Uprising Without Explanation

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>>What about it?  I'm not a supporter of Israel.  I'm simply telling you that
>>most people sympathize with the Israelis, and any plausible explanation of
>>why this happens to be so must account for a number of variables besides
>>what the US government thought to be in its interest.
>
>Thanks for clarifying that. I don't know if you are right about who 
>people sympathize with. It's not as if there is open debate going on 
>about this subject. There's the media representation: Israel is 
>always "defending" itself; Palestinians are always "terrorizing" 
>someone. That's what most people know.
>
>What other variables did you have in mind?
>
>Joanna

One of the most important variables in construction of sympathies in 
stories about Israel/Palestine is whether the root cause of the 
uprising -- Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza -- is 
mentioned at all.  Another is whether the occupation is clearly 
portrayed in stories as illegal according to international law and 
unjust toward Palestinians.

Here's an excellent article by Seth Ackerman: "Uprising Without 
Explanation: 'Occupation' a Taboo Word in Intifada Coverage," 
_Extra!_ (January/February 2001), 
<http://www.fair.org/extra/0101/intifada.html>.

Over the last couple of weeks, reporting on Israel/Palestine has, in 
my opinion, improved a good deal in some media outlets. 
Representations of Israel/Palestine still leave much to be desired, 
but more references to the occupation and explanations of its 
injustice have appeared lately than, say, one year ago.

If we stay on the message -- "End the occupation, end US support for 
Israel" -- we may be able to make some progress.
-- 
Yoshie

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