Why does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict receive so much media coverage?

Question

In terms of casualties at least, the conflict isn't that important - there were around twice as many casualties in the last year due to the ongoing Somalian civil war as Israeli casualties in the last 50 years (statistics taken from wikipedia). Yet it seems to receive far more media coverage than other ongoing conflicts (at least in Britain, and I assume the US as well). Why is this?

Answer 1

You are correct that the Israeli-Arab conflict has not resulted in nearly so much death as ongoing conflicts in Africa. You can see from this webpage that, even though the vast majority of conflict-related deaths over the past several decades have taken place in Africa, the British and American media consistently cover other continents more.

However, this is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison. For some time now, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been a primarily military conflict, but a political one. The last major conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank, the Second Intifada, died down around 10 years ago, and Israel's last conventional war was fought thirty years ago.

This isn't to play down the violent threats that Israel faces. Hamas, though severely weakened since the current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power, still launches attacks against Israel. Hezbollah, even though not currently in active conflict with Israel, has been amassing more and more advanced rockets along the Israeli border. However, the news about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tends to come less from intermittent violence and more from the politics of the conflict between Israel and the PA.

To provide a brief historical background: In 1993, under the Oslo Accords, Israel gave a portion of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians, establishing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) to govern it. This agreement created temporary borders for a Palestinian state, but required that the Palestinians renounce violence. Israel and Palestine have so far failed to reach an agreement on final borders, and though the Palestinians have engaged in violence since the Oslo Accords, the temporary borders continue to define a kind of Palestinian state, under the authority of a Palestinian government.

Activism against Israel, as well as much of the media coverage around Israel, tends to focus not on the violent conflict, but on Israel's interactions with the PA and with Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in portions of the West Bank Israel still governs. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel focuses not as much on the violent conflict, but on characterizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank as Apartheid (which isn't a particularly accurate comparison).

So, to answer your question, while it is true that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tends to result in proportionally fewer deaths than other violent conflicts, the media (by-and-large) are not covering the violent conflict, but the political conflict. They aren't talking as much about the few people who may be killed, but about negotiations collapsing or the Palestinian UN Statehood bid or new settlement construction.*

It does not make sense to compare the coverage Israel receives to the coverage other violent conflicts receive because coverage of Israel tends to focus on the political conflict rather than the violent conflict. Of course, that raises another question: does Israel receive disproportionate coverage when compared to other political conflicts? Quite probably, but that question is much harder to answer with reliable metrics, and much more subject to opinion. It is beyond the scope of what can be reasonable discussed here, but hopefully the information I was able to provide helps with your question.

*- Note: my linking to these articles should not be construed as an endorsement of their views. It is just to illustrate what the media are covering.

Answer 2

It's because Israel and the whole near-east region which is affected by it has more economical ties to Europe than Somalia and its surrounding. So the situation in the middle-east affects the western world a lot more.

According to the MITs OEC atlas, Israel has a trade volume of over 50 billion US$ with Europe and North America. This makes it a relevant factor for the world economy. And this is just Israel. Other countries which are involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are also important players on the world market of various goods. This means the situation in the near east has direct impact on the life in the western world. This makes the conflict very news-worthy.

Somalia, however? It's one of the poorest countries in the world. Their exports and imports are negligible, especially those with Europe and North America. It is pretty much irrelevant for world economy. It might sound very cynic and inhumane, but it's the reality: Whether or not thousands of Somalis live or die doesn't concern the western world much.

Answer 3

There are several reasons the conflict is more covered than many other conflicts:

1. the occupation (annexation?) has been going on for a very long time. According to some it is the longest ongoing occupation (Though that opinion is contested - Tibet by China, Japanese islands by USSR/Russia, Scania by Sweden et.c).
2. Israel is a democratic western country. This means they are held to a higher standard than a third-world dictatorship (perhaps unfair, but that's how it is) and that reporters can work there easier.
3. the conflict is tied in with the greater Israeli-Arab conflict and that was in turn tied into the cold war.
4. the conflict just drags on because the leadership on both sides are not really interested in ending the conflict as it is too useful as a political tool. This leads to more drama and thus more reporting.

Answer 4

For the last 20-30 years or so, conflict, mistrust and occasional violence (whether terrorism or wars/occupations) between Westerners and Muslims have been part of our political reality.

The causes for it are complex and have many roots, not least of which some rather shameful behavior from the West wrt gas and oil or past colonial behavior. And to be clear, a big factor is that the religious element in this is often driven by radical and intolerant branches of Islam, of the same type say as the Westboro fanatics. Western civil society has just had more practice at muzzling its religious radicals.

