Sending a journalist into the cauldron of the Mideast conflict without any background knowledge is a sure way to produce uninformed articles. Sadly, The Times has published a feature by women’s issues writer Stefanie Marsh entitled “Hopeless in Gaza“. Hopeless is an accurate description of Marsh’s attempts to get to grips with her subject material.
In an inauspicious start, the article’s byline refers to “a wall built on 2500 years of implacable emnity and hatred”. On the basis that Islam was founded in the 7th century AD, we wonder where Marsh picked this figure from.
To her credit, Marsh enters the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a great deal of scepticism and perhaps a clean sheet. This credit dries up, however, at Marsh’s apparent dismissal of differing viewpoints from the conflict. While Marsh gives Oxfam officials a free rein to espouse some very naive opinions, Israelis, including an official from the Government Press Office and an Israeli photographer are given short thrift. If Marsh is so concerned at being “lobbied” by all sides, why is Oxfam any more credible than the Israelis who are mentioned in the article?
Perhaps Marsh is trying to demonstrate a form of moral equivalency by demonstrating that each side of the conflict is as bad as the other. She fails, however, as the bulk of the article becomes Palestinian-centric as Marsh becomes trapped by the conceptual framework of the conflict that her initial scepticism sought to avoid.
The result is a flawed piece of superficial journalism as Marsh fails to dig any deeper or add some very necessary context to her piece. It appears that she accepts Oxfam director Barbara Stocking’s assertion that “Palestinian suffering will only end if there is an end to occupation”. This emphasis on Palestinian suffering – not peace – lies at the heart of Marsh’s limited perspective.
Thus, there is no examination in the article, of Palestinian terror that has directly led to Israeli measures, such as the security barrier, to protect her citizens. There is no mention of Qassam missiles or the extremism of Hamas that has led to the virtual international isolation of Gaza – only the impression that Israel is solely responsible for the economic mire that the Palestinians find themselves in.
We hope that The Times may wish to commission another piece from an Israeli perspective, for example, examining the plight of Sderot. In the meantime, please send your considered comments to The Times – [email protected]
For more information on the activities of Oxfam in Israel and the Palestinian territories, which Stefanie Marsh so easily dismissed, see NGO Monitor.
ONE YEAR ANALYSIS – THE BBC IN 2007
In July of 2007, HonestReporting released an in-depth report analysing 6 months of the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It found that the BBC tended to portray Israeli actions in a negative light while increasing sympathy for the Palestinian point of view.
HR continued its study for the remainder of 2007, analysing an additional 129 BBC articles about the conflict. The results confirm the principle finding — BBC reporting reflects a clear bias against Israel.
Read the latest repor
t in full here.
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