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Bombs with Lies: Media Representation of Genocide in Gaza

2023; Feminist Studies; Volume: 49; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/fem.2023.a915928

2153-3873

Minoo Moallem,

Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts

Bombs with Lies:Media Representation of Genocide in Gaza Minoo Moallem (bio) as an anti-colonial and transnational feminist working at the intersection of representational practices and material realities in an uneven geopolitical world, I am appalled by the unethical, warmongering, racist, and militaristic gaze of the mainstream media in the US. The US bombs dropped on Gaza by the Israeli state have been accompanied by lies, misinformation, fake news, and manipulations of the mainstream media. Indeed, the mainstream media in the US—from the centrist Washington Post, cnn, and nbc, to the more liberal msnbc coverage—have been complicit with the genocide in Gaza. Media imperialism has been part and parcel of war, militarism, and imperialist projects of the US. The examples of the bombardment of Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan are still vivid in the memory of those of us who cannot afford to live in a state of amnesia. The soft war of mainstream media has undoubtedly paved the road for the continuation of genocide "erasing from the face of the earth" masses of children, women, and men in Gaza through the racism of extermination and the binary of civilized versus barbaric, light versus darkness,1 and humans versus nonhumans by the Israeli state and its US allies.2 Indeed, such coordination between the soft war of the mainstream media and the war machine of the US and Israel is severe; it has garnered concern in various parts of the world and should be of concern to feminists who have been fighting against colonialism, imperialism, war, and militarism. Since the beginning of the bombardment of innocent people in Gaza, mass demonstrations of people of all ages across the world, from Indonesia, Chile, and South Africa to Morocco, have shown their anger at the genocide in Gaza. US mainstream media have shown no interest [End Page 542] in changing their gaze to looking at these protests in the Global South, sending the message that neither the destruction of the Palestinian environment nor its inhabitants is unethical or inhuman. Indeed, the US mainstream media has lost its credibility in expressing concern for the humanitarian support of women's movements. Isn't it questionable that the US mainstream media extensively covered the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in Iran and yet is so quiet about the butchering of masses of women in Gaza? Isn't it telling that those who cared so much for the loss of one life in Iran have no interest in the loss of thousands of people in Gaza? Without a doubt, the selective support of women's movements is part of an imperialist approach to deciding who is next on its bombarding list. [End Page 543] Minoo Moallem minoo moallem is a professor of gender and women's studies and an affiliated faculty with several departments and centers at University of California, Berkeley, where she was the director of the Media Studies Program from 2017 to 2023. She is the author of Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Cultural Politics of Patriarchy (University of California Press, 2005), and Persian Carpets: The Nation as a Transnational Commodity (Routledge, 2018). Footnotes 1. From his nationally televised address, "Netanyahu: 'We are sons of light, they are sons of darkness,'" Euronews, October 26, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKD9qR8YHYE. 2. Nick Wadhams, "Israeli Leaders Say 'Now Is Time for War' and Vow to Wipe Hamas 'Off the Face of the Earth' Time, October 11, 2023, https://time.com/6322897/israel-leaders-vow-destroy-hamas-gaza-war/. Copyright © 2023 Feminist Studies, Inc.