When we study historical atrocities—the worst crimes committed against human beings—they often raise haunting questions about the people of that era: How could they allow such horrors to happen? We reassure ourselves by saying they did not know, or did not know any better, and promise that we would never allow that to happen. Never again.
And yet, the world, and our generation, has watched one of the most well-documented genocides unfold, live-streamed on our devices for two years. We have seen Gaza become a wasteland, parents digging desperately through rubble, hospitals left in ruins, and the mass slaughter of children—what UNICEF describes as a “classroom of children killed, every day,” by Israel.
As of this writing, Israel’s killing in Gaza continues with the full global awareness and the support the world’s most powerful nations. We have seen the daily horrors from Gaza because of the immense resilience of Palestinian journalists, who paid with their lives to show the reality on the ground.
As Israel barred foreign press from entering Gaza, media workers in the field became the central source for what was happening.
Forced to record their own genocide, Palestinian journalists became targets themselves. Where they exemplified the highest ideals of their profession, many of their Western counterparts—and especially the institutions behind them—have utterly failed. It is the media institutions themselves, bound to political power and economic incentives, that bear the most responsibility.
Certainly, not all journalists share the blame—many of which protested, resigned, and tried to do their jobs under challenging conditions—but the betrayal lies with the systems that they work within.
Complicity
Rather than seeking truth and minimising harm, Western media often acted as stenographers for the narratives of powerful governments, particularly Israel and the US. Instead of interrogating official claims, even as Israel carried out mass killing, starvation, and destruction in Gaza, mainstream media echoed their language—speaking of “collateral damage” and “targeting Hamas”—and repeated government talking points with little scrutiny.
Time and again, headlines obscured the perpetrator of attacks, downplayed Palestinian suffering, and cast doubt on Palestinian sources, while validating Israel’s attacks on hospitals, homes and schools by saying they were “targeting Hamas.” In doing so, Western media helped to whitewash Israel’s crimes and the complicity of its allies.
But perhaps the gravest offence is the refusal to call what it happening by its name: genocide.
Just days into Israel’s assault on Gaza, Israeli scholar and genocide expert Raz Segal called it a “textbook case of genocide.” Segal was not only looking at Israel’s initial actions—like a complete blockade and carpet bombing a dense-civilian population in a strip of land the size of Philadelphia—but also listening to the explicit statements of Israeli officials.
Referring to the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, Segal stressed that “intent to destroy a group is defined as racial, ethnic, religious or national as such that is collectively, not just individuals. And this intent, as we just heard, is on full display by Israeli politicians and army officers.” His warnings received little coverage in legacy media and the language of genocide was largely overlooked in the early months of reporting.
Four months later, South Africa brought its genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice. The ICJ found the case plausible and rejected Israel’s request to dismiss it. Still, much of Western media continued to frame the ongoing carnages in Gaza as a “war” or “conflict.”
Even when genocide was central to the story, headline after headline omitted that language. On February 25, 2024, one month after the ICJ’s ruling, U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy as a severe act of protest against US complicity in Israel’s genocide. He left no ambiguity, Bushnell recorded himself and stated, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide.” Yet, Western media headlines left out the reason for Bushnell’s protest, avoiding the words “Gaza,” “genocide,” and “Palestine.”
Platforming Israel’s lies
By March of 2024, UN Special Rapporteur and expert Francesca Albanese had found “reasonable grounds” that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Albanese emphasised that genocide cannot be addressed after the fact. Thus, states are obligated “to prevent genocide so genocide doesn’t have to complete itself. When there is a manifestation of intent, even genocidal intent, there is already an obligation to intervene, because a crime is unfolding.” In response, Western media employed the language of “accusations” and offered Israel space to reject them—giving equal weight to legal analysis and political denial.
In fact, as a growing chorus of experts and leading global human rights organisations concluded Israel was indeed committing genocide in Gaza, media outlets maintained this rhetoric. When Amnesty International published its landmark report in December 2024 detailing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, major outlets framed their findings as an “accusation” and platformed Israel’s denials.
This pattern persisted. In March 2025, a UN report revealed that Israel had systematically used gender-based sexual and reproductive violence against Palestinians, “as part of a broader effort to undermine their right to self-determination and carried out genocidal acts through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities.” The report was only the newest addition to the mounting body of evidence on Israel’s genocidal actions, but media coverage once again softened the story using a narrative of accusation and centred Israeli rebuttals.
By consistently labelling genocide findings as allegations while lending legitimacy to Israel’s denials, Western media has not only distorted reality but also undermined the global institutions tasked with upholding international law.
Now, after two years of endless bloodshed, the near-total destruction of Gaza, the deliberate engineering of famine, and the obliteration of every moral and legal red line, a UN commission report in September 2025 found that “Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.” No equivocation, no euphemism or hedging language. Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
As we mark two years of genocide, Western media still refuses to call it by its name, as illustrated in a recent NYT editorial headline that read, “This Terrible War Must End.” Missing once again were the words that matter most: Israel, genocide, Palestinians.
By refusing to name the crime or the criminal, Western media is engaging in genocide denial. And history will judge the complicit.
Assal Rad is a scholar of Modern Middle Eastern history and Nonresident Fellow at Arab Center DC. She received her PhD at the University of California, Irvine.
Follow Assal on Twitter/X: @assalrad
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