In mainstream Western media, the coverage of Israel’s year of scorched-earth destruction often touches on the victims and events happening in Gaza in the passive voice. Death and destruction befall Palestinians the way a city suffers from a hurricane or an earthquake—though in those cases, the media has little difficulty identifying the natural disaster as the cause of the destruction. When it comes to Gaza, buildings mysteriously explode and people die. Rarely do we see the Israeli military identified as having carried out the act—and never do we see individual members of the military named and identified, their actions described in detail, broken down by unit and task. In fact, doing so in Israel is illegal.
The stated rationale for that censorship is operational security, but according to a report from Israel’s Channel 13, the real aim is to dodge accountability for war crimes. If that’s true, the soldiers themselves work against this cover up on a daily basis—posting endless photos, videos, and montages from the homes and neighborhoods of Gaza they are razing. That’s where this investigation begins. …..more