“Gaza doesn’t interest anyone anymore,” said an Israeli soldier in reference to the systematic killing of Palestinians at humanitarian aid sites in Gaza.* Although he was admitting to war crimes carried out by the IOF, he wasn’t saying anything new. Palestinian journalists, at immense personal risk, have been telling these stories too. It’s not that Gaza doesn’t “interest” anyone anymore, it’s that the media is working overtime to cover up the crimes Israel and the U.S. are committing. There’s no honest reporting to be found in mainstream U.S. media – and if the public doesn’t understand what’s really happening, how will they rise up to stop it? The media’s silence is deliberate: the point is to keep readers in the dark.
These mainstream journalists aren’t ignorant. They see the pictures of the starving children and the videos of lying warmongers, just as we do. Still, they wake up and choose to propel the world into perpetual war and whitewash Israel’s genocide and U.S. war crimes.
Here are ten points the mainstream media isn’t covering when it comes to U.S. and Israeli war crimes. You can send them straight to the top media outlets and ask them to cover the news!
1. Israel has “killing fields” in Gaza.
Haaretz, an Israeli news outlet, reported late last week that the Israeli military is giving orders to kill starving, unarmed Palestinians at aid distribution sites – run by U.S.-based organizations such as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). GHF has been working closely with the Israeli military to stage aid drops and essentially create a mass congregation of Palestinians – only for the Israeli military to terrorize them. Over 500 Palestinians have been deliberately killed by Israel for the “crime” of trying to feed their starving families. If they arrive too early, congregate with too many people, or show up to an aid distribution that was cancelled without any announcement, they get shot from hundreds of feet away. Kamel Agha, a 32-year-old Palestinian who travelled seven hours to one of the aid sites and was present during one of Israel’s attacks on starving people said: “We go to die to provide for our children – to get even one kilogram of flour.” Palestinian journalists have been sharing these stories for weeks. Now, Israeli soldiers are openly admitting that the slaughter that is being carried out in these U.S.-run aid sites are “killing fields.”
2. Israel is still blocking humanitarian aid.
Earlier this year, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza – food, medical aid, and anything else that would help Palestinians survive. Ever since the U.S. opened the sham “aid” sites that have been turned into killing fields, there’s been little to no mention in mainstream media about Israel continuing to block humanitarian aid. There are still thousands of trucks full of aid that could enter Gaza and end the ongoing starvation. Israel finally allowed aid to enter Gaza, but very minimally with hardly any food or medicine to sustain the starving and injured population. Since the genocide began, over sixty children have starved to death because Israel has pursued a policy of mass starvation – a heinous war crime backed by the U.S.
3. Israel closed the most direct route to feed Palestinians in the north.
Last week, Israel closed the aid route in the north of Gaza, the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine. This has left Palestinians in the north with two options: travel for hours to the limited aid distribution sites in the south (and potentially get targeted by the Israeli military) or starve to death in the north. Cutting off food aid to Palestinians in the north is a genocidal act, plain and simple.
4. Private contractors are profiting off of the genocide.
In the Haaretz article about Israel deliberately shooting at Palestinians trying to get food for their families, the IOF soldier said: “Any private contractor working in Gaza with engineering equipment receives 5,000 shekels for every house they demolish. They are making a fortune.” If bombing Palestinians’ homes wasn’t enough, now private contractors are being paid to make sure that Palestinians can never return and fix them. U.S. contractors are also present in Gaza, where they are doing “security.” Other trusted aid distribution organizations were shut out to make room for this inefficient U.S.-led group. When the U.S. deployed thousands of contractors to Iraq after the invasion in 2003, it only caused more turmoil and further entrenched U.S. economic interests into perpetual war, allowing U.S. companies to profit off of instability and violence.
5. U.S. leaders lied to the world about Iran’s nuclear program.
To justify the illegal U.S./Israeli bombing campaigns against Iran, Trump and other officials claimed that Iran was on the brink of building a nuclear weapon – even though there was absolutely no intelligence to suggest that. Just as the Bush administration lied about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction,” the Trump administration created a reason to bomb another country out of thin air. Instead of asking real, journalistic questions, most mainstream outlets quickly hopped on the warmongering bandwagon. The Trump administration continues to spin more lies about how quickly Iran can build a nuclear weapon. It’s the mainstream media’s responsibility to report the truth: Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. If they had any journalistic integrity, they would be reporting on the blatant lies the Trump administration told in a failed attempt to get the public to support the bombing of Iran.
