We dehumanize Palestinians like breathing.
There are countless ways the US dehumanizes Palestinians. The most glaring, of course, is the fact that a death ratio of 1,200 to 20,000+ is just like kind of embraced as an unfortunate, but necessary, outcome.
But let me point you to a seemingly benign editorial decision that speaks volumes about, well, the banality of evil.
These two stories headed up the New York Times front page this morning.
In the first story, reporters interview scores of Israelis ranging from leftists to the most conservative sects. It delves into their feelings. Their psyches. Their political opinions. How the trauma of October 7th realigned their values. How nearly everyone despises Netanyahu for letting the attack happen.
You know—the inner life of human beings.
The second story does not do any of these things. It’s not unsympathic. In reporting the facts on the ground, the reporters guide the reader through the impossible Hell civilians are forced navigate. They’re told to march to “safe areas” where they are bombed; the hunger, lack of drinking water. It’s all in the story.
But not a single Palestinian is quoted. Not one. We don’t know what their feelings are. Sure. In some ways their feelings are self-evident in footage circulating online. “I’m crying because my entire family is dead and I’m only five.” But there’s no comparable effort to get into their heads, their psyches, to assess their political opinions. Virtually anytime anyone in mainstream media asks about what’s going on in their heads, it’s about whether they support, or don’t support, Hamas. In other words, information that solely helps Israel.
Humans are perversly drawn to images of extreme suffering. To violent grief. Car crash rubbernecking, for one. But, if the people graphically broadcasting their grief over dead friends and family aren’t shown to have a deeper interiority, they are just beings that express pain when they are hurt. Cows do that too. We still eat burgers.
If you recall, former U Penn President Liz Magill’s troubles began when she allowed Palestine Writes book festival on campus. It’s human beings that have the interiority to write poetry and tell stories. If you want to view them as less than you certainly don’t want to encourage them to express their feelings in stories like you and I do.
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