Thank you BBC, CNN for setting the trend for change

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

It gives a sense of relief that prime western media outlets - the BBC and the CNN - have succeeded to identify gaps between what the rulers and the military of Israel are telling the world about the things happening on the ground to justify the barbaric racist attacks on Palestinian civilians under the cloak of eradicating Hamas that had launched the October 7 attack inside Israel killing 1300 people mostly civilians including children.

This realisation of the BBC and the CNN was urgently needed to unmask the most inhuman brutalities perpetrated not only in Gaza but also the West Bank despite the voices of protest from all over the world including the United Nations and Human Rights organisations like the Human Rights Watch and refugee rights defenders, Refugees International. 

Unlike wars of the past the present war is happening virtually before the eyes of conscious citizens of the world. This explanis why President Joe Biden has to face people in socials who tell him bluntly that his last election rival now appears to have been better because he was against war. And Secretary of Antony Blinken has to pause his statement at a social meeting where one attendee loudly pleaded for protecting the children of Gaza and was taken out by a guard while some back benchers brandished their hands painted red.

But the western media continued to preach Hamas terrorism while covering up the barbarism of the Israeli military. So far they have taken the narratives of the Natanyahu administration as verses from the Old Testament. The latest realisation of the BBC and the CNN hopefully will open the vista of change of motivated perceptions and stop airing of illogical anti-Palestinian propaganda.

The reports that are being referred to include one by the BBC showing footages where Israeli military is showing rifles, footwear and clothing of reportedly Hamas operatives in Al Shifa Hospital which it claimed was used as a command centre. The BBC reporter who narrated the story contradicted the narratives saying the weapons shown do not represent a military depot nor the biggest hospital, its inside and surroundings or tunnels reflect a command centre. 

Fact remains based on the fabricated allegations the Israeli military conducted raids around the hospital, took it under siege and stopped its water and power supplies causing emergency patients including chidren and foetuses in incubators to suffocate to death. 

An investigation done by the Human Rights Watch has shown that the Israeli military inflicted huge damage to an international eye hospital, made air raids around an Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, a Turkish hospital apart from the Al Shifa Hospital mentioned above. HRW has urged investigation of those as war crimes.

The CNN report narrated the racist and hate crimes perpetrated both in Gaza and the West Bank while putting the blame for those on Palestinians. The report similarly made mention of violence around the Al Aqsa mosque and concluded that there were huge gaps between what the Israelis were doing in Palestinian territories and what they were preaching. It quoted from the Hertz newspaper to substantiate its point how the Israeli government including some cabinet members were promoting racism and hate crimes. It made mention of the killing of about 170 Palestinians in hate crimes in the West Bank during the current conflict.

It is hoped that the tide of change in perceptions in the western media would over time lead to a greater understanding of the Middle East and its peoples. The Palestinians to be precise are descendants of the Egyptian civilisation, one of the oldest in the world. They may not be rich monetarily, nor developed technologically, but their social behaviour and norms reflect a rich civilisation one may envy but would require a millennia to attain.

The current conflict has brought to the fore the pertinent two-state solution on which only durable peace can be established in the Middle East. Many UN resolutions have delivered nothing to the indigenous people of Palestine. The Camp David and Oslo agreements have not achieved their objectives. Time has come for the world to confront the Benjamin Netanyahu dream of a greater Israel by wiping out the Palestinians from their last remaining lands in Gaza and the West Bank. If this madness cannot be stopped, world leaders must woke up and realise that collapse of the present international governance system is visible and only a matter of time. Remaking it would be very costly if urgent repair works cannot be done right now to ensure that the Universal declaration of human rights applies to all without discrimination and HR violators are punished without hesitation.

(The writer is the editor of GreenWatch Dhaka online newspaper)