Why Are We Ignoring Human Rights Criticism of Israel?
▻https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/03/israel-gaza-human-rights-criticism-genocide-media
On the last day of 2024, when the United Nations Human Rights Office issued a critical report about Israel’s destruction of hospitals in Gaza, my expectation was that the following day’s headlines would prominently feature the alarming findings.
“The destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff, and other civilians in these attacks, is a direct consequence of the disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law,” the report stated.
I began New Year’s Day with the BBC Newshour, and it indeed carried this news in the first segment of its broadcast. But when I turned to U.S. newspapers over my morning coffee—the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal—I found no mention of the U.N. report. The same was true of the cable news I scanned, as well as the radio bulletins and public television broadcasts I followed later in the day.
It is possible, of course, that I missed something in the moments I was not monitoring the news. But the lack of widespread coverage underscores a broader trend in U.S. outlets’ reporting on Israel’s war in Gaza.