American leadership efforts or official leaflets to establish freedom of speech are highly prominent in the world. Sometimes it appears that it is only their invented norns for the human civilization to follow. Their attitude indicates that people of all other countries must pay respect to their shown ways of orders. It seems that it also complies with a charter of the USA given ethics with the call for practicing democracy as well as discharging social justice.
But the world people’s experiences are different in many situations. They observed that the USA uttered norms of freedom of speech or practicing democracy or giving the proper recognition to uphold humanity are not maintained by them, or I may say, absent if the arena of the USA while fully booked with their interests and in that case, they simply go wild to encash their national interests and that is their serving justice.
You Can Also Read: UNMASKING THE US DOUBLE STANDARDS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Once again their masquerade policy has vividly surfaced in the context of Hamas and Israeli conflicts. On 7th October the world came to a new horrific reality of war in Palestine. Palestinian armed group Hamas carried out an unexpected assault on Israel, causing havoc in towns, resulting in hundreds of casualties, and capturing dozens of hostages whom they took to Gaza. In retaliation, Israel launched a massive scale of airstrikes on Gaza, destroying entire neighborhoods in one of the bloodiest incidents in the 75-year-long conflict. According to International sources and the Palestinian Authority, over 2,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.
As usual, the USA has put its weight of support behind Israeli forces without any hesitation. But Israeli indiscriminate brutality in the guise of adequate response has also fallen upon the press with already one death and multiple injuries. The influential US media has also vastly voiced its opinion in favor of Israeli action. But now there is news coming out of the Land of Free that the dissenting voices in support of Palestine are being silenced in an orchestrated manner.
MSNBC Withdraws Three Muslim Broadcasters
According to Max Tani, a renowned journalist from the American news site Semafor, US Television network MSNBC has silently stripped three Muslim broadcasters of their duty. The scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show on the streaming platform Peacock did not air.
Additionally, the network reversed its plan for Ayman Mohyeldin, an Egyptian-American journalist and veteran NBC News correspondent, to fill in for host Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show on Thursday and Friday. Mohyeldin, who had covered the conflict in Gaza for two years and questioned Israeli leaders on strikes in 2021, was expected to step in.
Furthermore, it’s reported that the network intends to have Alicia Menendez fill in for Ali Velshi this upcoming weekend. Ali Velshi is another Muslim-American host who recently interviewed a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority on a Sunday broadcast.
Over the past decade, NBC and MSNBC have faced challenges in their coverage of Middle East conflicts, often accompanied by internal controversies. These controversies have primarily revolved around three prominent Muslim anchors within the network who are significant voices in American journalism: Ayman Mohyeldin, Mehdi Hasan, and Ali Velshi.
BBC Journalists Harassed at Gunpoint by Israeli Police
Muhannad Tutunji, Haitham Abudiab, and their team from BBC Arabic were en route to a hotel in Tel Aviv when they were stopped by the Israeli police. Shockingly, the journalists were allegedly subjected to assault and held at gunpoint after being forcibly removed from their vehicle, which was visibly marked with “TV” in red tape. They were then pushed against a wall and subjected to a search, as they recounted. Video footage of the incident was shared on social media.
Tutunji and Abudiab claimed that they clearly identified themselves as BBC journalists and presented their press ID cards to the police. Tutunji attempted to film the incident but had his phone seized, and he was reportedly struck on the neck.
Reuters journalist killed after Israeli air strike at Lebanon border
A tragic incident occurred as an Israeli shell struck a group of journalists who were covering clashes on the southern Lebanon border. The shelling resulted in the death of Issam Abdallah, a videographer working for Reuters, and left six other journalists injured. This incident took place on a Friday while the Reuters team was providing live video coverage from southern Lebanon.
An Associated Press photographer who was present at the scene witnessed the aftermath, with the videographer’s body and the wounded individuals, some of whom were quickly transported to hospitals by ambulances. Images from the site depicted a charred car.
Reuters confirmed that two of its journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were among the wounded in the shelling that occurred in the border area. Additionally, two employees of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, were also injured in the incident.
Bel Trew, the chief international correspondent for The Independent based in the UK, characterized the news as “horrific.” In a tweet, she emphasized, “They were wearing press jackets, clearly identified as journalists. No fighting around them. They were at a live position doing their job.”
The hypocrisy of USA
The USA defends freedom of speech as a cornerstone of its democracy. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution declares. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It is a norm that the USA also preaches outside of its borders and yields its significant influence to enforce.
Violence against journalists by Israeli forces and silencing of views from the Palestine side has a long precedence. Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, was well-known and respected for her reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, bringing the voices and stories of Palestinians to the world. On 11 May 2022, she was killed by an Israeli Sniper while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. The targeted killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh sparked outrage and calls for accountability but nothing came out of it.
In 2014, there was a notable incident where Ayman Mohyeldin, who was NBC’s most experienced reporter in Gaza, was suddenly removed from the network’s coverage of the region, and Richard Engel replaced him for several days. At the time, NBC executives provided an explanation that cited vague “security reasons,” without offering a more specific rationale, as reported by CNN. In 2021, when violence erupted in Gaza, there were reports that MSNBC executives had expressed private discomfort with the coverage by hosts Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin.
Most recently USA declared a visa policy for Bangladesh banning individuals for “Actions that undermine the democratic election process include vote rigging, voter intimidation, the use of violence to prevent people from exercising their right to freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, and the use of measures designed to prevent political parties, voters, civil society, or the media from disseminating their views.” The unilateral action from the USA caused controversy while the country never gave any explanation or evidence of violence against the media.
Now the curious question is, will the US government ever take such actions against the Israeli regime? Abu Akleh was an American citizen but for its “Unwavering Support for Israel” her murder went without any consequences. Such blatant double standard of US action or in this case, lack of it, is not unnoticed by the rest of the world.
The atrocities committed by Hamas fighters are deplorable and should be condemned. However, the lack of oversight on Israeli atrocities is creating a hyperbole circle of violence. The moral ground and intention behind USA’s action in other countries should be vehemently questioned.
