Media Review: UK Media and the Gaza Genocide--Legal Implications of Editorial Complicity

Media Review: UK Media and the Gaza Genocide--Legal Implications of Editorial Complicity

    Friday, March 14, 2025   No comments

The revelation that top UK media editors held private meetings with former Israeli military chief General Aviv Kohavi amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza raises profound ethical and legal concerns. As reported by Declassified UK, these meetings took place in November 2023, after Israeli forces had already killed over 10,000 Palestinians. Given the documented intent of Israeli officials and military leaders to commit acts that meet the legal definition of genocide, the media's engagement with Kohavi in this manner raises serious questions about complicity.

The Genocide Convention (1948) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) define genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. Complicity in genocide, under international law, includes aiding and abetting such acts through direct assistance, incitement, or failure to prevent and expose the crime.

Given that Kohavi had previously justified the killing of journalists and attacks on civilian infrastructure, his influence over UK media executives raises concerns about whether these news organizations played a role in shaping public perception in ways that could shield Israel from accountability.

Historically, media institutions have been held accountable for their role in enabling crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set a precedent in Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Barayagwiza, and Ngeze (2003), where media executives were convicted for inciting genocide through biased reporting and propaganda. While UK media organizations may not have directly incited violence, their editorial choices—such as suppressing critical perspectives on Israeli war crimes or echoing Israeli military narratives—could be scrutinized under similar legal reasoning.

Declassified UK reports that BBC News online’s Middle East editor, Raffi Berg, has been accused of manipulating coverage to favor Israel. Similarly, internal documents from The Guardian allegedly show systematic amplification of Israeli government propaganda. These revelations suggest that UK media institutions may have contributed to the suppression of factual reporting on war crimes in Gaza.

Furthermore, the absence of equivalent meetings with Palestinian representatives raises further concerns about bias. By selectively engaging with Israeli officials while disregarding Palestinian voices, UK media institutions may have played a role in legitimizing Israel’s military actions, which have been widely condemned as potential war crimes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and other legal bodies have jurisdiction over crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. If it is demonstrated that UK media organizations systematically downplayed or whitewashed evidence of genocidal intent and actions, their senior figures could, in theory, be investigated for complicity.

Additionally, under UK domestic law, complicity in war crimes may fall under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to prosecute individuals who are linked to international crimes, regardless of where they occurred. The precedent set by previous war crimes trials suggests that media executives could face legal scrutiny if their actions are deemed to have materially aided a genocidal campaign.

The secret meetings between UK media leaders and General Kohavi amid the Gaza war raise serious ethical and legal concerns. If it is found that UK media outlets systematically enabled Israeli narratives while suppressing Palestinian perspectives, there may be grounds for legal accountability under international law.

At the very least, these revelations underscore the urgent need for greater transparency in media operations and the imperative to uphold journalistic integrity in conflict reporting. Moving forward, media organizations must be held to higher standards to ensure that they do not, knowingly or unknowingly, contribute to crimes of mass atrocity.

Biden makes statement on the anniversary of killing of Palestinian American boy, stabbing of mother

Biden makes statement on the anniversary of killing of Palestinian American boy, stabbing of mother

    Tuesday, October 15, 2024   No comments

US President Joe Biden commemorated the one year anniversary of what he called a "heinous" fatal assault on a Palestinian American mother and son that left the 6-year-old dead. 

Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden "continue to think" about Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and his mother, Hanaan Shahin, saying they are "grateful for Hanan’s recovery and her powerful voice for peace." He further hailed Wadea as "a bright and cheerful American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent."

"On this day, let us all take steps that honor Wadee’s memory and reaffirm together that there is no place for hate in America, including hatred of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. We can all reject hatred and expose misinformation and disinformation that is cynically aimed at turning us against one another," he added.

Al-Fayoume was fatally stabbed 26 times at his Plainfield, Illinois, apartment with his mother, Hanaan Shahin, on Oct. 14, 2023. Shahin was critically injured after being stabbed more than a dozen times. The killing of the child and the attempted killing on the mother came just days after President Biden amplified a false claim that Hamas beheaded 40 babies, a fake story that still repeated by US officials including US senators and House leaders.

Media review: "The biggest problem with Western media is more in what they don't show than in what they do show"

Media review: "The biggest problem with Western media is more in what they don't show than in what they do show"

    Friday, October 11, 2024   No comments

The true face of Israel's war on Gaza is hidden from Western public opinion through the Western media’s ignoring of Israel's attacks and war crimes, according to a US journalist.

Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of the independent news website The Grayzone, spoke to Anadolu at a conference in Istanbul, Türkiye about his views on how Western media portrays Israel's attacks on Gaza and the role of the US in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“On Oct. 7, the Western media did not show the losses that the Israeli military took at the hands of Hamas and other factions in Gaza. They focused exclusively on civilians being kidnapped and then began with not just the killings that took place of civilians on Oct. 7, which were real and documented, but fabricating atrocities about beheaded babies and babies burned in ovens, and so on, in order to create leverage and political space for Israel to totally destroy Gaza,” said Blumenthal... > source article ...

Media review: What does CBS's handling of Ta-Nehisi Coates' interview tell us about US media when it comes to telling the story of Palestininas?

