Thread by @OmarBaddar

A quick thread on Gaza.

4 Palestinian protesters killed in Gaza by Israel on Friday, BEFORE rocket fire out of Gaza. But what are today's headlines?

CNN: "430 rockets fired from Gaza, Israel responds with airstrikes"

BBC: "Gaza rocket barrage prompts Israel strikes" (1/?)

Fox News: "Israel strikes Gaza targets in response to Palestinian heavy rocket fire"

Despite available evidence to the contrary, they always see Palestinian violence as provocation, & Israeli violence as a "response" (2/?).

This happened in 2014: The murder of 3 teenage settlers in the West Bank was allegedly the start of that monstrous Israeli attack on Gaza (which killed 500+ children), but no mention of the 10-year old Palestinian child killed the day before the settlers were kidnapped. (3/?)

This happened in 2008, when rockets were the alleged provocation for another monstrous assault that killed hundreds of civilians in Gaza, but no mention of Israel violating the ceasefire & killing several Hamas members before the rockets were fired. (4/?)

This is beyond individual incidents. Just imagine an inverted reality: Imagine if Hamas had spent the last year sniping hundreds of unarmed Israelis dead, including medics and journalists, & kidnapping countless Israeli children out of their beds in the middle of the night. (5/?)

Not only would media outlets refrain from criticizing an Israeli attack in response, they would be demanding it, lionizing it, and celebrating it. Yet here we are in the real world, with the exact opposite reality: Israel is (a) sniping hundreds of unarmed Palestinians dead (6/?)

AND kidnapping countless Palestinian children AND building illegal settlements AND demolishing Palestinian homes AND enabling settler violence with impunity, AND stealing Palestinian water AND slowly ethnically cleansing Jerusalem AND suffocating Gaza economically... (7/?)

In the face of this systemic, daily violence that defines Palestinians' permanent existence, describing Palestinian violence as a provocation & the situation preceding the rockets as a "lull in violence" (as the Guardian just did) is utter dehumanization of Palestinians (8/?)

Every media outlet that portrays Israel's actions as "defensive" or a "response" is basically telling us (perhaps unconsciously) that Palestinian lives are disposable, & the oppression they live under is natural & unobjectionable... (9/10)

The average American won't understand this issue so long as the media's internalized bias omits the context of occupation & oppression, and dehumanizes Palestinians. This will not change until we raise hell and demand it does. Call them out. Every. Single. Time. (10/10).

*Quick note on 1st tweet: 2 of the 4 Palestinians killed were protesters (every point still stands).