The devastating UN report into the deliberate targeting and murder of Palestinian children by Israel is not very newsworthy apparently. What’s the scam?
On Tuesday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel released a harrowing report finding that Israel has deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children.
The 94-page report documented children being shot by snipers, targeted by drones, denied medical treatment, subjected to starvation and detained in conditions involving torture, sexual violence and severe abuse. The Commission concluded that the deliberate targeting of children was one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent.
These are extraordinary findings backed up by an in-depth investigation by a UN body, and one would think it would be of substantial public interest worthy of front-page headlines, but Australia’s mainstream media doesn’t seem to think so.
The ABC made somewhat of an effort by bringing on Global Affairs editor Laura Tingle to discuss the Commission’s findings on its news program. However, half of their article covering the report was dedicated to parroting Israel’s defence of the indefensible and was buried at the bottom of their website.
Guardian Australia was the only other mainstream Australian outlet to cover the UN report until today. Again, it was buried, and the article has since been relegated to the bottom of its home page.
The Nine newspapers caught up today, two days late, with the SMH framing it: ‘commissioned experts’ (not simply the UN) had ‘accused’ Israel … and repeated the ‘claim’ of genocide. A significant portion of the article was dedicated to Israel’s denial of the report’s findings.
As for the rest of the media, Karl Stefanovic’s podcast interview with a right-wing racist grifter is apparently much more newsworthy.
UN report finds Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children
Stephanie is a journalist with a background in both law and journalism. She has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.