Israeli News of the Gaza Strip

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Soon after Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections, Israel imposed an increasingly harsh blockade on Gaza to put pressure on Hamas. The blockade imprisoned 1.8 million innocent Palestinians leading many of them to live below poverty levels due to limited food, medical supplies, and essential goods. The siege of the Gaza Strip made getting news coverage a near impossibility for foreign news media. In order to receive a press card to Gaza, journalists needed to undergo a security check and sign a censorship form agreeing to submit the articles they have written during their time in Gaza to the Israeli government. If reporters or journalist did not follow the rules of Israel or practice censorship, they were harassed, imprisoned, or threatened by the Israeli government. Many reporters kept what they seen to themselves until they were safely back in their countries where they wrote what they truly seen inside. Others just wrote what they believed was right while they were in Gaza jeopardizing their lives. The United States Media, however, was strictly on the Israeli side and would overlook or avoid certain topics about the Gaza blockade. Many times the American media manipulated or framed the story in a way to mislead readers from what the reality of the Gaza blockade was.
One of the highly censored news reports during the Gaza blockade was about Israel setting a calorie limit during the siege. In American news media, they would mention how Israel counted the amount of calories Palestinians needed to make sure they were not malnourished in a couple of sentences, and then would go on to talk about how Hamas is enforcing strict laws, such as prohibiting kissing in public, or improper behavior in streets. Additionally, the American ...

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...weight watchers and put Palestinians on a diet. In reality, though when you look at other foreign press they are using it to make nuclear weapons or bombs to kill innocent civilians. Who are the terrorists now?
With this great dichotomy between different news presses, how should we know that the American news is censored? We should look at why we think America would not want to show the truth. America like in many cases likes to make sure it weakens any forces they feel could be a threat to their country, and Hamas as a terrorist organization in their point of view is a big threat. The US media continues to reinforce a mindset in the American people that dehumanizes Palestinians unfortunately. The depiction of Hamas as merely a terrorist group yet failing to apply the same approach when it comes to describing the Israeli actions is typical for the Western media.

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