In various articles in the Western media regarding the war on Lebanon, journalists tend to put a face onto the Israeli victims*. They provide names, age and sometimes brief bios of the deceased, be they military or civilian. Of course, fallen conscripts in the IDF tend to be young – in their early 20’s. For example, today the AP (Associated Press) wrote about the ceasefire.
Although a lot of it was fairly subjective, it ended with a description of a fallen Israeli soldier. It went something like this…Uri was a 21 year old male from Tel-Aviv and son of a famed poet and peace activist. This is not to say that his passing was not a waste and a loss or that his family did not grieve. But these very articles/journalists never seem to humanize the innocent Lebanese civilians that have died as a result of Israel’s “collateral damage”. The same day that Uri, a soldier, died, many Lebanese fathers, mothers and children died as well. They don’t mention how many kids Ziad had, or that he was a doctor, or that Ali was a 7 year old boy who loved to play soccer.
Why is that? Why do the 1000 deceased civilians, many of whom are children, never get recognized as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, intellects, doctors, janitors, taxi drivers? Would humanizing the Lebanese victims of this war somehow make these journalists anti-Semites or somehow take away from the 30 or so Israeli civilian losses?
* – It must be noted though, that the Lebanese perspective has never gotten more weight/air than during this conflict even from US media outlets (ex: CNN International, CBS, etc). But it is frustrating when seemingly objective articles end on a subjective note, humanizing one party and ignoring the other.