But a significant claimed component of Muslim grievances is also the persistent failure of Israel to provide some measure of accommodation to Palestinians, notably in the form of a two state solution based on pre-1967 borders. This is especially true of the anti-US component of Islamist radicalism, due to the US' constant, unquestioning, support of the Israeli side of things.

So, yes, Westerners are interested in the Israeli-Palestine conflict because, in a very real sense, we are also paying the price for ongoing Israeli intransigence that we already disagree with at an ethical level. Even if negotiations are stalled, that is no excuse for increasing West Bank settlements for example.

To be clear, I support Israel, but in the form of a two state solution, and not at the cost of Palestinians' dignity and well-being.

Finally, there is plenty of newsworthy blame on the Palestinian side of things: without Hamas' insistence on destroying Israel and without the ongoing lethal terrorism via stabbings, bombings and rockets there would be a lot more demand for Israel to negotiate in good faith. As it is, it is hard to support things like BDS to really turn up the pressure. The biggest mistake on the Palestinian side was abandoning the, mostly non-violent, First Intifada.

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Update Sept 2024.

Another outcome of this conflict is causing the West to be accused of double standards on the world stage, and especially so at the UN.

Economist - A UN vote on Palestine underlines America’s weakening clout

“THE RUSSIANS are not the bad guys any more. Now it’s the Americans.” Thus, explains a European diplomat at the UN, the war in Gaza is eclipsing the one in Ukraine. These days many countries are wary of criticising Russia’s aggression. Instead their outrage is directed at Israel and, increasingly, at America for arming and protecting the Jewish state. The accusation of Western double standards, gleefully amplified by Russia and China, resonated across the halls of UN headquarters on September 18th as the General Assembly adopted a far-reaching resolution to exert pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories within a year.

Yes, this is obviously in the context of Hamas' 10/7 - which have, again, shown the terroristic nature of that organization. World opinion is clearly divided on the nature of Israeli operations in Gaza versus Israel's right to defend itself. Whatever moral calculus is applied to Israeli operations since 10/7, leaving this conflict to fester in the years-long lulls between armed clashes is proving quite detrimental to the West's diplomatic clout and thus another cause for concern and watchfulness.

Answer 5

Others have provided some reasons why Europe or the US might care more about Palestine than about other regions and obviously media attention is always somewhat arbitrary but at this point, this has become a self-sustaining process. What happens in this conflict is news in the West, just because.

On a more practical level, I imagine that if you were managing a news media outlet and deliberately decided not to cover some significant development in the Middle East, some of your audience would probably feel you were not doing a very good job. Most of the events that do get reported can also be construed as painting one side or the other in a negative light so not reporting them will also attract accusations of bias.

Answer 6

1. The Jerusalem is a holy place for both Muslims and Jews.
2. The life and safety of many people (Jews and Muslims living there) is at risk at that place of earth because of the wars between Palestine and Israel there.
3. The ownership of that holy place is important religiously for both Muslims and Jews and in history has been owned by both side.

Answer 7

In The Ethics of War, Bertrand Russell outlined the justification for war of colonization:

In order that such wars may be justified, it is necessary that there should be a very great and undeniable difference between the civilization of the colonizers and that of the dispossessed natives. It is necessary also that the climate should be one in which the invading race can flourish. When these conditions are satisfied the conquest becomes justified, though the actual fighting against the dispossessed inhabitants ought, of course, to be avoided as far as is compatible with colonizing. Many humane people will object in theory to the justification of this form of robbery, but I do not think that any practical or effective objection is likely to be made.

In 2014, the climate factor is probably no longer relevant. A third factor, which is implicit in the passages that followed, becomes even more relevant, that is, the complete victory of the invading race. Bertrand Russell is a wise man, but is never a moralist. He is a shrewd clairvoyant with an extraordinary foresight. He condemns Israel because, although Israel represents a far advanced civilization, events in the Middle East will eventually lead to its own destruction, and therefore ruin our Lord's beloved Western Civilization.

This statement on the Middle East was dated 31st January, 1970, and was read on 3rd February, the day after Bertrand Russell's death, to an International Conference of Parliamentarians meeting in Cairo. Notice "miscalculation," that is the kind of word our Lord Bertrand Russell would use.

The latest phase of the undeclared war in the Middle East is based upon a profound miscalculation. The bombing raids deep into Egyptian territory will not persuade the civilian population to surrender, but will stiffen their resolve to resist. This is the lesson of all aerial bombardment.

The Vietnamese who have endured years of American heavy bombing have responded not by capitulation but by shooting down more enemy aircraft. In 1940 my own fellow countrymen resisted Hitler's bombing raids with unprecedented unity and determination. For this reason, the present Israeli attacks will fail in their essential purpose, but at the same time they must be condemned vigorously throughout the world.

