the israeli palestinian conflict dominates american news coverage of international issues over cobbles given that news coverage is americans means source of information on the conflict it becomes important to examine the stories the news media are telling us longest military occupation in modern history it's entering its thirty fifth year it's a harsh and brutal military occupation and it's extremely bad all the time and life is being made on livable for the population we have what is now of quite an oppressive regime in the occupied territories where israelis are mourning it over palestinians usurping their territory demolishing their homes exerting a very severe form of military rule in order to remain there and on the other hand palestinians are lashing back trying to throw off the oak of oppression of the israelis i spent a day travelling around gaza with a man named japara washer who's from the palestinian center for human rights and he described the situation as complete economic and social suffocation there's no economy the unemployment is over sixty percent now crops can't move thousands and thousands of acres of orchards and line crops have been bulldozed and up rooted by the israeli military there are checkpoints everywhere palestinians can't get from one place to another drives that ordinarily would take ten minutes now take four hours or hundreds of checkpoints in the west bank a report as the man has to walk through a single out for you can even reach very immediate forms of oppression such as not being able to leave your homes during curfew hours as the palestinians are forced sometimes to remain in their home day after day because the israeli army says we don't want you out of the house on the street it means they can't buy food can't send their children to school cancer walk across the street to their neighbors can't get medical attention can't do any of the basic things that you must leave your home to do so that's really that's a horrible way to live your life since the  number two began the you have a much higher of all of repression often these towns or villages are surrounded by the israeli army and people aren't allowed to go out of their village to the next to next door horrendous horrendous situation it's like living in a very big jail when one lives under oppression and there is no other way out and he's being violated every day by viol then sometimes the only way out of that situation is through violen particularly if the one that is violating your rights and taking away your freedom who thermos and uses systematic methods of violence to oppress  torture amnesty international has regularly documented serious human rights violations by israeli military forces in the occupied territories including unlawful killings torture and ill treatment of prisoners wanton destruction of homes with residents still inside the blocking of ambulances denial of humanitarian assistance and the use of palestinian civilians as human shields and has gone so far as to label them war crimes we don't see the suffering that the palestinians are undergoing through occupation we don't really understand how bad the occupation is for them that's what's become so twisted that  that the dearth of reporting the absence of images the lack of analysis the void of voices of describing the experience of palestinians under occupation is so fast that people have no idea than occupation is going on s evening news americans rely on the news media for information about events occurring around the world news especially television news exerts a powerful influence on our perceptions telling us which events are important and shaping our understanding of the issues given the central role played by the united states in the middle east conflict and thus the vital role played by american voters influencing u s media coverage of the conflict is crucial to controlling the images and words used to explain the conflict has become an important extension of the struggle in the gaza strip israel is really fighting a war on two fronts the first is a military campaign being waged in the occupied territories against the palestinian people and the second is a p r campaign being waged here in the us through the american media to ensure continued support for israel's occupation alone pincus consul general for israel in new york and ordinator israel's p r efforts was recently quoted as saying we are currently in a conflict with the palestinians and engaging in a successful p r campaign as part of winning the conflict so you can say that in addition to the military occupation of the west bank and gaza israel  also involved in the camp to ideologically occupy the american media the roots of israel's public relations campaign go back to the one nine hundred eighty two israeli invasion of lebanon that earned it worldwide criticism in particular the massacre of palestinian civilians at the refugee camps of sabra and shatila to the israeli government the problem was not the deaths of thousands of civilians rather it was the damage to israel's public image a public relations disaster in need of damage control they surrounded beirut in three months seventeen thousand five hundred people almost all of them civilians were killed i saw many thousands of the bodies then came the massacre by israel's own allies of the camp was surrounded by israeli troops and they desperately said what went wrong it was concluded the problem was it wasn't good enough public relations after the public relations disaster of lebanon israel decided to set up permanent institutional structures to control how americans would think about the middle east in ninety three israel launched the husband which was to ensure good press in the us media the goal was to train israeli diplomats and communications and public relations for example they trained press officers and israeli consulates in the us to ensure that american journalist would write stories favorable to israel as one of these press officer said in the  had breakfast lunch and dinner with journalists and the typical day would involve conversations with producers of leading news and t v talk shows about the content of the program he described it as in fact a joint formulation of ideas it's targeting of the american media goes on in the present the israeli press office is spitting out press releases state manned information all the time because of lack of access to public stadium officials in