SEE NO EVIL, BROADCAST NO EVIL

When the media turn into stenographers for Hamas rather than trusted sources for information.

By Rolene Marks

A wise person once said that there “are none so blind who will not see”.  If ever there was evidence of this, it has been the press coverage during Israel’s war with Hamas. We are inundated with headlines that routinely place blame on Israel and abdicate Hamas of any responsibility for their role in this war. Media outlets quote the Hamas-controlled casualty figures as fact and the latest slander is the accusation of a policy of mass starvation, despite the transparent sharing of information by the IDF’s COGAT unit, responsible for humanitarian aid. The heartbreaking images of Palestinian children who are emaciated has been proven to be of patients suffering from congenital diseases.

Facts be damned!

Many are wondering if the media have become stenographers for Hamas rather than trusted sources for information. We believe that we can fight Hamas’s carefully crafted propaganda campaign with facts; and in an ideal world, that is how it should be – but in the last two years, we have seen a frightening new phenomenon with the legacy media. The failure to report factually.

Is it lazy journalism – or something a lot more insidious?

It starts in the field.

We believe that if we take the foreign press to see the killing fields of the south, or the thousands of pallets of uncollected aid inside Gaza, that they will somehow see our side and what we are fighting.

Sadly, many have already written their stories before they see the evidence. I know this because in the last 9 months I have experienced it a few times when I have joined colleagues to cover events. Two specific incidents remain burned into my mind.

I recall a visit to Nir Oz on day 360 of the war with a group of foreign press and the few of us Israeli journalists. Nearly a year later, the stench of death assailed us as we walked through the ravaged Kibbutz. Standing outside the decimated home of Oded and Yocheved Lipschitz, we all stood listening to their daughter-in-law Rita share how the family hoped that whoever held him captive, recognized that he was one of several volunteers who would drive Palestinian children needing cancer treatment to Israeli hospitals. One of the foreign journalists, big grin on his face turned to another and said, “a little bit of destruction in this neighbourhood.” The journalist he directed this comment to, grinned in response.  It is impossible for me to express the anger and hurt witnessing that exchange. In February 2025, the Lipschitz family would lay Oded to rest. He was murdered in captivity and his remains were released alongside those of Shiri Bibas and her two flame-haired children, Kfir and Ariel in a grotesque ceremony during the ceasefire and hostage release agreement earlier this year.

The more recent example involves Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC. It is no secret that tensions between Jerusalem and Canberra have become increasingly tense since 7 October. Few can forget Foreign Minister Wong’s refusal to visit the decimated communities affected by the massacre, or the public trading of criticisms between government representatives of both countries in the wake of Australia’s stated intention to recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s UNGA.

Three weeks ago, I was part of a small press contingent taken into the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing to document the thousands of pallets of humanitarian aid that the UN and various aid agencies have been very slow to collect, while routinely accusing Israel of initiating a policy of mass starvation. Aid trucks with their drivers in them waiting for the greenlight from the UN, idled nearby and a UN vehicle was stationed close.

My report:

Journalists were given free rein to walk around and document what we were seeing. While we were under the watchful eye of the IDF there to protect us and answer any questions we may have had, none of the soldiers inhibited us in any way or told us that we HAD to share any specific information. What we witnessed spoke for itself. It spoke to everyone it seemed, except for the two correspondents from ABC.

Standing amongst the towers of aid marked UN, UNICEF and World Food Programme, with a solemn face, the ABC journalist said:

 “This is the face that Israel wants you to see how it is prosecuting the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

The reporter continued with his scathing report, trying to cast doubt on Israel’s claims. Several takes were needed to make it sufficiently withering in its delivery. The insinuation was that it was an orchestrated attempt by Israel to brush off accusations of deliberate starvation. Those of us who witnessed it were astounded. We could not believe what we were seeing.

Had they not seen exactly what we had? Mountains of food, hygiene kits, baby food and so much more rotting in the blazing heat waiting for collection by the very entities accusing Israel of starvation? It was no coincidence that once safely deposited back inside Israel; the two Australian ABC correspondents  beat a rather hasty retreat.

These two incidents demonstrate the alarming trend in agenda-based reporting. We must hold our media accountable to share facts and not editorial or personal agendas. Misrepresentation of facts and deliberate misinformation is creating a terrifying global climate of antisemitism and misguided foreign policy decisions. We cannot dismiss this trend – our safety is a stake. We need to hold our media accountable.

As media consumers, we are not powerless; we have agency and need to demand better from our press.

Lives depend on it – both Israelis and Palestinians.

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).