Challenging distorted narrative of Palestinian crisis: Why our voices matter

In these severe times of crisis, misinformation and misrepresentation have plagued the traditional media like never before. Whenever I think too hard to make sense of what’s actually happening, I lose a bit of myself to the unabashed cruelty of the world. It feels so desperately against us; against the moral standards and degree of righteousness it set for itself.

Every principle of human and women's rights that we learned to parrot from the West — the same West that conveniently turned a blind eye to the current atrocities in Palestine — just feels too hopeless.

When I first read about misrepresentation in theory, it seemed almost improbable — but then again, I do need to catch up on a couple hundred history lessons.

However, what happened on October 7, and has been happening every single day after that, I was faced with nothing but a horrid display of irresponsible reporting leading to disinformation that we saw so distinctly permeate every Western news channel.

Searching for more context, I came across a TED Talk from an acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi, who is an expert in exploring intersections of identity over the course of history, on YouTube.

In the oration, the author broke down the many discernable dangers of misrepresentation, all of which I am currently witnessing play live before my eyes all over the media.

“Power is the ability to not just tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person,” she affirmed, leaving me dumbfounded.

Ngozi shed light on how the power structure of our world has influenced our media, controlling what story needs to be told, how it is told, and when it is told.

Since the nearly century-long oppression of the settler colony of Israel came into laser focus following Hamas’ retaliation at the beginning of this month, Western media, as well as their leaders have been working overnight to feed us lies and half-baked stories in hopes of shifting the narrative to pose the oppressor as oppressed.

Honorary mention for the tone-deaf journalists, who continue to try and fish out words of condemnation for the resistance force as the survivors of mass destruction air out their devastating tales.

In this crucial time of deliberate disinformation, it falls upon us to not only vocally reject it, but also strive to ensure the diffusion of accurate information.

The dangerous misrepresentation of the people of Palestine makes their plight much more tormenting. They are forced to sideline their grief in order to display their sufferings in front of the camera for the world to believe them.

They have to detail their trauma from the very first time they were subjected to such cruelty only for the Western media to readily dismiss it as collateral damage.

And yet, despite the genocide being documented in real-time and the city of Gaza reduced to ruin and mayhem, the dehumanization of Palestinians is jarring. Children are classified under the label of darkness by Israeli officials on national television, with their only fault being that they were born.

The ethnic cleansing is subtly toned down with the use of contrasting vernacular to describe the crimes committed by the oppressors versus resistance by Hamas.

Settlers are dubbed 'killed' while Gazans can only 'die'. 'Israel-Palestine conflict' is a commonly used term, implying both sides have access to equal resources, when they by no means do.

It is one-sided ethnic cleansing perpetuated by occupation forces for the last seven decades.

As of right now, the colonial state is committing three acts of genocide according to the United Nations Convention. Who is not dying of airstrikes is losing their battle to dehydration and starvation.

Children are left disabled with no one to fend for them when all this is over. Besides bombing residential buildings, the occupying forces are illegally destroying hospitals, desecrating places of worship, and blowing up educational institutions without as much a word of condemnation from the Euro-American officials.

The state-sanctioned violence is not driven by merely fascism of the Zionists, it is driven by the continued strive of the Western leaders to pose colonizers as victims of terrorism as they slowly sweep the land of Gaza off any people but theirs.

Breaking through the Israeli PR veil

In this deluge of misrepresentation and misinformation, social media users have come through, all while resisting silencing tactics of shadow banning and unannounced suspension of credible accounts.

Though it is fairly refreshing to see the power of the general public prompting the officials to scramble to preserve their credibility, the skepticism over its impact is understandable.

Most of the governments are using force to silence the masses against their complicity in the ongoing genocide.

The official X account of Israel is forced to resort to tweeting like a 13-year-old fangirl to make believe they are merely defending themselves. Celebrities and influencers are rushing in to preach peace with their curated PR statements, all while maintaining a careful stance of neutrality.

But the stance of social media users — you and me — is crystal clear. 

We are done feeding off of misrepresentation. What the press calls an instigation of war from Hamas, we understand it is retaliation. What the Israel occupying forces try to convince us is self-defence, we believe it is a genocide happening in real-time. 

We are willing to permanently boycott brands and products that continue to facilitate war crimes against the innocent. Despite dealing with resistance from authorities over protests around the world, we are coming out in record-breaking numbers to exercise our right to freedom of speech.

It is enlightening to experience the disconnect between the government and its people, who are not afraid to denounce decolonization and subjugation of minorities at the expense of the stability of their own state. 

We are not willing to look past the continued oppression of the Palestinian people that has been happening for decades. We, the ordinary people with no power in the United Nations or any other worldly organization that proclaims to champion the rights of human, disown the governments and their representatives of our own country.

Our voices matter because Palestinians have said so. The meagre presence of the brave coterie of the oppressed on social media have consistently urged us to continue speaking out. 

It is natural to start feeling desensitized by the escalating number of causalities over time, as well as feel upset over our helplessness to provide some kind of tangible help to those in need. However, it is important that we keep our rage alive, and channel it into doing the only thing Palestinians have asked us to do. Speak.