Israeli media's Gaza war coverage 'totally not objective'

The coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza by the Israeli media is not completely objective and follows different trends, it is rather a military media and information war, Gulf Times Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka pointed out Friday.He was taking part in a panel discussion on the topics related to media coverage of the ongoing war on Gaza alongside other journalists hosted by Al Araby TV.Al-Mudahka stressed that Israeli media does not follow one trend or direction as the left media opposes the war and the right media strongly justifies and defends it."However, the Arab public generally look for a just solution of the issue and strongly demands the end of war. It agrees with the Israeli left media but adopts different standards."The Arab people are overwhelmed with their emotion towards the Palestinian cause, and they eagerly hail any signs of victory by the Palestinian resistance. However, it is an absolutely unfair and unbalanced war in terms of power as the Israeli army is militarily overwhelming and has armament capabilities that cannot be compared to the resistance of Hamas."Al-Mudahka stressed that the Arab media has to distinguish between the issue of Jews and need to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories."It is a very old issue and needs to be resolved. Meanwhile, the Israeli forces have been targeting journalists all through this war and they kill based on face recognition rather than the identity to silence and intimidate any voices that would convey the true events to the world."As the focus on information at this war is increasing, the Israeli military is trying to tell the world a different narrative from their own perspective. For instance, the false accusations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Qatar and Egypt are his attempts to divert public attention away from the atrocities committed by his forces against the civilian people."The Gulf Times Editor-in-Chief further stressed that the endurance of the Palestinian resistance for over 100 days has undermined the morale of the Israeli army as it is a thing that happened for the first time, given the huge imbalance of capabilities and military logistics for the favour of the Israeli side.Rima AbuKhalil, journalist at Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (The New Arab) website, stressed that the main role of reporters is to convey the information and facts as is without any bias of passion. They have to be objective even though they may not like the facts they are reporting. However, reports in this case have to be very careful to avoid promoting the Israeli propaganda.Elias Temlalai, journalist at Al Araby TV, saw that the manipulation of information regarding this war mostly come through the social media posts rather than the official and recognised media channels. He said that the Arab media should expose the Israeli claims while abiding by the standards of the profession.Khaled Dawoud, an Egyptian journalist, said that covering the war news is a challenging task for reporters and the Israeli media itself is subject to strict military control. Accordingly, extra caution should be exercised when dealing with Hebrew sources in this regard. He also stressed that the Arab media should support and back the Palestinian people without breaching the standards of objectivity.