“There were villages. There were cities. There was a Palestinian society before 1948. We do exist.” – Edward Said. Born in Jerusalem, Said was a Palestinian American intellectual, thinker, political activist, and literary critic. As one of the few people who are said to properly frame the Palestine-Israel issue, Said used his writings to fight for the denied Palestinians rights throughout his life. For instance, the article “Permission to Narrate” which he wrote in February 1984, described what he felt was most denied for Palestinians. According to Said, the right to narrate has constantly been denied by international media. Consequently, Palestianians were not able to communicate their history and stories to a world controlled by a Zionist narrative of Palestine. This narrative aims at creating the conviction that it is a convenient homeland only for Jews around the world. Apart from analysis on the MacBride Commission report regarding Israel’s acts of aggression in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and stereotypic perceptions and attitudes towards Palestinians as terrorists and rejectionists while Israel as peace and security seekers, Said also highlighted the campaign waged by pro-Zionist publications. This campaign aims at preventing the international media from reporting the truth. Thus, any images showing Israeli troops engaged in bombing civilian targets are characterized as anti-Semitic.
The suffering of the Palestinians is realized by the international community despite their silence. The world community is also aware that the Palestinians were deceived through various historic events. These include the greatest betrayal by the British through Balfour Declaration in 1915. This declaration affirmed the British support for the creation of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine to gain their support for its war. After the war, the League of Nations divided the defeated Ottoman Empire into “mandated territories” and Palestine became mandated British territory. The League of Nations embodied the British previous policy in creating a national home for Jewish in outlining the mandate for Palestine. This means handing Palestine over to the Zionists which cause the massive immigration of Jews from Europe and elsewhere into the territory under British auspices from 1918-1947. In addition to this mass migration, there were also Palestinians who were forced to flee to its borders. Although the right to return to the origin country is guaranteed by international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Israelis gave various reasons including through its Citizenship Law of 1951 to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homeland.
There were many reports of Israeli atrocities including brutal killings of Palestinian civilians and merciless detainment of Palestinian children and women since the establishment of the illegal state of Israel in 1948 to the present. Human Rights Watch in its report entitled “A Threshold Crossed – Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution”, April 2021 stated that Israeli authorities have deprived millions of people of their basic rights by virtues of their identity as Palestinians. In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip particularly, movement restrictions, land expropriation – such as the case of Shaikh Jarrah neighbourhood – forcible transfer, denial of residency and nationality, and the mass suspension of civil rights constitute inhumane acts. When these acts are carried out to maintain domination, they are in fact apartheid, a crime against humanity.
Though such reports are more than enough to represent the sufferings of Palestinians, they continue to be drowned by the mainstream media in the West. Three decades after the publication of Edward Said’s landmark essay, media narratives in the West remained unchanged. This is proven from Maha Nassar’s research mentioned by Omar Zahzah in his article, “Digital apartheid: Palestinians being silenced on social media”. In 2020, Nassar, analyzed opinion articles published in two daily newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as two weekly news magazines, The New Republic and The Nation, from 1970 to 2019 that is over 50 years period. Nassar discovered that the editorial boards and columnists have been discussing the Palestinians, repeatedly in a condescending and racist manner, without even sensing the need to listen to Palestinians themselves. However, the unprecedented event of publishing a front-page collage of children of Gaza killed in the recent Israel bombardment by The New York Times and Haaretz has sent a new and meaningful message which should be applauded.
Undeniably, many turn to social media to raise awareness about struggles ignored or undermined by the mainstream media channels. The full use of social media has proven to be effective in the recent 11 days Saif al-Quds War and the following events including the recent campaign to free Sheikh Jarrah activists, Muna and Mohammed al-Kurd. The clash between the two different narratives was very impressive. Unfortunately, social media companies immediately took the action to suppress free speech and distort narratives about Palestine by halting the dissemination of fair comments and/or closing accounts by arbitrary means without due justification. In this regard, the Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations for the UPR Process (MACSA) calls for Malaysia to be the first country in the world to enact the “Palestinian Struggle Anti-Cencorship Act/Ordinance” is timely. Nevertheless, MACSA recognizes the rights of these companies to suppress hate speech but the clarification of what constitutes hate speech must be made. Support for Palestinian freedom and liberation must be strengthened despite multiple obstacles and challenges. The hope and cry of the oppressed must be duly fulfilled. This is in line with verse 75, Surah al-Nisa’ in the Quran which states, “And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)?- Men, women, and children, whose cry is: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!”).