A Palestinian girl in Gaza looks out the window of her partially destroyed home. (photo: UNICEF)
The recent acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza—on top of the routine humanitarian crisis that defines everyday existence there—has gotten sparse coverage in US media over the past three weeks.
Israeli officials have cut off electricity to almost 2 million Gazans for all but three or four hours a day—in conjunction with nominal Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has cut funding for Gaza’s electricity in an effort to punish his political rivals in Hamas. The Gaza Strip, which remains under effective Israeli control despite the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli troops, requires 450 megawatts daily, but since June has received only around 150 megawatts per day. The power cuts, according to UN humanitarian coordinator Robert Piper, severely undermine “critical functions in the health, water and sanitation sectors,” and have created a “looming humanitarian catastrophe.”
The vast majority of US media also ignored a devastating UN report published Tuesday, documenting the humanitarian conditions in Gaza over the past ten years.
Neither the electrical crisis nor the UN report has been covered by the New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC or Fox News—though the Times and ABC did run AP reports on the former.
The Washington Post (6/22/17) reported on the electricity cuts just over three weeks ago, but made sure to note in their headline “it’s not all Israel’s fault.” The Post (7/12/17) also mentioned the Gaza electricity cuts in a broader piece, told from Israel’s perspective, about that country’s fears that “Hamas will go to war.” NPR did not report on the electricity crisis, but unlike the Post, it did have a piece (7/11/17) on the UN report.
In stark contrast, an attack on two Israeli police officers in Jerusalem Thursday was reported by all the above outlets except MSNBC. The New York Times (7/14/17), ABC News (7/14/17), CBS News (7/14/17), NBC News (7/14/17), CNN (7/14/17), Fox News (7/14/17), all dedicated airtime and/or column inches to the shooting in the Old City.
Attacks on Israeli forces—even ones that occur, like this week’s strike, in illegally occupied territory—are framed as random acts of hate with no political context. None of the above reports on the Jerusalem attack made any mention of the increasingly dire situation in Gaza. Nor, even more conspicuously, was there any mention of Israel’s killing of two Palestinians in a West Bank refugee camp less than a day before.
The routine, “factored-in” suffering of Palestinians—even when ramped up to hellish levels—is barely worth a mention by US media. It just is. And when it is touched on, it’s generally framed as Hamas or the Palestinian Authority’s fault, with the broader role played by Israel’s devastating, 50-year-occupation downplayed or omitted.
I’ve never seen so much bias in an article xclaiming to be “FAIR”. The attacks happened in Jerusalem, Israel, the capital city, not occupied territory. Also, why don’t you tell readers the reason for the electricity cuts? Gaza WASN’T PAYING THEIR BILLS. Do you think they should be receiving electricity for free? They need to build their own power plant, something they never did because they have always been starting wars with the Jewish people of Israel.
Excellent post, Craig! Time for some accuracy about Gaza. You omitted the fact that enormous amounts of money are squandered on arms, rocket attacks and illegal tunnels meant to attack Israel. There could be plenty of funds for development if it was not squandered on war materials and graft by the leaders who are building fortunes residing in Switzerland and other secret bank homes.
Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas’s political wing. “Global estimates say Mashaal is worth $2.6 billion.
He could provide all the electricity Gazans want if he cared about his people.
He has a long way to go to catch up with a whole tribe of Jews!
The vile mass murdering Jewish State should not even exist as it is just a fascist entity occupying stolen Palestinian land. They showed up and stole everything in sight and now the thieves should be punished and removed from Palestine in the same way those Khazarian bandits removed the Palestinian people from their own land.
The international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Yisrael’s capital.
Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. Jerusalem is supposed to be shared by the three major western religions.
Stop your bias. The reason two Palestinians were shot is because they opened fire on troops: During an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) operation in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the forces and assailants hurled explosive devices at the forces”
Where do you get your “news?” You’ve clearly been misinformed.
Why would any military operation be carried out in a refugee camp Another Sabra and Shatila massacre where as many as 3,500 civilians were slaughtered? Mostly Palestinians and Shiites?
The so-called troops who are in a gang of racist land thieves try to kill everyone who stands in the way of their nonsense about being entitled to steal Palestinian land. The IDF was formed from terrorist groups like Lehi, Stern Gang and Irgun. They are the worst terrorists on earth and seem to only exist to serve the interest of thieves and religious bigots. I look forward to the day when the Palestinian flag flies from the Knesset for all the Palestinian people and that prayer shawl the only represent a gang of foreign thieves is torn down in the same way the Red army tore the Swastika from the Reichstag.