the west bank and the sophistication of israel's p r techniques inside israel a lot of times the stories are already tilted in israel's favor before they ever leave american journalist sitting in in the area when you're talking about how the story is covered from the u s the propaganda machine is even more effective than it is in israel american news coverage is influenced by a complex set of institutional relationships these influences can be thought of as a series of filters through which the news must travel before it emerges in the voices of news anchors to understand how american news media report on the middle east conflict we need to understand how these institutional filters operate the most important of these filters are the business interests of the corporations that own the mass media interests that extend beyond the united states and across the globe to the middle east the economic interests of media owners are shared by political elites politicians and policymakers who form a second filter these political elites have the power to access and influence mainstream media and are themselves part of a system dominated by corporate money an interests the strategic importance of the middle east to these two groups is reflected in media coverage of the region and of the israeli palestinian conflict the third filter israel's own public relations efforts further affects the coverage the government of israel employs some of the largest american public relations firms as image consultants to coordinate its political and media campaigns nine israeli consulate to help implement these p r campaigns by developing relationships with journalists and monitoring media outlets scores of private american organizations both christian and jewish reiterate the official line grassroots opposition to any coverage deemed unfavorable to israel the most important of these is a pack the american israeli public affairs committee widely regarded as the most powerful foreign lobby in washington this institutional framework of american business and political interests in combination with israeli public relations shapes media coverage of the middle east at the same time those progressive organizations opposing israeli government policy such as jews against the occupation and americans for peace now rarely make it through these filters finally if any news stories critical of israeli policy do surface there are a host of media watchdog groups that monitor and pressure journalists and media outlets the most important of which is camera you have activist organizations from the us from the right the pros really really right that very effectively they say monitor i would say harass journalists and their editors and try to trying to make sure that the coverage is objective by which they mean pro israel you can see all of the you know kind of pressure groups who you know write campaigns of letters to the editor against you know news outlets and and ask for your demand that stories be changed or that you know that reporters be fired the abuse against the journalists is something you just have to take into account if you you know both literally and metaphorically if you work in the middle east you've got to take sticks and stones what i object to is that my american colleagues don't seem to be prepared to do that and even in in israel itself you know you can find  the main daily newspapers like ha'aretz for example provides coverage on the ground and analysis some of which takes you know takes as views on on the on the conflict that you would never that would be almost beyond the pale for american journalists at the new york times to write the main major television news networks and newspapers in the united states have long ago one of the things you have to keep in mind when you're looking at how media report on something like the israeli palestinian conflict is not only understanding what's in there in the story but more importantly what's not there it's being left out in that sense an absence as vital as pr terms of how people make sense of the story context is everything the context that's often missing from the current reporting is that the palestinian uprising is a revolt against the thirty four year long occupation and if there's no occupation in the story then the story doesn't really make sense and the occupation is frequently missing that typical t v news report for example you know a b c news will show a dramatic of the conflict this is an example of the riots that are going on where the the authorities are taking measures to crackdown what's not mention is the fact that these confrontations are taking place on occupied territory and that the israeli troops who are there not on the results and not on th and who are protesting because of the occupation this seems to be the oppression of the whole nation the lack of context is so dramatic that only four percent of the network news reports on the israeli military sends its troops into the occupied territories to defend what is considered an illegal occupation and when the population there resists israel is presented as being under attack by israel was responding to an attack today israel has beefed invasion simple self defense these really prime minister regenerated israel's right to self defense israel's basic posture is anything but defensive israel is the only country in the world right now which in contravention un security council resolutions maintains tens of thousands of heavily armed troops outside its borders in somebody else's country for the sole purpose of taking their land away from them and in the process forcing them to live under the worst form of tyranny imagin context is always missing a crowd throwing stones and homemade stun grenades at the soldiers the troops opening fire killing two palestinians in injury so even when is busy murdering people in cold blood it is always presented as part of the self defense mechanism of as when israel in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population aggression prime minister once we know that the occupation is illegal and we know that it's subject to international condemnation and it's very costly in terms of lives and money then we have to ask why israel continues to maintain the occupation and the reason is because it intends to annex the territories eventually for decades israel has been colonizing palestinian land by building settlements on not land the settlements are in