How the UK media devalues Palestinian lives

from Mondoweiss

The UK media's coverage of the killing of World Central Kitchen workers shows how much Palestinian life is devalued.

“It may seem wrong that, after more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have perished, it took the deaths of just seven international aid workers to stir Western governments into a sense of outrage, but that is the reality.”

Thus reads the front page of the British newspaper, The Independent. 

“These were not Hamas militants,” it continues. “They were not illicitly transporting Hamas commanders…The seven have become symbolic of the lawless and reckless manner in which Benjamin Netanyahu has prosecuted this war.”

The Global North has drawn its red lines, and it is the deaths of World Central Kitchen charity workers from Britain, Australia, Canada, America, and Poland. Six months on, Joe Biden finally called for an “immediate ceasefire.” Across the pond, the UK government summoned the Israeli Ambassador and demanded an investigation into the deaths on April 2. Labour leader Keir Starmer condemned the strike and asserted “international law must be upheld,” and the Scottish National Party requested an immediate recall of parliament over arms sales to Israel. The SNP’s call follows a letter signed by over 130 parliamentarians last week urging the halt of arms exports to Israel. 

It is profoundly disturbing to see politicians value the lives of a handful of WCK workers over tens of thousands of Palestinians. Such currents are shared in the UK media. Although over two hundred aid workers have been murdered since October 7, and agencies such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society have been vocal that PRCS “team members have been repeatedly killed despite coordination efforts and wearing the RED Crescent emblem,” it is only with the death of British civilians that the British media has acknowledged Israel’s concerted targeting of aid workers...

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