Few people believe in the nasty Jewish version of the tooth fairy and we will be glad when Israel disappears. Let’s start with BDS until Israel no longer exists and the Palestinian people get back the land that was stolen by the odious Khazars in 1948.
Is it anti-Semitism to say the Jewish people should have no homeland? Because I now reject the religious grounds for such a view that I entertained previously. That came with my rejection of a literalistic reading of the Holy Qur’an, alhamdulillah.
Let them find a homeland in Khazaria or perhaps the Germans will accommodate them. They do not belong in Palestine.
Thank you for holding mainstream media to account for its deliberare omissions and misstatements about the critcal plight of Palestinians. Please keep it up!
The mainstream media in the US should hang their collective heads in shame. They have ignored the plight of the Palestinians from the very beginning. Untill I had access to the internet I had no idea that the Israelis created over 750,000 refugees in 1948, reduced to rubble about 500 villages and killed many people. As far as I’m concerned, they do not deserve to have a state. And they have only continued stealing land and killing Palaestinians ever since.
The day after the UN Partition Resolution in November 1947, some racist, xenophobic Palestinians started a genocidal war to exterminate the Jews. Haj Amin el-Husseini – “I declare a holy war, my Muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!”
The war started with Palestinians attacking a Jewish bus driving on the Coastal Plain near Kfar Sirkin killing five and wounding others. Half an hour later they ambushed a second bus, southbound from Hadera, killing two more. Arab snipers attacked Jewish buses in Jerusalem and Haifa.[19]
Wars create refugees!
The Jews, starting in 1947 began to ethnically cleanse and murder the Palestinian people. The slime bags started with massacres in Haifa and Deir Yassin. They then went on to ethnically cleanse 750,000 people and to destroy 500 Palestinian villages. The resistance to this war criminal activity only materialised in May 1948 when the Lebanese kept the Zionists out of Lebanon, the Syrians kept them out of Syrian and thwarted their attempt to steal the Golan Heights. The Iraqis slowed down their attempt to steal Galilee and the Jordanians kept them out of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Egyptians of the Muslim Brotherhood slowed them down as well.
They have lied and lied about everything. Those who resisted the Zionists have been portrayed as 5 massive Arab armies joining together to attack poor little tiny inoffensive Israel.
What the Israelis failed to steal in 1948, they went on the try and steal in 1967 at the time they malevolently attacked and tried to sink the USS Liberty. Thank God they failed to steal South Lebanon in 2006 and all praise to Hezbollah for kicking their predatory ass.
Israel is not the cause of the humanitarian issue in gaza. hamas is the cause – all monies and support has been co opted in order to fund their “jihad” against the jews by building tunnels and rockets and buying fancy jihadi-uniforms; i suppose you need to look your best for your suicide to paradise?
if you are too stupid to see this, you shouldn’t be a commentator.
You are the one who is completely stupid. The Jews showed up to steal land and kill people. Where did you get your ridiculous hasbara? Did you get it from a mass murdering member of the IDF. Palestine belongs to Palestinians and not to killer thieves that showed up from Europe. The great heroes with billions of dollars of American donated arms and wearing uniforms like legitimate uniforms (the SS also wore legitimate uniforms) when they went out to murder whole populations. Zionism is identical to Nazism and the sooner Israel gets its comeuppance like Nazi Germany the better.
You hasbara trolls need to get new propaganda. You make yourselves so obvious by continuing to use such outdated and false rhetoric. Nobody believes it anymore.
This article is nonsense.
Arabia and Sub-Saharan Africa are not societies which need electricity. The traditional culture of the Arab nationalist is subsistence agriculture. Electricity is cultural appropriation.
Why should any American news outlet report on the dysfunction and lack of ability to create power in Lebanon or Yemen or Gaza or Malawi or Kenya? It is not an American issue. And it is certainly not a “humanitarian” crisis, no matter how many press releases and demands for money the UN makes.
By contrast, the American people pay billions of dollars each year to the Palestinian government. We defend Palestine in court, at the UN, and at the battlefield. Our State Department is currently defying the courts and public opinion to pay billions more to the State of Palestine.
As Americans we are deeply complicit when our Palestinian military allies commit war crimes. When a Palestinian unlawful combatant starts shooting up random people- we as Americans are responsible. We need to know what our military allies are doing and have an open discussion about the Shari’ah.
How’s the weather in your universe?
Now, replace every instance of “Palestine/Palestinian” with “Israel/Israeli” and your comment will then reflect what’s going on in this universe.
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