Stereotyping justifies violence and keeps us from recognizing our shared humanity
The story of more than 40 beheaded Israeli babies may go down in history with the "weapons of mass destruction" and the "Iraqi soldiers stole incubator and left 22 babies to die" stories among the most egregious lies.
The origin of the false story was a journalist, Nicole Zedeck, from the Tel Aviv-based news channel i24 who said that a soldier told her that they had "witnessed bodies of babies with their heads cut off." In another live broadcast she reported "40 babies were taken out on gurneys." Some Israeli officials seemed to confirm it. I don't pretend to know her motives, but it is clear that she did not verify her story. The story took off, was repeated and was seen by millions.
President Biden speaking to a Jewish community in a soft, deeply pained voice said, "I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed, pictures of terrorists beheading children, I never thought I would ever, anyway--." The President of the United States, with all the information resources available to him, was seeming to confirm the story.
The story was quickly proven wrong. Within days, it imploded. The White House issued a statement saying no one had seen images of beheaded babies. Israeli officials said they could not confirm such reports and the detail of beheaded babies was widely discredited.
But the damage had been done. It confirmed the bias of those who think Hamas and by extension Palestinians and by extension Arabs are barbaric.
Why would Biden make that statement in the first place? Why would other Western media be so quick to repeat it? Are they so ethnically biased that they would automatically believe any story?
We will not know the answers to these questions anytime soon, but it is clear that the world leader whose words matter the most in this moment must be more careful in the words he uses.
The one-sided nature of the discourse was seen in the appropriate words of deep sympathy used to describe the death of innocent Israeli civilians used by so many leaders while completely ignoring an ever-increasing toll of violence against Palestinians.
Words have power. Stereotyping of the enemy and manufacture of consent has been widely studied, and its effects well documented. In the current narrative, Palestinians and by extension Arabs have a proclivity to violence, are barbaric and uncivilized. Those who hold this view cite "proof" as that Hamas was chosen to lead the Palestinians. The logical conclusion of this line of reasoning would be they deserve what they asked for.
Another aim of stereotyping is to reduce an entire group of people into one homogenous entity. All inhabitants of Gaza are then equated with Hamas. And as Hamas is a U.S. certified terrorist group, its fighters, as an Israeli military official said, are "human animals." It follows that the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are also subhuman. This poisonous rhetorical tactic of turning your enemy into a subhuman, is often used before subjecting them to violence.
There is lack of context. I haven't read anyone provide the context that the Gazans tried weekly peaceful protests of gathering near the fence for a year. They had no success in a peaceful jail break. They were merely dispersed by Israeli authorities.
Imagine being born and growing up in an open-air prison with stringent restriction on movement and no escape to the outside world. What would that do to your psyche? The Uighurs of China and Rohingyas of Myanmar face similar restrictions. Many Muslims in the eastern Indian state of Assam are in jails labeled as illegal immigrants.
The heaviest burden is for the media to verify, filter and carefully choose the stories they use and provide appropriate balance. This may sometimes mean being taken off the air, as appears to have been the fate of three journalists on MSNBC, or having your stories squashed. TV journalists influence viewers by not just words but by body language, tone of voice and choice of questions asked or not asked.
Media outlets must report what leaders of our nation say. They have no control on President Biden's speech, but they can provide context.
Extreme stereotyping that has influenced public opinion explains the lack of outrage of massive bombing of Gaza's, civilian, medical and religious structures and cutting off water and food and electricity and medical supplies.
It is only this extreme stereotyping that explains the psyche of a 71-year-old who can stab a 6-year-old to death.
Sooner or later, bombs will stop falling on Gaza. Sanity, we hope, might return.
Israelis and Palestinians must find a way of living side by side in peace and dignity by electing leaders who are wise like Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. But first we as individuals must immunize ourselves against stereotyping and recognize each other's humanity.
• Javeed Akhter is a physician and freelance writer from Oak Brook.