of course it is the images that are inflaming rather than the reality, because the media is producing images and a narrative which bear scant relation to the reality: presenting Israel as recklessly or even deliberately slaughtering Palestinian babies in a criminally disproportionate war, rather than objectively and fairly reporting the extreme difficulty of rooting out Iran’s proxy army in Gaza who are relentlessly and deliberately targeting Israeli civilians for missile attack, and who use civilians as human shields and missile fodder on a systematic and enormous scale precisely to manipulate public opinion.

As a result of this vicious misreporting, the media is inciting hatred of Israel and of Jews to highly dangerous levels. Attacks on British Jews are rising. The police are now warning British Jews of ‘reprisal attacks’. The Times reports:

One post on an Islamic discussion forum, referring to an anti-Israel demonstration this weekend, said: ‘We need to take some weapons with us, preferably sub-machineguns.’
I know from the enormous response I have received to what I am writing that there is a terrifying increase in bigotry and quite hallucinatory hatred of Israel and the Jews now coursing through Britain. But I also know that there are a very large number of decent, sane people in Britain who understand exactly what Hamas are and the difficulties Israel has in stopping genocidal terrorism. These sterling Brits say they are simply appalled by the malevolent prejudices of the media now on such startling display.

I suggest they take to their keyboards and write to newspaper editors and broadcasting executives directly and by name, and tell them what they think of their coverage. Better still, as I have suggested before, someone should take legal action against them for incitement to violence. For if they aren't more careful, Britain is heading for a tragedy -- for which they will be responsible. (End of Melanie Phillips article).
Beyond Images comments

The media outlets which have produced such coverage are mainstream outlets, which would sue any individual or organization in court which claimed that their journalists or editors were anti-semitic. (Phillips writes above of an article in the Daily Telegraph, which is certainly not an ‘anti-semitic’ newspaper – Phillips would not for a moment claim otherwise).

But that’s the key point. One reason that anti-semitism is resurgent is because the demonisation of Israel – its depiction as persistently ruthless and inhumane, founded on crime in 1948 and sustained by continual injustice today – has taken root in liberal, mainstream British public life among people who consider themselves ‘pro-Jewish’. The media have contributed hugely to this development. No-one can complain about fair criticism of Israel. But demonisation goes further. Context, balance, and a fair-minded narrative are completely ignored. And claims of atrocities have been republished at face value, with timid statements buried in the small print that the stories are unverified. They have later been shown to have been grossly exaggerated, or downright false.

Resurgent anti-semitism is the symptom of this demonisation. Any strategy to combat anti-semitism which does not place this issue at the centre of its efforts cannot succeed.


Other Beyond Images Briefings: See ‘The demonisation of Israel’ (Beyond Images Briefing 64)