Media review: What does CBS's handling of Ta-Nehisi Coates' interview tell us about US media when it comes to telling the story of Palestininas?

    Wednesday, October 09, 2024   No comments

News stories about Palestine cannot be covered by news media like any other news subject. That is the main point of the recent controversy surrounding CBS's interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Coates response to the challenge tells the full story: Dokoupil accusing Coates of leaving some information out is not the real issue. The real issue is that Western media outlets have already set the standard for the plight of Palestinians: They should not be given any space, not an equal space, not enough space... they should be given any space at all. And that is the main point in Coates' response. 

The story of Palestinians is not told enough, and when it is, those attempting to tell it, are accused of "supporting terrorism" and of being anti-Semitic. Even Semitic persons--Jews who survived (or who are children of survivors of) the European crime against humanity inflicted on Jews, who object to a genocide committed in their name or the name of their religion or their identity, are attacked as sympathizers with terrorists.

So Dokoupil was not interested in pushing back against unbalanced "reporting", he pushed back because Coates was telling a story that no one is willing to tell for the reasons that were playing out before him live and where he was living the true experience of doing so. There is no record of Mr. Dokoupil pushing back against those who come to tell the Israeli point of view, telling them that they left out the story of Palestinians being subjected to apartheid system, the stories of Palestinians' rights to self-determination being denied by Israel for more than 75 years...

“Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?” Dokoupil asked. “Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?”

“There is no shortage of that perspective in American media,” Coates replied. “I am most concerned, always, with those who don’t have a voice.”

This exchange says it all.

New Zealand journalist Shaneel Lal on Western Media and Genocide

New Zealand journalist Shaneel Lal on Western Media and Genocide

    Friday, September 27, 2024   No comments

New Zealand journalist Shaneel Lal delivers a powerful speech in support of Gaza and Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli occupation during his acceptance speech for the Journalist of the Year Award at the One Young World Summit in Montréal, Canada.

“It’s our moral obligation to give voice to those who have been oppressed and silenced by those in power” 

How serious is the killing of US citizen outside US? It depends on who does the killing

How serious is the killing of US citizen outside US? It depends on who does the killing

    Friday, September 06, 2024   No comments

When US citizens are killed by Muslims, US administrations exact bloody revenge swiftly and decisively, and the media always finds the way to explicitly name the persons who killed them and emphasize their being Muslim. But not when American citizens are killed by Israeli forces. The reaction to the recent killing of a US citizen by Israeli forces in West Bank is one example in a series of many including the killing of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and going back all the way to the gruesome killing of Rachel Corrie.

Here is how the media reported on the killing and how some Western officials, including UN officials reacted: generally, wanting the accused to investigate themselves.

US-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead by Israel in the West Bank during settlement protest.

Social media users, including Scotland’s first minister, Hamza Yousaf, have criticized the BBC for not including the perpetrators of Eygi’s death in their headline.

The pattern of shielding the killer is clear; NPR reported on Israeli troops shooting of American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in West Bank echo's BBC's:

Eygi was participating in a protest against illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, the Palestinian Wafa agency reported.

An activist who was with Eygi at the time told Middle East Eye that she and other volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement had been attending the weekly demonstration at Beita.

"When she was shot, she was standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman - it was a deliberate shot because they shot from a very, very, very far distance," said the activist, who did not want to be identified.

US officials' reaction, mostly muted

The only voice in the US to demand serious action to address Israel's killing of a US citizen was US Senator Chris Van Hollen.

On Friday Van Hollen urged Biden administration to do more to hold Israel accountable for killing of American citizens.

"The Netanyahu Government - including racist extremist like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir - has fueled settler violence in the West Bank at the same time that it has announced new illegal settlements.

"The United States cannot turn a blind eye to these actions – including the killing of American citizens," Democrat senator said in a statement.

His remarks came after Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita in the Nablus district of the occupied West Bank.

Van Hollen said the US has not received "satisfactory responses" from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Government about the two other Americans killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, adding the Biden administration has "not been doing enough" to pursue justice and accountability on their behalf.

"The Biden Administration must do more to hold the Netanyahu Government accountable and use American influence to demand the prosecution of those responsible for harm against American citizens.

"If the Netanyahu Government will not pursue justice for Americans, the U.S. Department of Justice must," he added.

When UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was asked about the killing of American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, he replied, "We would want to see a full investigation of the circumstances, and that people should be held accountable. And again, civilians must be protected at all times."

A long history of bias

In the case of Corrie, even after 21 years, US media, including NPR, continue to deny her justice, using headlines that says, "the death" instead of the killing, and living the name of the actor who did the killing out.

...

Update:

On September 9, US President Joe Biden appeared to embrace Israel's explanation, which claimed that IDF killing of American activist in West Bank was accidental. 

Biden described the killing of a 26-year-old American citizen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank last week as an apparent accident, echoing the Israel government's description.

Israel has claimed that Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was "hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire" on Friday. 

"We're finding more detail," Biden told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday. "Apparently, it was an accident. It ricocheted off the ground and it – (she) got hit by accident, but we're working that out now."