"When you enclose and confine a population, blockade their coast line, control their air space, control their movements, control their economy including imports and exports, control their utilities, water, electricity, control what food they get and how much, control how they can use their natural resources, well hell, you control them. You are either an occupier or a prison guard”. - Quirk

GAZA BURNS:

(Reuters) - At least 50 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in a Gaza neighborhood, where bodies were strewn in the street and thousands fled for shelter to a hospital packed with wounded, witnesses and health officials said.

THE ISRAELI STATE SPONSORED TERRORIST CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CIVILIAN POPULATION OF GAZA CONTINUES:

Nearly 340 people have been killed and nearly 2,400 wounded in 11 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip, as tens of thousands have been displaced in the conflict, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gazan health official, says 338 Palestinians have been killed and 2,556 wounded. Earlier, another health official said some 70 children were among the dead.

OPINION: Israel-Palestine coverage unbalanced

By Aref Assaf 12:08 a.m. EDT July 12, 2014

My Central Jersey

News and stories about the killing of innocent civilians rightfully deserves front-page coverage. Yet it seems that American media outlets lazily adhere to the Israeli version of the tragic and deadly events..

The media has given the world “lull” a new meaning. In the lexicon of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it is now considered a lull period when only Palestinians are killed by Israelis.

What really happened during the period of “relative calm” between the disappeared and killing of three Israelis and the subsequent massive attacks on the entire Palestinian population? In that time, the Israeli military killed more than 10 Palestinians, six of which were under 16. Israel also destroyed or confiscated more than 5,000 acres belonging to Palestinian farmers; Israel destroyed two Palestinian homes and jailed more than 600 Palestinians.

Apparently, death of Palestinians and destruction of their properties and denying them a normal life is considered an acceptable price for normalcy. Volatility, unrest and terrorism capture the media’s display pages only when Israelis are killed.

Coverage of the conflict has always been one-sided and viewed only through the eyes of Israel military censure. Israel’s total grip on the borders and its restriction of reporter movement has created what I would describe a geographic bias that has rendered the battlefield — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — off limits to foreign reporters. It is ironic that the only full-time reporter in the area is Amira Haas from the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz. We would, however, be given a totally different view of the conflict if most of the media dared to report even half the stories Haas covers.

U.S. media’s bias is reflected in at least two manners. One is the amount of pro-Palestine editorials and commentaries by Palestinians or pro-Palestine writers compared to the pro-Israel views. The second, the editorial decisions by which Palestinian deaths and tragedies are reported and or presented compared to Israeli deaths.

On the first front, a recent study by Patrick O’Connor concludes that Palestinians do not have easy access and thus permission to present their own narratives; generally aren’t allowed to speak for themselves or to articulate their historical narrative. Israelis, however, are permitted to speak, to explain the Israeli experience and even to explain about Palestinians. As a result, the Israeli story is known in the U.S. while Palestinians are dehumanized.

On the second point, placement of stories about Palestine compared to Israel indicate a serious lack of fairness and journalistic neutrality. According to If Americans Knew, most major American newspapers tend to relegate stories about Palestine deaths to the inside pages, relying mostly on Israeli sources, while stories about Israeli death are given full attention on the front pages often accompanied by larger photographs. By deciding whose voices are heard, and which stories to cover or ignore, the U.S. directly impacts the public’s understanding of the conflict.

What is most dubious about American coverage is its almost total unquestioning of the Israel’s assessment of events. It is now, for example, considered acceptable “collateral damage” when innocent Palestinian civilians are killed by a two-ton bomb directed at an apartment complex because the Israeli Army suspected a terrorist may be hiding there. When an Israeli is killed, the electronic media interrupts its programming to air gavel-to-gavel story of the life that was lost, the agony of their weeping parents and relatives. When a Palestinian is killed, you only see “things” such as blown-up cars and buildings, as if Palestinians metaphysically exist without families and friends to mourn their loss also.

When Israel confiscates Arab lands and builds an illegal settlement for Jews only, it is described simply as a “neighborhood.” When an expectant Palestinian mother is denied access to medical service and is forced to give birth at a checkpoint, the justification is given as a “necessary” security measure.

Such deliberate and systematic dehumanizing of the Palestinians tragedy is the result of a mainstream media complicity that does not question authority or those who have the power and of a military capacity to affect the lives of millions of Israelis and Palestinians.

It remains a fact that Israel’s continued military occupation of Palestine lands and the brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people are the two undeniable motives for Palestinian resistance both passive and violent. Relegating this reality only perpetuates the volatile atmosphere and brings Israel no peace or security and denies the Palestinians their inalienable legitimate rights to independence, justice and a sovereign state.

The cause of peace, the security of Israel and justice for the Palestinians are mutually inclusive requirements for a peaceful Middle East. They will be advanced when we report the horrors of wars and terrorism by and against both Palestinians and Israelis.

Dr. Aref Assaf is president of the American Arab Forum, a think tank specializing in Arab and Muslim American affairs.