Gaza: Media, myths and the mainstream

A Listening Post special on the global media battle taking place parallel to the Israel-Palestine conflict.


When the latest Gaza war broke out in July, there was a parallel conflict taking place in the global media. Myths and propaganda made their way into mainstream coverage and distorted the already conflicting, and highly contentious narratives.

Critics of Israeli government PR did not just take issue with the spin from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they lamented the fact that mainstream Western media bought into that story too readily. And there were pro-Palestinian voices questioning Israel’s emphasis on so-called “human shields”, calling for more contextualised reporting.

The pro-Israel camp then came back with a media counter-offensive, accusing the international media of directing too much attention to Palestinian suffering and underreporting the missiles fired by Hamas.