Letter to The Guardian: language matters when reporting on Israeli military attacks on starving Palestinian civilians seeking food and aid.
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The headline of The Guardian published on Friday 1 March 2024 reads, “More than 100 Palestinians die in chaos surrounding Gaza aid convoy”, noting underneath that the Israeli military rejects the claim of any wrongdoing and blames the Palestinian people themselves.
At the time of writing, 115 people and counting were murdered whilst waiting for urgent food aid and 760 people were injured. This was clearly a massacre by a state already directed by the International Court of Justice to take all possible measures to prevent acts prohibited by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
To kill people deliberately denied access to food while they await life-saving aid is beyond comprehension. This cannot be framed as “Palestinians die” when the cause of their death is so clear. This language contributes to dehumanising people of colour, Muslims and Arabs, thus propping up the racism and Islamophobia currently rife across westernised countries.
Politicians hide in plain sight when media publish such phrases on front pages.
We call on The Guardian, with its global reach and international influence, to stop using such obfuscatory language when reporting on Israeli military attacks on civilians. It is immoral to be complicit in the narratives of oppressive powers, in Palestine and every land whose people endure the threat of genocide.
Signed
Shaista Aziz, Rob Grace and Alexia Pepper de Caires - current and former international aid workers