On March 6, the United Nations warned that a current conflict that has already killed and displaced millions of people risks triggering “the world’s worst hunger crisis.”
Some of the statement’s key points include:
- “A staggering 14 million children are in desperate need of lifesaving assistance”
- “Millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake”
- “Across the war-torn country, 18 million people are acutely food insecure and five million now face starvation”
- “Restricted in their movements by ongoing violence and interference from warring parties and severely underfunded, humanitarian aid workers can barely help those in need”
- “Humanitarian assistance was further disrupted after the authorities revoked permits for cross-border truck convoys”
It’s telling that @nytimes had to profile the tragic case of a Gazan boy with a serious pre-existing health issue — cerebral palsy — to illustrate “starvation” in the Gaza Strip. https://t.co/VhfQhFoR2r
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 9, 2024
Less than 24 hours later on March 7, the United Nations issued another warning:
- “The situation is appalling. Every minute, every hour, it is getting worse”
- “In the north, one in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished…”
- “We need to flood the market… with humanitarian goods as well as re-energize the private sector so commercial goods can enter to meet the need of civilians…”
- “At the same time, humanitarian supplies via air or sea are ‘not a substitute for what we need to see arrive on land…'”
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The first statement was about Sudan, a country that has been racked by a conflict that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.
According to the International Rescue Committee, which placed Sudan at the top of its Emergency Watchlist last year, nearly 6 million people have been displaced, and more than half the population (24.8 million people) needs humanitarian aid, with 17.7 million facing crisis-level or worse food insecurity.
The IRC has also stated that amid mass displacement and reports of mass killings, humanitarian access has been severely curtailed.
The second statement was about Gaza and the ongoing aid delivery problems that have affected the Strip as Israel wages war against Hamas.
As the United Nations makes clear in its statements, both Sudan and Gaza are facing a humanitarian catastrophe. However, the war in Sudan is impacting a much larger number of people and has gone on for much longer.
One might think that media organizations would think both crises were worthy of attention. After all, the UN statements were published mere hours apart and warned of similarly dire situations.
Alas, not so.
The Guardian and The New York Times, for example, both included details of the UN’s statement about Gaza in their coverage of what was variously described as a “humanitarian disaster” affecting millions of “besieged Palestinians.”
Likewise, both publications covered in depth the March 5 UN statement — signed by several UN rapporteurs — which, among other grotesque and unfounded allegations, accused Israel of “intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza…”
Yet, neither outlet dedicated any coverage to the UN’s statement about Sudan — not a single paragraph was printed about an impending catastrophe that would amount to “the world’s worst hunger crisis.”
Despite the tons of food aid that is being delivered to Gaza, Israel is being accused of “intentionally starving Palestinians” by UN experts. Let’s meet the experts who the media are presenting as credible and impartial… pic.twitter.com/QGELjeiU9A
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 8, 2024
While media selectivity in news coverage, especially as it relates to Israel, is nothing new, the contrast in the amount of news coverage afforded to Sudan by mainstream media outlets compared to Gaza is revealing.
A data analysis by HonestReporting shows that in the three months following the outbreak of the war in Sudan on April 15, 2023, the conflict in the North African country was mentioned 172,000 times by English-language news outlets worldwide.
Compare this with the war in Gaza, which was the subject of 2.3 million articles. More than 10 times the amount of news coverage was given to Gaza compared to Sudan during an equal period following the start of each conflict.
The disparity in the volume of news coverage dedicated to both crises epitomizes the international media’s singular fixation on the Jewish state. For the media, when it comes to Israel, the myriad injustices and atrocities occurring around the globe seemingly dissolve into the background, becoming unworthy of the same scrutiny or outrage.
Although all too familiar to Israel and its supporters, the selective moral outrage is depressing nonetheless.
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