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Media Omit Criticism, Glorify the Red Cross’ Role Amid Israel-Hamas War
Hostages who were abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel are handed over by Hamas terrorists to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, in this screengrab taken from video released Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS
Two stories on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war deserved coverage last week: Comments on the situation in Gaza by the organization’s head, and the filing of a lawsuit against the Red Cross over its failure to help Israeli hostages.
Unfortunately, major news agencies echoed the former but were completely silent on the latter.
This selective omission focused all attention on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, at the expense of the suffering of Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
This view was further promoted by two factors: The media’s blindness to the Red Cross’ responsibility for the Israeli hostages, and the glorification of the organization’s humanitarian role.
Reuters and AP Reveal and Conceal
On December 19, Reuters gave a platform to Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric, who had spoken to journalists after her visit to Israel and Gaza.
The headline, “Gaza war is world’s ‘moral failure’, Red Cross chief says” could be seen as judgmental — was Israel supposed to refrain from going to war after the brutal Hamas massacre of its citizens on October 7? Isn’t it a moral failure for the world to not consider such a war morally justified?
Regardless, the piece gives a balanced account, presenting Israel’s criticism of the Red Cross followed by the president’s response.
Although the ICRC facilitated the release of hostages during the truce, the group has been criticised by some Israelis for not doing more to free others and provide them with medical care. Some social media users have equated it to a taxi service to drive hostages out of Gaza.
“You don’t just go there and take the hostages and bring them out,” Spoljaric said, saying that any analogy with an Uber or taxi service was “unacceptable and outrageous.”
The AP took the same approach. Its report, included on a live-updates page, led with Spoljaric’s counter-claims against Israel’s criticism:
Clearly, countering the criticism against the Red Cross was high on the agenda of both the organization’s president and the journalists covering her comments.
The problem was that two days later, both Reuters and AP ignored the manifestation of the very criticism they had mentioned by choosing not to cover the filing of an Israeli lawsuit against the Red Cross.
The lawsuit was filed in a Jerusalem court by an Israeli NGO on behalf of the families of 24 of the 240 Israelis abducted by Hamas during the deadly October 7 massacre. It accuses the aid organization of failing in its mission, and seeks about $2.8 million in damages.
By any journalistic standard, with or without previous coverage of the Red Cross president’s position, the lawsuit should have been covered — as it was by The New York Times, Newsweek, and AFP.
But when the world’s two leading news agencies ignore it, especially after giving center stage to the narrative of the Red Cross, it’s problematic.
Could it be that as a stand-alone, the story couldn’t be “framed” the “right” way? Was it too “pro-Israel”?
A look at a recent mention of the Red Cross in an unrelated AP story reveals the hidden bias:
Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions of people detained.
With no mention of the Red Cross’ role regarding Israeli hostages, the one-sided assumption here is that the organization should answer only to the Palestinian side — which in this case is represented by Hamas, a terrorist organization.
Hypocrisy #1: @AP reports that Hamas has called on the Red Cross to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts & conditions of detained Gazans.
Hypocrisy #2: AP won’t mention the Red Cross’s failure to access Israeli hostages held by Hamas.https://t.co/pYhHM7QFRf
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 24, 2023
CNN’s Blindness and Glorification
A look at how CNN recently interviewed a Red Cross employee in Gaza provides further evidence of the erasure of Israeli suffering from the agenda by the Red Cross and media alike.
The interviewer starts by asking for the employee’s reaction to a new Israeli offer to pause the fighting and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of a new hostages for prisoners release deal.
What follows is the Red Cross employee talking solely about the dire situation in Gaza, with no clear mention of the Israeli hostages. The interviewer does not push back and does not inquire about the Red Cross’ failure to reach them.
CNN also recently published a puff piece on the Red Cross. Titled “‘In the line of fire:’ The crucial, neutral role the Red Cross plays in conflicts,” the report glorified the organization’s role in the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity.
While it did mention the criticism of hostage families who had said the Red Cross was nothing more than “an Uber for released hostages,” the piece needlessly included lengthy historical background on the important role of the “honored” humanitarian organization:
Founded in Geneva in 1863, the ICRC is the oldest and one of the most honored humanitarian organizations in the world.
A three-time Nobel Peace Prize winner, winning the award during the two World Wars and on the centenary of its creation, the ICRC operates in more than 100 countries, supporting those affected by war, natural disasters and other global crises through a humanitarian network of some 80 million people.
But the article conveniently skipped the organization’s darkest historical chapter, when it had failed Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust.
In light of the omissions and glorifications, it should come as no surprise that there was also no coverage of Israel’s claim that the Red Cross had refused to transfer life-saving medicine to Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The media also have not mentioned that the newly appointed director-general of the Red Cross is a controversial former head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
When media outlets selectively conceal and reveal information in order to maintain the narrative of a holier-than-thou aid organization that helps desperate Gazans and has come under unjust criticism by Israel, they violate their most basic journalistic mission: to objectively report the facts.
The result is two-fold: news consumers are prevented from knowing the entire story, and they are also robbed of their ability to independently pass judgment on events.
Subtly, many media outlets have already told them what to think.
The post Media Omit Criticism, Glorify the Red Cross’ Role Amid Israel-Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Incoming US Senate Majority Leader Threatens ICC With Sanctions Over Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, March 31, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Incoming US Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has threatened to push legislation imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it does not halt its efforts to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Thune, who was picked last week to be the next Senate majority leader once the Republicans take control of the legislative chamber in January, wrote Sunday on X/Twitter that he will make it a “top priority” to punish the ICC if it refuses to walk back its arrest warrant application issued against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The US lawmaker also indicated he would take action if Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the current Senate majority leader, does not do so against the intergovernmental organization.