contravention of the fourth geneva convention that forbids the transfer of population into land colonized by a legal force the settlements are dotted throughout the palestinian territories and are set up strategically often on hell tops to give israel military control land and its natural resources namely water the settlements together with the surrounding land that they have explored created control over forty percent of the west bank and gaza strip the israeli settlements are jewish only settlements and they're linked together by a network of bypass roads that carve up the west bank restricting palestinians freedom of movement and that simultaneously link the settlements to israel proper the strategic placement of the israeli settlements and the bypass roads can be described as an israeli matrix of control over the occupied territories given that israel's goal is eventual annexation of the occupied territories the settlement of course are a means to attain that goal but they would appear to be threatening colonies if they were presented in their children right so better to hide their identity to sanitize the language that describes c israeli settlement is built for jews and jews only on arab land and it's illegal against international law a neighborhood is a just a nice friendly place the southern jerusalem a quiet neighborhood while we only bring beating down on me right now is the rain bullets frequently rain in this area which is the reason those israeli trying are right back there so by pressuring journalists into changing the use of words by making them alter the  linguistically changing the narrative story not only other journalists kept in line this is this is the language this is the system of linguistics you must use but it also successfully takes away from one side of the spirit the palestinians the reasons why they act in the way they do whether we approve of it or all say that it's a weird thing when we look at the british press which remains pretty independent of the israeli public relations machine in a very different story about settlements they the key issue in the conflict between the palestinians and the israelis there is something like two hundred thousand israelis living on land captured from the palestinians in the war of one thousand nine hundred sixty seven the government knows it's under intense pressure to stop expanding the settlements which are illegal under international law but the people are left with no choice and the palestinians they see every new israeli building on occupied land as a gross violation of their sovereignty and they insist that use rate is must stop all building in contrast the british coverage in american news coverage of the settlements or downplay and questions regarding their of legality are really very in fact there are times when you're flat out legitimize and defend that israeli settlements are so interspersed throughout palestinian territory that a border around them all would be too long to defend and evacuating jewish settlements even those deep inside the territories is politically impossible at least for now when american west bank and gaza staking a claim to the land making space for new immigrants whose numbers are meant to counter the fast growing arab population the insertion of a large israeli population in certain areas gives the israeli government a rationalization for refusing to relinquish control and to give israel a argument that this part of the occupied territories has become so israeli has the jews living at it but it simply has to be an x the state of israel which is why you can see east jerusalem completely ring by a pattern of heavily fortified israeli settlements designed to cause east jerusalem off from the west rest of the west bank for the permanent domination and eventual an accession of at the very least key areas if not in the end the whole thing the settlements are illegitimate by international law but what's worse is that many of the occupants of the settlements their founders and people who live there today are very aggressive toward palestinians they go around fully armed submachine guns they carry grenades and they frequently threaten palestinians in hebron settler's initiated more clashes they say they're tired of coming under attack but their communities are to hit back some of them have already carried out their own vigilante attacks on arab villages israeli colonization of palestinian land has been a two fold process on the one hand israel has been constructing jewish only settlements on palestinian land on the other israel has taken various measures to drive palestinians out one way this has been done is by demolishing palestinian homes in two and a half years since the outbreak of the intifada israel has demolished over one thousand palestinian homes making thousands of civilians homeless it's all board scale process of demolishing the homes of palestinians in order to effect what israel is forcefully about which is controlling the territory uncomfortable for the palestinians and palestinians to leave their homes on the west bank it's tacitly a gradual or ethnic cleansing process if you are a palestinian family and you have clear and i'm contested title to your land even a clear security record you can stand on your head and in most cases you're not going to get a legal building permit then you build if you go ahead and have to build many cases for demographic reasons what ha illegal home and it's subject to demolition and thousands of people been made homeless this way and today there are least two thousand standing demolition orders and of course each of those orders represents a family so basically land which belonged to palestinian families for generations was now considered state  food a relative says israel what are you doing it was making a family homeless they have no permit to build but for palestinians in jerusalem permits are almost impossible to guess if you watch american coverage israel's demolition of palestinian homes is presented a simply a force in the wall well we don't see is how the laws and equally applied in order to steal palestinian life the demolition of palestinian homes is done on the excuse that they are not legal that they don't have permits to be built when in reality this is a way of clearing palestinians from the land making it impossible for them to live there pushing more and more of them  off in order to be able to claim the land for israel