On the back of one of the most heart-wrenching weeks in modern history for the Jewish people, it is clear that in Perth, West Australia, that our daily newspaper The West Australian contains heartless, offensive, contextually distorted, irrational, and inaccurate coverage from Israel. Do not be in doubt, the incitement generated by stereotyping Israel as an aggressor has a flow on effect, felt locally and beyond.
During the past month eleven Israelis have been murdered in shocking circumstances. Innocent human beings, Rabbi’s committed to knowledge and morality, were savagely hacked to death in the midst of prayer within a Synagogue. There is no justification, no words, no political mantra that can defend such intolerable murder. Yet the West ascribes moral equivalency, a “cycle of violence” that implies murder is the consequence of settlement. Furthermore, the reporting consistently adopts a Palestinian narrative, without regard to the legitimacy of Jewish construction on Jewish sovereign land. As Prime Minister Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly in September “The people of Israel are not the occupiers in the land of Israel”.
The West Australian thinks that the near-assassinated Rabbi Yehuda Glick, dedicated to universal freedom of prayer on the temple mount is a “radical”. This is the man who stands for peace and has categorically stated “I think that Jews, Muslims, or Christians, anybody who supports peace, anyone who supports praying — talking to G-d — should be allowed to on the Temple Mount.” However the West Australian also thinks that Mahmood Abass, the Palestinian President currently in the ninth year of his four year term, who wrote his thesis on Holocaust Revisionism, is a “moderate”. This is the man who by inference supports the murder of Jews by stating within his (US-forced) condemnation of the attack that the mere presence of Jewish people on their most holy of sites is a “provocation”.
In today’s West Australian there is an unattributed article entitled “Attacks backlash hits Arab workers”. The article refers to the alleged sackings as “racist”. The phrase “charges of racism” is also used again later in the article. One cannot fathom how Israeli’s, genuinely fearful for their security, are racist by taking defensive measures, given several recent terrorist attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists. This aside, the national policy position towards this trend was articulated by Prime Minister Netanyahu who stated “There’s no place for discrimination against Israeli Arabs. We mustn’t generalise about an entire population because of a small minority of violent and belligerent [individuals]. The vast majority of Arab citizens of Israel are law-abiding, and those who violate the law — we work against them with determination”.
Contrast this to Abbas, who accused Israel for “declaring war” for taking security measures against rioters on the Temple Mount. Incitement in the media, indoctrination of children towards hatred, and a vision of a Judenrein Palestinian Sate are the hallmarks of this Palestinian Leader. His response to the brutal murder of Jewish Rabbis in their Jerusalem synagogue was to include in his condemnation a demand for Israel to cease “provocations” over the very presence of Jewish people on the Temple Mount. Whilst he was further inciting hatred, his people were celebrating the Jerusalem massacre by dancing and handing candy to children. No reporting about that in the West Australian.
“Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea. We must not cede this narrative. From the River to the Sea….Palestine belongs to the Palestinians; and the heart of the matter is the right of return, our cause is the right of return.” (Palestinian PA Parliament Member, Khalida Jarrar, April 16, 2014).
It’s strange, but I’ve yet to see an article in the West Australian that suggests that perhaps the stated Palestinian objectives are perhaps, “racist”. Israel, a democracy with 20% of its population being non-Jewish, extends rights and freedom to all its citizens. The Palestinian Authority, a would be Government of a State, even before its creation makes it clear that there is no place for freedom of religion, or (according to the PA coalition partners Hamas) the presence of any Jewish person anywhere.
No moral equivalence between co-existential settlement and Palestinian terrorism will bring peace. A little bit of honest reporting would go a long way towards educating the public as to what is truly happening in Israel. The consistent media demonisation of Israel is the blood libel of modern times, and a sickening blight on a morally bankrupt industry.