“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,” he wrote. “If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this — and other supportive legislation ‚ a top priority in the next Congress.”
In May, the ICC chief prosecutor officially requested arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Gallant, and three Hamas terrorist leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh — accusing all five men of “bearing criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel or the Gaza Strip. The three Hamas leaders have since been killed, and Gallant was recently fired as Israel’s defense minister.
US and Israeli officials subsequently issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has come under fire for making his surprise demand for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on the same day in May that he suddenly canceled a long-planned visit to both Gaza and Israel to collect evidence of alleged war crimes. The last-second cancellation infuriated US and British leaders, according to Reuters, which reported that the trip would have offered Israeli leaders a first opportunity to present their position and outline any action they were taking to respond to the war crime allegations.
Thune’s Republican colleagues praised his threat to the ICC, suggesting that the Senate should target the international organization.
“Well done Senator Thune. The ICC’s actions against Israel have been outrageous, and an independent review into the prosecutor’s actions is more than called for,” wrote Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). :The Senate should take up the ICC sanctions bill that passed the House in a bipartisan manner. Standing up for Israel today protects America tomorrow.”
“The Senate must immediately pass legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court,” stated Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY.), chair of the Senate Republican Conference. “Senate Republicans stands with Israel.”
“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee can and should act ASAP to pass ICC sanctions legislation. We waited for months for the majority to schedule the vote only to have them postpone it before the election. We will not fail to act when Republicans are in the majority,” wrote Sen. John Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) wrote that the Senate “should immediately consider the bipartisan legislation passed by the House to sanction the ICC.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) added that Thune is “right” and that “Chuck Schumer should do his job” by advancing legislation to sanction the ICC.
The US has said it does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction and rejects the implied equivalence drawn between Israel and Hamas.
The post Incoming US Senate Majority Leader Threatens ICC With Sanctions Over Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Concordia closes its Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, citing ‘budgetary constraints’
It was announced quietly, wit a small, two-paragraph notice replacing the web page for Concordia University’s Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), along with an unrelated stock […]
The post Concordia closes its Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, citing ‘budgetary constraints’ appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Jamaal Bowman Continues Diatribes Against Israel, AIPAC; Expresses Pride in Not Condemning Oct. 7 Massacre
US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks during the National Action Network National Convention in New York City, US, April 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
In his final weeks as a US federal lawmaker, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has continued his persistent condemnation of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating “apartheid” against Palestinians, expressing pride in not supporting a resolution condemning Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, and arguing against the funding of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.
During a newly released interview with left-wing pundit Rania Khalek, Bowman reflected on his unsuccessful reelection bid earlier this year. The lawmaker blamed the “pro-Israel lobby” for his loss in the Democratic primary, claiming that his outspokenness about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war made him a target for “Zionists.”
Bowman, one of the staunchest critics of Israel in the US Congress, argued that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, overwhelmed his campaign by spending roughly $15 million to aid his opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer. He added that his constituents were stunned that a “special interest” group such as AIPAC “can remove a congressman” by submerging a primary race in a torrent of money.
“Now the world has seen AIPAC for who they are,” Bowman stated.
The stated mission of AIPAC is to seek bipartisan support to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.
Bowman admitted that he did not know much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he initially ran for office, opting to parrot talking points such as Israel “has a right to exist” and a “right to defend itself.”
Bowman said that his opinion on Israel was transformed after he visited the country on a trip sponsored by J Street, a progressive Zionist organization that recently called for the US to impose an arms embargo against the Jewish state. The left-wing firebrand said that the trip — which consisted of a series of discussions with peace activists, scholars, and former Israel Defense Force (IDF) officers — soured his view of the Jewish state, comparing the security checkpoints and barrier wall that separate Israel and the West Bank to protect against terrorism with the Jim Crow laws in the US south segregating black Americans.
Khalek asked Bomwan if his view on Iron Dome has shifted, citing that the missile interception system “shields Israel from the consequences for bombing all of its neighbors, for constantly stealing land.”
The congressman claimed that his view on Israel’s air defense system has changed, arguing that it represents “a weapon to use and continue apartheid, oppression, open-air prison, occupation, and now the genocide” of Palestinians. He said that he regrets voting in favor of Iron Dome funding, and that the missile defense system should only be replenished if the Palestinians are given a fully-funded army on Israel’s borders.
Bowman also criticized a congressional resolution condemning the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, suggesting that AIPAC authored the document. He dismissed the notion that the mass murder, rape, and kidnapping of Israelis on Oct. 7 was “unprovoked,” claiming that Israel initiated the aggression by enacting “apartheid” on Palestinians. He then lambasted American governors, senators, and President Joe Biden for immediately showing empathy to Israelis, saying that legislators were being “dishonest” and not having a “full conversation” about the Jewish state.
In the year following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Bowman intensified his rhetoric against Israel and pro-Israel organizations. Over the summer, he condemned AIPAC as a “Zionist regime.” In a desperate attempt to salvage his ill-fated primary effort, he promise the Democratic Socialists of America — a prominent far-left organization that has made anti-Israel activism a top priority — that he would vote against future Iron Dome funding in exchange for financial backing of his campaign. Bowman infamously dismissed the widely reported and corroborated allegations of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women during the Oct. 7 onslaught as “propaganda” before being forced to walk back his remarks.
In June, Latimer cruised to a commanding victory over Bowman, winning by a margin of 58 percent to 41 percent.
The post Jamaal Bowman Continues Diatribes Against Israel, AIPAC; Expresses Pride in Not Condemning Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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