The development of the crisis in the Middle East is both dangerous and instructive. For over 20 years Israel has expanded by force of arms. After every stage in this expansion Israel has appealed to “reason” and has suggested “negotiations”. This is the traditional role of the imperial power, because it wishes to consolidate with the least difficulty what it has already taken by violence. Every new conquest becomes the new basis of the proposed negotiation from strength, which ignores the injustice of the previous aggression. The aggression committed by Israel must be condemned, not only because no state has the right to annexe foreign territory, but because every expansion is an experiment to discover how much more aggression the world will tolerate.

The refugees who surround Palestine in their hundreds of thousands were described recently by the Washington journalist I.F. Stone as “the moral millstone around the neck of world Jewry.” Many of the refugees are now well into the third decade of their precarious existence in temporary settlements. The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was “given” by a foreign Power to another people for the creation of a new State. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their number have increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East.

We are frequently told that we must sympathize with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. I see in this suggestion no reason to perpetuate any suffering. What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy. Not only does Israel condemn a vast number. of refugees to misery; not only are many Arabs under occupation condemned to military rule; but also Israel condemns the Arab nations only recently emerging from colonial status, to continued impoverishment as military demands take precedence over national development.

All who want to see an end to bloodshed in the Middle East must ensure that any settlement does not contain the seeds of future conflict. Justice requires that the first step towards a settlement must be an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in June, 1967. A new world campaign is needed to help bring justice to the long-suffering people of the Middle East.

Source: http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX5576-RussellMidEast.htm

Answer 8

1. The question is now almost 10 years old, and a 2024 answer might seems not relevant, but it is not true. If the question was to only receive now-old answers, why to keep the question alive, just as archive? Not to say the merit of the question still persist. For example Some Jews in 2023 have expressed their wonder why people care Palestinian victims while the statistics is way smaller than the statistics in many other Western wars. Even some US politicians also show their wonder in this regard, as US killed millions in Afghanistan and Iraq and no such reaction was received globally (cf for example Reuters, Watson Institute, and also here). So the question is still a valid one, and can be answered by new answers.

2. One reason can be the importance of the region, as e.g. in response to why help Israel this much Biden said we should have build Israel if it had not existed there at all. This importance is religious/historical for some (Muslims/Jews/Christians), but mostly geopolitical/economical for those in power.

3. Media coverage now merely follow independent social media, trying to mix right news with lies (like those newborn babies burnt by Hamas, which turned out to be lies, and you can think about the intention of the Western and Israeli politicians/media for promoting such news), making bold the right for Israelis to defend themselves and weaken the idea that Palestinian lives also matter while they cannot defend themselves. People watch the brutality and ask questions, and rebel, and the Western government cannot remain silent, though they do it sometimes to make it appear not much important. Media should cover this conflict so to have a share in the battle of narrations, to control the social attitude.

4. Why people reacted this much to this conflict while they didn't react as much with regard to mass killing by Westerners in Iraq and other countries of the same region? Maybe because they, all of a sudden, was confronted with such News that shew them they were extensively lied for decades about Israel and how moral Israelis there are. Western media should so something about this, as they are largely criticized and de-credited. This is not only about Israel, but also about the Western government who express deep sorrow about the suffer Palestinians bear, but in action they do anything they can to support Israel, providing them with all sorts of troops and mass-killing munitions, and even have soldiers there fighting for Israel. So people (Western, or Western-like and even Arab Muslims) wonder about the hypocrisy of their own governments, and this magnifies a lot when they see their governments slam their rebels against Israel, defending Israel against even their own people, so that not media and neither governments can not remain silent, and should cover both the conflict and the rebels in the way they like people to accept from them.

5. Some conflicts seems simply between two governments but they are not, like the war between the South and North Korea, or between Iraq and Iran, or between Russia and Ukraine, and now between Israel and Hamas (and allies). This is intrinsically different than Somalian civil war. Both sides on some of such conflicts have their supporters overall the globe, and there is a possibility that a simple regional conflict will outgrow to a world war, or at least, engage several other countries/regions into a war.

Answer 9

It's been covered more extensively than other conflicts for a number of reasons;

1. It is one of the world's longest running conflict.

2. The geopolitics of the situation drew in at first, the British Empire and then the American Empire aka the USA. These two are hegenomic Western sites of power and prestige and so their affairs, including their meddling in middle eastern affairs are writ large.

3. Israel-Palestine is at a confluence of three of the great religions - Judaism, Christianity & Islam.

4. Israel is the last Western colony to be implanted on foreign soil. Given the vast decolonisation movement and the in the latter half of the 20C this also gives the conflict prominence.