Mssing Context

Breaking down misleading narratives in Australian mainstream media
Fact-checker | MENA Researcher

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Israel has killed at least 21,000 Palestinian children in Gaza since October 2023. It kills one Palestinian child per week in the occupied West Bank.
This IDF claim of "deep sorrow" after killing a Palestinian baby is nothing but Israeli propaganda. Yet here, the ABC centres it.

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What a convoluted way to obscure that Israel is the aggressor.

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This depraved story of Israeli soldiers shooting and killing a seven-month-old Palestinian baby has made headlines across the globe.

The Canberra Times is the only Australian mainstream outlet to cover it, further exposing the media's complicity through omission.

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Having just allowed Israel to brutalise their own citizens with zero consequence, these nations now expect more empty words will halt illegal settlement expansion?

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The footage unambiguously shows an Israeli minister and police abusing civilians who are kneeling in rows with their hands zip-tied. “Appears to show” introduces doubt and sanitises this Israeli state violence.

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This isn't the story. Thomas Massie wasn't just a Trump/Republican critic. He opposed the pro-Israel lobby's influence in US politics and US military aid to Israel. That’s why AIPAC and pro-Israel groups poured millions into unseating him in the most expensive House primary ever.

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Anti-Muslim hatred is surging in the West, driven by far-right extremists.

But despite it being carried out in plain sight, legacy media and politicians will tell you this is only happening when it comes to antisemitism - so they can weaponise it to stifle criticism of Israel.

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How to obscure Israel’s ongoing genocide as a passive humanitarian crisis:
-Mention Israel once in a 4.5m broadcast
-Report inadequate aid & starving Palestinian mums and babies while omitting who's responsible
-Report 800 killed since "ceasefire" while omitting the perpetrator

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As @AssalRad in the US and @newscord_org in UK point out, the man has been charged with three, not two, counts of attempted murder.

The third victim is Ishmail Hussein. His erasure from Western headlines reveals once again a double standard in whose lives are deemed newsworthy.

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Adel Al-Najjar (9) was collecting cardboard for his family’s cooking fire when the Israeli army targeted & killed him by drone, claiming he posed an “immediate threat” near the Yellow Line.

AAP reduces this Palestinian child to a number, hiding the depravity of the Israeli army.

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4. Manufacturing consent: Repeating “Israel claims” is not journalism. It is a common tactic used to pre-emptively justify aggression. In this case, the bombardment of Lebanese towns and villages.

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How the ABC sanitises Israel’s forced displacement of the Lebanese and and masks territorial escalation:

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3. Obscuring expansion: By failing to note that these villages sit beyond the territory Israel already occupies, the ABC masks a significant military and territorial escalation into sovereign Lebanon.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Khalil had previously received a direct death threat attributed to the IDF in September 2024, raising serious concerns of deliberate targeting.

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How to shield Israel from accountability:
- Omit it as the perpetrator
- Lead with location to frame Lebanon as the aggressor
- Dehumanise Lebanese by erasing their deaths

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Since this story was published, reports confirmed that Israeli strikes killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, bringing the number of those killed to five.

Lebanon said Israel “pursued” Khalil by “targeting” the house where she took shelter after an Israeli attack.

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This is the missing context. When Australian media report on Israeli settler violence against Palestinians across the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territory) they never tell audiences why. Why are Israeli settlers terrorising Palestinians?

This is why:

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This omission is how Australian media normalises Israel’s apartheid practices and illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

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Incredible (yet not surprising) how the ABC can report on this Israeli law targeting Palestinians without using the word apartheid.

Non-Western outlets have cited groups like Amnesty, which condemned the law as “another discriminatory tool in Israel’s system of apartheid.”