Israel has
opened "windows" for the foreign powers to evacuate their terrified nationals
from Lebanon. Obligingly, the foreign media have turned these "windows" into an
opportunity to avert their gaze further from the death and destruction in
Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
On BBC
World, for example, we have been following the progress of one 12-year-old
British boy fleeing Beirut. When he observed that he was worried for the
Lebanese family members he was leaving behind, reporter Clive Myrie noted his
was a "very mature attitude".
If only the
BBC was demonstrating such maturity.
I have to
keep reminding myself that this is BBC World, not its domestic news service. You
would hardly know it watching the coverage of the past couple of days.
On Tuesday,
when at least 35 Lebanese were killed -- possibly many more as no one seems to
know who is lying under the rubble or has been incinerated in their fleeing cars
-- we had the BBC's Ben Brown in Beirut giving a blow-by-blow account of every
facet of the evacuation of foreign nationals in general and British nationals in
particular.
If anyone
doubted the racism of our Western media, here it was proudly on display. The BBC
apparently considers their Beirut reporter's first duty to find out what meals
HMS Gloucester's chef will be preparing for the evacuees. Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians die unnoticed by the Western media (though not by the Arab
channels) while we learn of onboard sleeping arrangements on the ship bound for
Cyprus.
Did we
really need to hear a lengthy live speech from the commander of HMS Gloucester
telling us how "delighted" he was to be in Beirut? With the long minutes of
rolling news to fill this might have been justified had the other minutes been
stuffed with reports from the areas where civilians are dying by the dozen each
day. But such reports are the mean filling in the thick sandwich of the main
story of the evacuees.
In the 4pm
GMT broadcast, I watched 45 mins of coverage, most of it dedicated to "live"
footage of the British warship's arrival and the relieved faces of the Brits
about to leave.
Even so,
the BBC still managed to squeeze in other bits of reporting in the lulls in the
drama of evacuation. At different points there was a interview from Tel Aviv
with former Israeli cabinet minister Yossi Beilin and a live link-up between Ben
Brown and Lyse Doucet in Haifa. She informed us of the "barrage" of 50 Katyushas
that had landed on northern Israel that day, killing one man. Supportively, Ben
Brown, added that there was "shock" at the death and destruction spread by
Hizbullah's rockets and opined that what the Israeli army was "really after" was
Hizbullah's long-range missiles.
So we had
the BBC in Haifa and Beirut speaking with one voice -- that of Israel.
Back in
Beirut, Brown repeated with bafflement statements by the British ambassador that
some British nationals preferred to stay put for the time being and would not be
taking advantage of Israel's "window". It occurred to neither of them that many
of these British nationals have loved ones in Beirut and may not want to leave
them in the coming desperate hours.
Ben Brown
also told us that it was "understandable" that the British evacuees were "pretty
scared" because they were not accustomed to this kind of bombing. Not like, he
added, war correspondents such as himself or the people of Beirut, who had grown
used to such assaults.
The
outrageous racism implicit in this comment was clear the moment one paused to
consider its possible meanings. Did Brown mean that the Lebanese do not mind
being bombed? Did he mean that Lebanese children understand from birth that it
is their fate to be attacked by Israel, that they get used to the explosions
around them? Did he mean that their parents are less terrified than a British
mother and father by the thought that their family might be obliterated at any
moment? Or did he mean that Lebanon's civilians will not be as traumatised by
their experiences as other human beings would be?
This is the
racist subtext of the foreign media's evacuations story. That once the
foreigners have been moved to safety, we in the West can leave those who
understand only the language violence -- the Israeli army and, apparently, the
whole population of Lebanon -- to carry on with their unfinished business.
And we can
be sure that this is exactly what will happen as soon as Israel's "window" is
shut. When the foreign powers no longer have even a small vested interest in the
safety of Beirut, can we expect the coverage to improve? Don't hold your breath.
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