Media’s Hyper-Focus on Israel Shields World’s Worst Human Rights Abusers

On March 10, 2021, five Palestinian Arab children between ages 8 and 13 allegedly tried to steal some expensive parrots or vegetables in a Jewish community in Judea. After the kids were caught trying to steal, they were detained for a few hours until their parents could come pick them up at the police station and bring them home.

In what can only be described as an astonishing coincidence, a self-described anti-Israel “human rights” group just happened to be on the scene when these kids were detained and placed into the vehicles that would take them to the police station.

Even with the video of their detainment, it was not exactly a major news story. A few minors were caught stealing and detained. Their parents were called, and they were handed over to their parents within hours of being caught stealing. This is something that happens every day in countless places across America.

Yet, it has been a major news story. A simple Google search of “Palestinian kids arrested for stealing parrots” or “Palestinian kids arrested for stealing vegetables” yields pages of “news” stories from different publications.

NBC News kept posting a story written by a reporter — who has a damnable history of writing false and often debunked stories about Israel — regarding these Palestinian boys being supposedly arrested for “foraging for vegetables” (which, while false, apparently sounds more sympathetic than stealing).

But it wasn’t only NBC. Two days later, Yahoo News ran the story and effectively regurgitated the NBC story under a different title. Business Insider ran the story 3 days later with breathless claims such as “[f]ive Palestinian children were apprehended by Israeli soldiers in southern Hebron on Wednesday” and “The young boys were then taken to a police station where they were detained for several hours.” And since March 10, 2021 — just based on my personal observations — NBC News has re-posted this story on Facebook (alone) at least four different times.

The reality is all that what happened here is that five boys were either trying to steal expensive pets or inexpensive vegetables and were detained (not arrested) as a result. Put another way, underage wannabe thieves were detained for a few hours until they could be handed over to their parents. Either way, not exactly a major news story. At least it shouldn’t be — particularly in a region where children are regularly mass murdered (e.g. Syria); subjected to industrial scale military starvation campaigns (e.g. Yemen) and often used as child soldiers and for slave labor (e.g. Hamas in Gaza).

Yet, for NBC and numerous other news organizations, this is a story that apparently warrants reams of breathless coverage. Why? Why is NBC (and most other Western news media) devoting far less virtual space and time reporting on the plight of the Uyghur Muslims in China? Why are they not discussing the starvation of children in Yemen? Why are they not focusing on the ongoing slave trade in Libya? Why are they spending far less time reporting on the ongoing slaughter and kidnapping of children in Nigeria by Boko Haram?

I think we all know the answer to these questions. These media organizations know they receive a lot more views promoting stories that bash the one Jewish state than those that focus on actually significant human rights stories around the world.

These media organizations know they receive more views promoting stories that bash Israel than those that focus on actually significant human rights stories around the world.

But while this hyper-focus on Israel certainly does do some harm to Israel, the people it harms the most are those who the media outlets largely ignore compared to how they cover Israel and the Palestinians. This media malpractice really hurts the Uyghurs, the imprisoned political dissidents in Hong Kong, those protesting another dictatorship in Myanmar, the Tigray civilians being slaughtered in Ethiopia, the gay people oppressed by Iran and the countless other actual human rights violations that barely get any attention.

In much the same way that the hyper-focus on Israel by so-called “human rights” organizations (such as the United Nations Human Rights Council) protects the world’s worst human rights abusers from answering for their crimes against humanity, the hyper-focus on Israel by the media prevents widespread coverage of the most heinous human rights abuses by the worst dictatorships and terror groups on earth.

In the first three months of 2021 alone, Boko Haram has kidnapped and murdered hundreds of people in Nigeria, many of them children. Yet a Google search for “NBC News Boko Haram” doesn’t come up with a single news story from 2020 or 2021. Not one.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Walter Lippman famously said, “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” Well, if the “devil” is not those kidnapping and murdering thousands in Nigeria, putting hundreds of thousands in concentration camps in China, starving tens of thousands in Yemen, etc., then the “devil” doesn’t need shaming. Only then could dozens of international news stories about kids being detained for trying to steal parrots possibly make sense.

Micha Danzig served in the Israeli Army and is a former police officer with the NYPD. He is currently an attorney and is very active with numerous Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, including Stand With Us, T.E.A.M. and the FIDF.