By Jameson Parker
On Fox News’ Hannity, eponymous host Sean Hannity decided to bring on a Palestinian guest to help get a better understanding of the experience for Palestinians in Gaza right now. Just kidding, he had him on to belittle, demean and badger the Palestinian expert before ultimately cutting his mic and kicking him off the air. Fox News: Fair and Balanced.
The unsuspecting guest was Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center in Washington. The organization is a non-profit working to give voice to the Palestinian people where they are often ignored. Ironically, Munayyer was given very little opportunity to speak up for the Palestinians because Hannity talked over him during his heated interview.
http://youtu.be/G1m5xrlBHRs
From the outset, things looked pretty ominous. Hannity‘s segment was titled “Sympathy For The Terrorists” with a graphic of several masked men strapping suicide vests on. Subtle.
Hannity started things off by making it clear that this was not going to be an objective look at the violence in Gaza. At the beginning of the segment, Hannity rhetorically asks why Muslims in America are supporting the terrorists in Gaza. Never once did Hannity bring up the fact that not all people living in Gaza are terrorists (obviously, most aren’t) and that Israel’s attacks have killed hundreds of children who are clearly not terrorists, either. Instead, he wanted Muslims to disavow the Palestinian people as “terrorists” and if they didn’t, they were labeled terrorist sympathizers.
After introducing the guests, Hannity grew combative.
At several points, Hannity asks Munayyer questions and then immediately begins speaking again.
“I send rockets into your neighborhood. I kidnap three students from your neighborhood and kill them. What do you think the proper proportional response is?” Hannity asks.
Munayyer begins to explain the larger context of life in Gaza (conveniently left out in Hannity’s black-and-white assessment of the war). You can’t talk about this conflict without understanding the decades of oppression, mistrust and violence that came before it.
“Maybe you should stop the ongoing, decades long, military occupation of Palestinian territory,” Munayyer responds before getting cut off.
Hannity dismisses any historical or situational explanations as being not pertinent to the question at hand and insists that Hamas is a terrorist group, they are killing Israelis because they are evil, and Muslim-Americans are therefore terrorist sympathizers.
The exchange is a perfect example of how simple-minded Fox News’ approach to the conflict is. Nuance is brushed away or attacked as “distractions” and the narrative that is left is appallingly cartoonish. In the Fox News narrative, there are bad guys, good guys and that’s it. Hamas was blamed for killing three teenagers
(Note: there is a great deal of evidence to suggest they weren’t actually involved), so the deaths of 800 Palestinians and the bombardment of their homes is not only justified but practically sanctified. When Munayyer brings up the fact that hundreds of kids have died, Hannity explodes that maybe they shouldn’t have shot rockets into Israel. Who? The kids? Hamas? For Hannity, there is not difference, just “bad guys.” And bad guys must be destroyed.
Source: Addicting Information
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About the author
Jameson Parker covers US politics, social justice issues, and other current events which aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Follow Jameson on Twitter