PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Demonstrators gathered near Independence Mall on Thursday to protest what they say is unfair coverage of the Palestinian people in American media in the wake of Hamas’ devastating terrorist attacks on Israel.
Waving Palestinian flags, supporters gathered on 6th Street to march from the headquarters of public media station WHYY to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Organized by the Philadelphia Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, marchers say the media whitewashes the truth about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and Israel’s long history of violence and oppression.
Coalition supporter Rami Ibrahim says the Palestinian point of view needs to be front and center in the news.
“We have Palestinian land that has been stolen, illegal settlements that had been built on Palestinian homes. Gaza being locked down for the last 16 years, literally where the international world is calling it an open-air prison,” Ibrahim said.
Noor Qutyan, an organizer for the Coalition, says American media should also be saying more about the effects of Israel’s retaliatory strikes in Gaza.
“So far, we have not seen local and international media speaking out against the atrocities that the Israeli regime is doing to Palestinians right now,” Qutyan said.
Many claimed the media is blatantly pro-Israel. When asked if Hamas’ actions Saturday amounted to terrorism, many deflected the question, saying the same would never be asked of Israeli acts of aggression.
Ibrahim says the media is too quick to run with reports he calls propaganda. For example, it was widely reported on Wednesday when President Joe Biden gave veracity to viral reports saying Hamas decapitated dozens of babies. The Israeli government, however, says it has no evidence yet confirming that, and Biden later walked back his comments.
“You have them talking about the Palestinians beheading babies, and then the reporter later on comes and says, ‘Oh, that was wrong. That was misinformation,’” Ibrahim said. “But it was too late. The damage has already been done.”
A war abroad, a clash at home
Along the march route, the coalition clashed with Israel supporters. Rabbi Albert Gabbai was not alone in his dismay that the march would come so soon after Hamas killed over 1,200 Israelis in a brutal rampage, including women, children and the slaughter of at least 260 people at a music festival.
“It starts from the beginning, when they teach hatred and vengeance,” Gabbai said. “Hatred is inculcated. No human being can do something like that if they were not taught hatred.”
Gustavo Masry couldn’t believe the coalition had gathered at all.
“Even if I was a Palestinian, I wouldn’t demonstrate right now. I would sit quietly. How can they do that?” Masry said. “Literally, they should sit quietly and condemn what Hamas did.”
Israel’s retaliatory onslaught on Gaza has leveled entire neighborhoods, killing over 1,400 people. More than 60% of those casualties have been women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry — and scores more Palestinian civilians are killed each day.
The Israeli military says it is striking Hamas militant infrastructure and aims to avoid civilian casualties, but Palestinians reject that claim. More than 340,000 people — or 15% of Gaza's population — have been displaced.
Hospitals in Gaza have run out of places to put human remains pulled from the latest airstrikes. Gaza's hospitals are poorly supplied in normal times, but now Israel has stopped the water flow from its national water company and blocked electricity, food and fuel from entering the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people.
Meanwhile Israel has rejected a United Nations finding that the Israeli government has created an “open-air prison” by carrying out widespread, systematic and arbitrary detention of Palestinians since the 1967 Six-Day War, saying the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories is biased.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.