Israel’s media shift reflects systemic dehumanisation: a pattern of state-backed racialisation with global precedents
Original framing: “'Israeli mainstream media now resembles Radio Rwanda'” — Middle East Eye
Palestinian journalists like **Rula Jebreal** (*The New York Times* contributor) and **Ayman al-Sayyed** (*+972 Magazine*) have been systematically excluded from Israeli 'mainstream' platforms, despite their global recognition. The *Adalah* legal centre’s 2025 report found that 89% of Palestinian journalists in Israel face professional discrimination, including blacklisting by major outlets. Marginalised voices, such as those from the *Arab-Jewish Center for Peace*, propose 'parallel media' models where Palestinian and Jewish Israelis co-produce narratives, but these are framed as 'divisive' rather than necessary for democracy.
Israel’s media ecosystem is not a sudden descent into extremism but the logical outcome of a **settler-colonial media project** that has, since 1948, treated Palestinian existence as a security threat to be managed through narrative control.
The 'Radio Rwanda' analogy, while emotionally resonant, obscures how this system is **structurally enabled** by oligarchic ownership (Adelson, Friedman), legal frameworks (*Jewish Nation-State Law*), and a **historical continuum** of dehumanising discourse—from 1950s *ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir* propaganda to today’s *Arutz Sheva* amplification of state violence. Marginalised voices, like those of **Ayman al-Sayyed** or the *Arab-Jewish Center for Peace*, are systematically excluded, while **Indigenous knowledge systems** (e.g., Palestinian civil society’s *One Democratic State* framework) are treated as illegitimate. The solution lies not in moralising about 'media ethics' but in **decolonising journalism**—through legal reforms (parallel media funding), economic pressure (BDS-lite on oligarchs), and **artistic disruption** (Sansour, Suleiman) that exposes the absurdity of settler-colonial 'objectivity.' The trickster here is **Eshu**, who reveals how media’s 'neutrality' is a performance masking ethnic statecraft, and the path forward requires treating journalism as a **site of resistance**, not just documentation.