Less than two months after a tragic row of stabbing and vehicular terror attacks, we woke up today to more sad news: A Palestinian terrorist stabbed 13 Israelis on a Tel-Aviv bus, with 4 fatally wounded. He was quickly tracked down by security forces present in the area, shot and apprehended. This terror attack was praised by terror organization Hamas, which called it “heroic and courageous act,” according to Israeli media.
This attack occurred merely two weeks after the Charlie Hebdo terror attack, which caused worldwide outrage towards Islamic terrorism, and unity with the victims' families. But while the Paris shooting was named as what it is – a terror attack – by international media, the Tel-Aviv stabbing was not.
All expectations for the media to sober up and start to support the war on terror by simply naming terror attacks as what they are were thrown out the window. Just like many times before, international media chose to tell the story of a terror attack in Israel differently, framing it as “an act of despair” rather than “terror.” When it comes to Israel, the media insist on sticking to the David and Goliath framing, and try to avoid the use of the word “terror” in order to describe an act of violence made by Palestinians. Why? Because as it turns out, when it’s done by Palestinians, it is “an act of despair,” not terror.
This narrative, which could be noticed in the coverage of all recent terror attacks in Israel, tells the story of suffering Palestinians who have no chance of ever being free. After asking nicely for independence and being ignored, they decided to act in the name of justice, and blow up a bus or shoot at random people. When we stop and think about it, we see that this narrative makes no sense, because no matter how much they are desperate – terror is terror. Al Qaeda activists are also desperate and seek for justice, ISIS as well, but you won’t see anyone calling their terror attacks any other name. Could you imagine media outlets not calling the Charlie Hebdo shooting “a terror attack?” When people are being murdered- the motives for the attack does not matter.
Only problem is, not all people stop and think about media framing before reading an article. Media shape the way we think and feel, and that means they must take responsibility, even at the cost of losing their precious anti-Israel framing. When choosing the “young Palestinians act out of desperations” frame, the readers will not see what happened as what it is – a terror attack.
Following some of the reports online, I found that many of the leading news websites worldwide avoided the use of the word “terror” when describing today’s events, unless it was as part of a quote by an Israeli source. Instead, swirled around the fact that this is a terror attack by using words like “a Palestinian man,” “a stabbing attack,” or “what Israeli police suspects to be a terror attack.” Some even went as far as emphasizing that the Palestinian terrorist was shot, over the reason that led to the police shooting him. Here you can see four examples:
“>CNN headline: a “Man?”)
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“>The Telegraph headline: Why the quotation marks?)
(This is not the first time it happens, and as the media continue to ignore the fact that these are terror attacks, terrorist receive legitimacy to continue their horrific killing sprees. International media must take responsibility and call these events as what they are: acts of terror. Terrorism is not only Israel’s problem (although it’s safe to say they’ve become an inseparable part of our lives,) and it’s time for the media to understand that the silence revolving terror attacks in Israel legitimizes terror attacks in other countries as well.
Not calling terror by its name, is an approval by silence for more attacks. It opens a window of opportunities for terrorists to strike again, and we’ve all heard Hamas and Hezbollah leaders state, on various occasions, that the United States of America is one of their future targets. Jihad is not a global movement, and Israel is not its only target. The press must recognize its responsibilities in this matter. Legitimizing terror in any way causes more terror. No matter how much this Palestinian young man was feeling frustrated, it, in no way, justifies the killing of people.
In the name of the David and Goliath narrative, where Palestinians are good and weak and the IDF is strong and evil, the media constantly title acts by the IDF as “offense” and acts by Palestinians as “defense.” As terror escalates, this must come to an end. What happened in Tel-Aviv today was not “a suspected terror attack,” or “what Israeli army calls ‘a terror attack,” and the attacker is not a “young Palestinian”, or a “’terrorist’,” but simply a terrorist. No quotation marks needed here. Terror must be called for what it is, firmly and confidently, with no hesitation,even at the risk of destroying the house of cards on which international media built their story. Ignoring terror is allowing terror.