6. Israel bombed a prison in Iran.
Israel, with U.S. political and military support, bombed a prison in Iran, killing over seventy-one people. The attack killed Iranian prisoners, visiting family members, and families living near the prison. Israel deliberately targeted a place where Iranians could not flee during family visiting hours. Attacking a place where people cannot even try to to save themselves is a war crime!
7. Israel is killing Palestinians in the West Bank, too.
All eyes have been on Gaza for the last two years, but the West Bank's increased militarization and increased settler population has put the lives of Palestinians in grave danger. Settler violence over the past few weeks has skyrocketed. Beyond the constant harassment and threats, settlers have lit Palestinian land on fire and thrown rocks and shot at Palestinians. Our friends in the West Bank wrote to us that they are too afraid to go outside after settlers started a fight that ended in the Israeli military killing three Palestinians last week. In two separate instances, the Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers. Why isn’t it front-page news that one of the world's most powerful militaries, and the U.S.’s closest ally, is shooting children at point blank?
8. Israel is still bombing schools.
Israel bombing schools in Gaza has become so common that the subject has its own Wikipedia page. This week alone, Israel bombed five schools that were acting as shelters for displaced Palestinians. Since the beginning of the genocide, according to Palestine Chronicle, “Israeli forces have targeted 256 displacement centers, which collectively sheltered over 700,000 people. According to the media office, the military intensified these attacks in June, bombing at least 11 more centers – mostly schools.”
9. There are allegations that Israel is putting opiates in aid packages.
There are initial reports of Palestinians finding Oxycodone pills in the U.S.-dispatched flour bags they are receiving as aid. If this is an intentional act done by Israel, it would undoubtedly be considered a heinous attack on Palestinians who are trying to survive starvation. Oxycodone is highly addictive and presents a high risk of overdose. Media outlets should be investigating and reporting on these allegations.
10. War comes at a cost – and war spending leads to more violence.
The mainstream media is certainly failing at reporting on the sheer loss of human life when the U.S. or Israel bombs Iran or Gaza. They are also failing when it comes to reporting on the fact that these warmongers are making taxpayers fund their violence – making us unwilling participants in their acts of collective punishment. Trump’s strikes on Iran cost between $1-2 billion, a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly $1 trillion war budget that Trump requested earlier this week, which includes funding requests to continue propping up Israel and antagonizing Iran. The U.S. military budget is the largest in the world; even if the countries directly below the U.S. combined their total military spending, the number wouldn’t even come close. It’s essential that people understand that this war budget fuels all of the violence listed above!
Big media outlets are refusing to tell these stories. Write to them directly and tell them to cover these ten points!
I sometimes turn on mainstream news outlets to see what they’re saying about Gaza. Usually they present the death tolls or announce Israel’s bombing with absolutely no emotion – like human life wasn’t just lost. If they do get angry, their anger never seems to match what they are talking about. When Israel systematically killed babies in incubators at Al-Shifa, I couldn’t understand why these Western reporters weren’t yelling or naming the entity that was responsible. I wonder how all of these Western journalists see videos of Palestinian babies with their legs completely detached from their body and still decide to provide political cover for Israel? They see the same human suffering of Palestinians that I see and, be it for money or career opportunity, still go to work and claim Israel’s war crimes never took place – or simply refuse to say a word about them at all.
Julian Assange said, "If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.” These journalists are genocide propagandists at worst and total cowards at best. I know it feels like we have no power as individuals, and I know speaking the truth can be intimidating, but if we are serious about peace, we need to keep telling the truth as loudly as possible.
Here are all the ways you can uplift Gaza this week, since our media won’t:
In solidarity,
Danaka
P.S. Join our CODEPINK cohort at the virtual Summer School for Socialism starting July 15th!
