Media Bias in the Israel/Palestine Revolution Essays - Middle East

Media Bias in the Israel/Palestine Revolution Sarah Osorio Jae Revolutions June 7, 2017 Bias is a feeling or thought that is created with the person's beliefs and not facts. When people explain their bias, they usually try to get others to think the same way they do. Because of this, we are sometimes subjected to a close minded way of thinking. This is seen quite often in our everyday lives. We find bias in textbooks, the people around us, and especially in media. There is especially room for bias in the Israel/Palestine conflict since it is such a controversial topic. The country of Israel is in the Middle East and the capital is called Tel Aviv. I t was established and founded on May 14,1948 after the United Nations decided Jewish people needed a place to live after the Holocaust. Many of their homes in Europe had been destroyed or taken over by non-J ews . The religious population in Israel is about 75% Jewish, 16% Muslim, 2% Christian, and the rest belonging to minor religions like Druze and Samaritanism. The infancy of the country of Israel was mark ed by an event that has come to be known as the mass Palestinian graves. Dozens of Arab skeletons were collected south of Jaffa and all put into the same mass grave. These deaths occurred because of the fighting during the war in 1948. People tell stories of dead bodies lying on the street and being moved into these graves. Their skeletons were found and most showed signs of a violent death. Men women and children were often buried together without giving thought to their religious beliefs. These graves were found by accident during maintenance of the cemetery. During the time when Israel became a country, the Prime Minister was David-Ben Gurion. After this, forces from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan invaded Israel to aid the Palestinians in their time of need, which began a war. During that war of Independence, about 6,000 Jews and 10,000 Palestinians were killed. The reason they were fighting was because they both felt as if something was being taken from them. To retalia te, the Intifadas took place. This was an uprising against the Jews by the Palestinians. One protest was in the 1980's and the other was in the early 2000's. The first Intifada was non-violent. It included large boycotts and Palestinians refusing to work jobs for Israeli people. Though the Palestinians were being peaceful, Israeli military forces responded with violence. In 2000, the failure of the two countries to achieve a peaceful resolution gave birth to the second intifada. Typically each country blamed the other for the onset of this conflict. The Palestinians gave up their peaceful behavior and began using tactics such as sniper fire and suicide bombings which Israel answered with a heavier attack. Before the conflict was finished, there were over 1,000 Israelis and 3,200 Palestinians killed. The Six Day War took place from June 5,1967 to June 10,1967. The war began when the Arab countries began plotting against Israel. After the Israeli representative gave a speech at the Un ited Nations detailing the ways in which they wanted to make a deal with the Arab countries, the representative from Egypt went on to say that the Israeli government was trying to deceive the rest of the world by claiming to deal diplomatically when in fact they saw it as an underhanded way to fool the rest of the world. Events like this were the catalyst to the beginning of the Six Day War. After the failure of any diplomatic attempt, there was no recourse except to go to war. The very well trained and organized Israeli armed forces made short work of the disorganized Arab forces. After the Israelis learned they were going to be attacked, on day one of the war the Israeli air force took out Egypt's air force before it was able to take off. Not only did they attack Egypt, but also Syrian, Iraqi, and Jordanian air forces until they gained air supremacy. On day two, heavy combat ensued between Israeli and Jordanian troops in the West Bank and Jerusalem. By the third day, Israel had ta ken over