By Iqbal Jassat

Will media platforms rise above Zionism’s propaganda-laden terms and vocabulary that seek to project the catastrophic loss of lives in Gaza as “Israel’s right to defend itself”?

Adriaan Basson of News24 attempts to make a strong plea – albeit an emotional one, for a Mandela in the Middle East to say “stop”.

I suspect his article derives from the anecdote he quotes about his son who is 10 years old “and doesn’t yet grasp the complexities of history and how we got to this point, but his plea for a ceasefire rang loud and clear”.

Sure, that’s a reasonable expectation many would have of children unable to make sense of horrible scenes of slaughter in Gaza unfolding in real-time on TV screens.

Unfortunately, it seems to apply to adults too.

And regrettably it hinges on the binary of “right and wrong”, if context is excluded in a narrative that unfairly misrepresents Israel’s 76-year-old occupation and relentless repression of Palestinians including genocide as a “conflict”.

Adults, whether they are analysts, commentators or journalists, who refuse to call out Israel’s colonialism and ongoing savagery in blind pursuit of racist goals, contribute to the illusion of a “conflict”.

This is confounded by obscuring a moral imperative to struggle for human rights and dignity.

Professor Ilan Pappe makes an important argument in respect of context relevant to the present crisis. He correctly insists it is the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine that included the forceful eviction of Palestinians into the Gaza Strip from villages on whose ruins some of the Israeli settlements attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, were built.

“These uprooted Palestinians were part of 750,000 Palestinians who lost their home and became refugees and who lived until 1948 in more than 500 villages and a dozen of towns.”

Basson, by referring to what he describes as “magnificent contributions published on News24” in its Friday Briefing, claims to be struck by how strong the “we are right, they are wrong” narrative still holds a year after 7 October.

Indeed, a battle of narratives does exist, and not surprising at all. Pappe, however, suggests that rather than call it as such, he would refer to it as a clash between “the pretext and the context”.

And in the context, he means both the historical and moral foundations for the events that unfolded in the last months of 2023.

Does it therefore not require a giant leap to alter the course of news reports and editorials in South African media on how Israel’s political and military conduct is covered?

Has enough coverage been provided to underpin the historical foundations of Zionist terrorism and its racist expansionism?

Will media platforms rise above Zionism’s propaganda-laden terms and vocabulary that seek to project the catastrophic loss of lives in Gaza as “Israel’s right to defend itself”?

The need for courageous journalism to confront and challenge blatant lies peddled by Israel and its army of well-resourced propagandists who hide behind intimidatory allegations of “antisemitism”, has never been more urgent than now.

The attempt by an American journalist Samuel Mena to self-immolate in protest against US media’s complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza underlines the frustration experienced by his colleagues around the world, including South Africa.

“To the 10 thousand children in Gaza that have lost a limb… I give my left arm to you…,” Mena said before lighting his left arm on fire.

His resentment of American media’s enabling of the Gaza Genocide, which he blames on “lazy negligence” or “corporate influence” must serve as a “shock and awe” moment for us in South Africa.

Basson of course is absolutely correct in stating that Benjamin Netanyahu has no ambition to rise above his sectarian interests.

Israel “has killed over 42000 Palestinians in Gaza in what the International Court of Justice ruled could plausibly be genocidal,” wrote Basson.

However according to estimates as reported in Al Jazeera, the real death toll is more than 180,000.

And simultaneously, Netanyahu’s war criminals have “repeatedly carried out bloody assaults on the West Bank, massacring more than 740 Palestinians. Last month, the colonial regime expanded its violence into Lebanon, where on September 23, more than 500 people were killed. In two weeks, Israel has murdered more than 2000 Lebanese people.”

Against the background of the Netanyahu regime’s vengeful war crimes, it remains necessary for media platforms that cherish journalistic values of accuracy and integrity, to not entertain concepts such as” two sides”, “conflict”, “peace” etc unless the context is provided.

Noone can escape the reality that Israel is engaged in wiping out lives and everything that sustains life in Gaza. The same madness is visible in Beirut, South Lebanon and other parts of the region.

– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com