CNN’s one-sided presentation of the Gaza conflict continues with the video “War’s Psychological Toll on Gaza’s Kids.”
The video explains the immense psychological toll the conflict has had on Palestinian children. It begins with footage of an Israeli attack on Gaza and then proceeds to discuss the impact these attacks are having on Gazan children.
There is no doubt that war can impact children severely. Yet there are no images showing that the conflict affects children on both sides. No reference to the fact that children across the large swathes of Israel have had to endure thousands of rocket attacks.
Apparently the trauma of Israeli children is unworthy of a mention in the CNN video.
Actually, Israeli children living in southern communities have had fourteen years racing to bomb shelters due to rocket attacks. They have literally grown up hearing the red alert sirens of incoming rockets and diving for cover. No one could deny that such children are in great need of psychological therapy.
Except CNN it seems.
The day before the video was published on the CNN website, Israel buried Daniel Tragerman, a 4 year old boy who was killed while running to a bomb shelter. One wonders if CNN believes that his family and friends might have some psychological needs too.
Even if CNN wanted to do a video on the psychological trauma affecting Gazan children exclusively, why wouldn’t they include the fact that these children have been living under a terrorist regime? Maybe watching the governing authorities in Gaza commit public executions and drag bodies through the streets contributes to their trauma. Wouldn’t witnessing such scenes disturb children enough to require therapy?
Palestinian gunmen ride motorcycles as they drag the body of a man who was killed as a suspected collaborator with Israel, in Gaza City, November 20, 2012 (photo credit: AP/Hatem Moussa) (photo credit: AP/Hatem Moussa appearing in Times of Israel)
CNN interviews Palestinian experts who say that Gazan children will not be able to start school in Gaza on time and that missing school contributes to their psychological trauma. But it has been well-documented that in Palestinian schools, children are indoctrinated to hate Jews. Terrorists are held up as role models. Violence is encouraged.
Hamas TV in Gaza recently broadcast a speech by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait. He says:
Every mother – especially the mothers in Palestine, but every mother in the [Islamic] Nation, not just Palestine – must nurse her children on hatred of the sons of Zion. We hate them and they are our enemies. We will plant this in their [our children’s] souls, so that a new generation will grow among us, which will erase them from the face of the earth.”
Hamas is forcing children to embrace genocide.
Perhaps that is the real reason the children of Gaza need psychological therapy.
Please go to the CNN feedback page and let them know what you think of their unbalanced, distorted coverage.
Image: CC BY-NC-SA Jared Rodriguez/truthout (via flickr)
