As tensions rise and Israel is currently engaged in conflagration with terror entities in the Gaza strip, the media plays a vital role in ensuring that coverage is factual. But are they presenting the full picture and truth behind some of the headlines or are they engaged in a battle for clicks and views?

Rolene Marks writes this open letter to the Daily Mail and other media outlets.

To the Editor

It is 07h41 here in Israel and I am writing this while sitting in my bomb shelter. I am no different to the hundreds of thousands doing the same thing. In the last 13 hours, over 200 rockets have been fired from Gaza from terror entities in the Gaza strip, placing millions of Israelis, Jewish, Christian and Muslim in immediate danger. This also invites a response from Israel that places civilians in Gaza in danger and so the cycle continues.

I have read your coverage and would like to draw attention to important facts that need to be made public and have not been included in your coverage. You have not mentioned that 3 children were killed when a rocket misfired. Why were those children close to a rocket launcher? Why is it not mentioned that civilians are used as human shield by terror entities like Hamas and Islamic Jihad who are firing these rockets, threatening to turn cities like Ashkelon “into hell”? Are you aware that 1/3 of rockets fired have landed in the Gaza strip, endangering Palestinian civilians as well? Hamas and other terror entities are committed to inviting as much conflict as possible. Are you aware that residents of a Kibbutz close to the Gaza border yesterday were told to lock themselves in their homes for fear of infiltration? https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2021/Pages/The-rocket-attacks-on-Jerusalem-and-southern-Israel-10-May-2021.aspx

 With regards to the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah – I am attaching this legal explanation on the situation.  https://en.kohelet.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/sheikh-jarrah-brief.pdf.

Please note that this could also be sorted out if the Palestinian residents agreed to a rental option – like most residents living in homes owned by others do.

Are you also aware that protestors in the Al Aqsa Mosque stockpiled rocks and cinder blocks? This is a desecration of a holy site. Rocks were thrown at police and civilians to the cries of “bomb bomb Tel Aviv” and “with our blood and our bodies we will redeem Al Aqsa“.  Yesterday, a Jewish Israeli man was almost lynched but your coverage implied that he randomly rammed his car into some Palestinians. Rocks were thrown at his car, gas/mace sprayed in his eyes and he was almost pulled out of his car. Please correct. Please also mention the 7-month-old baby in Hadassah Hospital who sustained wounds to the forehead from a rock thrown at the car she was in. Thank goodness for a teddy bear tucked into the car seat that absorbed the impact. Yesterday rockets were fired towards Jerusalem, to the cheers of Palestinians as captured on Sky News. What if one of those rockets hit Al Aqsa Mosque as rockets have hit apartments buildings and houses in the last  13 hours? In addition, nearly 50 fires have been set off in southern Israel as a result of arson balloons from the Gaza strip, destroying valuable agricultural farmland.

When covering the conflict between Israel and her neighbours, it is tempting to look at Israel as the Goliath to the Palestinian David. I implore you to take a closer look. This is a conflict where nuance and context is very important and more often than not, is lost in the coverage.

Thank you.

Kind regards

 Rolene Marks

Modiin

Israel.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)