The number of civilians killed by Israel in Gaza, in three weeks, has now exceeded the number of civilians killed by Russia in 19 months of the Ukraine war. How likely is it that Western mainstream media will deem this milestone newsworthy?
According to the latest update by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on civilian casualties during the war in Ukraine, as of September 11, 2023, the UN’s official confirmed figure for “those killed in territory controlled by the [Ukrainian] Government when casualties occurred” since February 24, 2022, was 7481.
As of October 29, the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s official confirmed figure for those killed by Israeli bombing and shelling of the territory of the Gaza Strip was more than 8000, including more than 3400 children, which, statistically, is one child killed every 10 minutes since October 7 — to the apparent delight, or at least satisfaction, of Messrs. Biden, Blinken, Scholz, Sunak and Albanese and millions of other moral monsters infesting and disgracing the Global West who do not believe that this slaughter of innocents should be brought to an immediate end.
These Palestinian figures count only bodies brought to hospitals or other Ministry of Health facilities. There are also an estimated 1650 bodies, at least half of them children, remaining under the rubble of their homes. Anyone seeing the appalling scenes of devastation, with over half of the homes in Gaza flattened or damaged, must presume that the true number of those killed significantly exceeds the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s official confirmed figure.
It follows that more civilians have now been killed, with full-throated Western support and approval, during three weeks of Israel’s exercising its “right to self-defense” than were killed during 19 months of “Putin’s brutal war of aggression.”
How likely is it that the pro-occupation, pro-apartheid, pro-genocide Western mainstream media will deem this milestone of savagery newsworthy?
John V. Whitbeck
John V. Whitbeck is an international lawyer and an energetic commentator, based in Paris. He has published widely on Middle Eastern affairs since the late-1980s, his work appearing in many Western, Arab, and Israeli publications. As an attorney he has advised the Palestinians on numerous occasions. A collection of his essays, The World According to Whitbeck (Five and Ten Press), appeared in 2005.