The Israeli TV guide to cheap Arab lives
Quel est le prix d’une vie arabe pour la télévision israélienne ?
By Gideon Levy | Feb. 20, 2014
| Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.575157
Good evening and welcome to the main edition of Channel 2 News. And now for the news. Our top stories - are meant solely for Jews. Only for them – of course for them. Our broadcasters are active participants in all the vile process of dehumanization of the Palestinians in the territories – that’s been clear for a while – but also of Israeli Arabs. Do you want an example, one of many? Consider Monday’s broadcast.
There was a disaster that morning in Acre; a gas canister exploded. Five people, two families, were wiped out and an old building was destroyed. Our main newscast will report on it – of course it will, it was even mentioned as the top story. But now let’s go to the news in detail, where we’ll deal with the tragedy only after we tell you about three much more interesting and important things: a "strange” report about arms dealers in Binyamina who sold “valuable” spare parts to Iran; a story about the disintegrating relationship between Shula Zaken and her former boss, Ehud Olmert; and the tale of the maintenance supervisor in the Prime Minister’s residence who’s threatening some embarrassing revelations.
The news editors decided that these three puff pieces should precede the report on the tragedy. Now, why might that be? It’s a weighty question, so let’s answer it firmly and decisively: It’s because the victims in Acre were Arabs. Yes, human beings, even citizens, just like you – but Arabs.
How can I be so sure? Because a month ago a very similar disaster occurred. It was also a gas explosion, and there, too, three people, an entire family, were killed. But that was in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood, not in Arab Acre, and the victims were “ours.” On that same evening a rocket was fired at Eilat, and the military reporter reported briefly from “the scene,” (security incidents always trump civilian disasters), but right afterward we got a lengthy report on the Jewish disaster – nearly a quarter hour of heart-rending coverage.
It’s not that the main newscasts don’t like catastrophes. On the contrary, tragedies are their bread and butter; cynical playing on emotions is in their DNA. When the four children in Jerusalem were poisoned by an exterminator, the main newscasts reported daily on the two surviving children, squeezing as much as they could out of it. Announcements of the “worst possible” news or the “best possible” had an entire country holding its breath at the newscast’s command. Every change in their medical condition was reported immediately, live, from the hospital entrance. Yitzhak was taken off the respirator, Yaakov, his brother, had opened his eyes, to the nation’s great relief. But that’s because they were Jewish children; it’s not hard to imagine what the coverage would have been like if not for this fact.
The real story behind the news is how it’s edited. The newscast’s editors decide for you, every night, what’s important and what’s interesting. Based on this they will decide what gets reported, for how long, and above all, when – in descending order of importance, the most significant and interesting first. Thus, on Monday, the Acre tragedy was ranked fourth in importance, after a minor arms deal, a threatening maintenance man and the relationship between the former prime minister and his former secretary. All those were more interesting and important than what happened in Acre – that’s what was decided for you.
So what’s an Israeli viewer to conclude at the end of an exhausting day? That Arab lives, even those of fellow citizens, are less important (or interesting) and certainly much cheaper. If this had been a one-time editing slip-up, perhaps there would be no need to mention it. But this is systematic and very deeply embedded. It conveys a subliminal message to Jewish viewers, but it also makes a statement to Arab viewers about their place in the news food chain, which is similar to their place in society. An Arab is murdered in Jaffa? Not news. An Arab is murdered a few hundred meters north of Jaffa, in full view of hundreds of Jews on the holy Sabbath? The opening item.
That’s how consciousness is fashioned; that’s how a nation is educated and its agenda formulated. That’s how disgusting incitement works, leaving no incriminating evidence. For the country’s main newscast, even a dead Arab isn’t a good enough Arab.