As students, many of us shape our political opinions from news sites/articles, and when these headlines are biased or straight out incorrect, we form an opinion of a situation when in reality only half of the story has been presented. This is the case on my campus – University of Birmingham – since October 7th 2023. The biased reporting of the war has led to opinions on campus that Israel is a ‘genocidal’ and ‘apartheid’ state, as these common buzzwords are often used, and as a result they are repeated during the protests we have.
Evidence of the link between biased media and campus antisemitism is seen through the most recent CST report, reporting a 22% increase in campus antisemitism over the past two academic years, with the rising occurrence of antisemitic events continuously coinciding with when Israel/Gaza tensions have been higher.
In September 2023, the English law firm, Asserson, and CAMERA published a report exposing a pattern of factual inconsistencies that the BBC have reported since October 7th.
For example, on 18th October 2023, the BBC reported that Israel had targeted the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza, killing 500. In reality, the blast occurred from within hospital grounds, and was likely caused by a misfired rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists.
Additionally, chants using the common buzzwords – with no context- used in the media and social media are relayed on campus, such as ‘All Eyes on Rafah‘, not mentioning the fact that hostages were being hidden there (ABC News).
On a basic level, the report reveals 64% more sympathy for the Palestinians (across approximately nine million words of BBC content between 07/10/23-07/02/24) on and since October 7th through the wording of headlines and articles published. On a campus level, this explains why we as Jews feel as if the world is against us, as if the sentiment of the articles and headlines that people are reading is sympathetic to the Palestinians, so too will the people reading these articles, especially if they are not seeking to get the full picture of the story.
The chants of ‘Israel is committing war crimes‘ is one commonly heard on both my campus and many others, both nationally and internationally. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), war crimes include torture, mutilation, hostage taking and rape, all of which we know Hamas did on October 7th. The Asserson Report found that the term ‘war crime’ was used significantly more against Israel (127 instances) then against Hamas (30 instances), yet when we look at this in line with the ICRM definition of war crimes against what we know Hamas did and continues to do since October 7th, this does not make sense, and we can understand how these chants have made their way onto campus.
The accusation that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ can also be disputed, as they are rooted in little factual evidence. There is a clear connection between this and the BBC’s constant promotion in its reporting of the current Israel/Gaza war. Unsurprisingly, BBC reporters used the term in relation to Israel 283 times, yet only 19 for Hamas. This explains why genocidal chants are so often heard at campus protests, yet the ICRM defines genocide as “includes all acts committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic or religious group”, which was Hamas’ aim on October 7th, and has never been Israels aim.
Apparently, BBC reporters don’t think that it is accurate to portray Hamas’s actions on October 7th to be genocidal, when they entered Israel and indiscriminately killed Nova Festivalgoers, inhabitants of the southern neighborhoods called Kibbutzim, and IDF soldiers stationed near the Israel/Gaza de facto border.
The double standard of accusing Israel of genocide, yet not Hamas, who in their charter in states aims to “vanquish the enemy [the Jews]”, especially when you consider the fact that the term ‘genoide‘ was only coined in 1942, in response to the Holocaust and the genocide faced by the Jews at the hands of Hilter and the Nazi Party.
From this, it becomes clear why so many on campus and beyond are anti-Israel, when they have seemingly no connection to the war.
If major news organizations like the BBC are constantly feeding you the narrative that Israel is the aggressor who is committing war crimes and genocide, it’s not difficult to understand why this kind of hatred has proliferated our society.
As long as this biased media reporting continues, the situations on campuses will continue to be hostile.
This article was originally published in Israel Hayom.
