“Oh the media being biased/silent on Gaza is a conspiracy theory”
I am a literal journalist and this is what happened when I pitched an article to a magazine I write for:
We covered conflict before. We denounced PMs’ positions as wrong before. But this is where the editor balks - anything that makes it look even vaguely like we might, possibly, support Gaza. Even if the article itself would not have been an opinion piece, but a news feature about events on the ground.
We have free press, baby! But avoid the matter entirely if you can. It’s delicate and depressing, why would you talk about it? Don’t rock the boat. Be quiet. You don’t need to go there.
I’m reading about how Israel, in the immediate aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, deliberately replaced olive trees and other indigenous flora with European plants. This ecological disaster, which is now proudly hailed under the banner of ‘making the desert bloom,’ was done to 'de-Arabize’ the landscape, and to cover up - often with fast-growing European pine trees -the ruins of Palestinian villages that were destroyed by Zionists forces.
And I just need everyone to read this passage from Pappé, because the symbolism of what happened to those European pine trees in the desert speaks for itself:
ALT
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé (2006, p. 227-228.)