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The West’s bias against Arabs and Muslims reared its ugly head again last week, when the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel was marked.
American politicians of every stripe and every rank, from the president to local municipal trustees, expressed grave sympathy for the victims of the violence that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives. Yet, while the killing of those 1,200 Israelis was a heinous crime, the outpouring of sympathy was undermined by the absence of any regret for the killing by Israeli forces of a far greater number of Palestinians, nearly 70,000, over the past two years.
The hypocritical way the tragedy suffered by the Israelis and the terrorism of Hamas is treated compared to the greater, suppressed tragedy inflicted on the Palestinians by Israeli authorities is absolutely outrageous.
Palestinian deaths are demeaned and that in turn demeans the tragedy of the Israelis killed on Oct. 7. But pro-Israel advocates do not seem to care about the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. It is a movement of hate that seeks to further undermine Palestinians’ right to justice.
It has always been this way in terms of the disparities in how the suffering of Arabs and Muslims is portrayed compared to that of Israelis and Jews. The West always places its emphasis on the tragedy of the Israelis, while ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians.
Israel and its biased Western supporters always narrowly define their morality to exclude Arab, Muslim and Palestinian suffering, except when it benefits them politically.

The West always places its emphasis on the tragedy of the Israelis, while ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians.
 

Ray Hanania

The emphasis since Oct. 7 has always been on the Israeli hostages — 48 of the 251 taken by Hamas are still to be returned, with about 20 of them thought to still be alive. Yet no one in America talks about the thousands of Palestinians arrested and detained without charge in the last two years, taking the total in Israeli jails to more than 11,000.
Israel and its allies have always manipulated data to exaggerate their suffering, while negating the oppression of Palestinians. Seriously, what is worse: the killing of 1,200 human beings or the killing of 68,000 human beings? To many pro-Israel supporters, 1,200 is far more important than 68,000 when you classify the victims by race and religion.
But how do they get away with this moral corruption? One way is to humanize Israeli victims by telling their stories, while demonizing Palestinian victims.
Over the past week, most major American media outlets shone the spotlight on the 20 Israeli hostages still alive in Hamas custody, providing their names and circumstances, while showcasing their families and presenting their suffering in a most empathetic manner. In contrast, no major media organization bothered to do the same with the far greater number of Palestinians in similar situations, relegating their suffering to little more than large data totals.
This makes it look like one Israeli, who is humanized by the reporting of their name and details of their family, livelihood and the violent circumstances they face, is far more significant than 100 Palestinians, who are repeatedly dehumanized as mere statistics.
There are far more Palestinian women and children who have been murdered by Israeli soldiers than Israelis by Hamas, yet the Israelis remain the focus of Western concern.
One of the most tragic killings of a Palestinian child was the January 2024 murder of five-year-old Hind Rajab, which exposed America’s lack of morality when it comes to the loss of innocent life. Hind and her unarmed family were fleeing violence in Gaza when an Israeli tank fired on their vehicle. Miraculously, Hind and a cousin survived this initial attack. Five other family members, including her mother and father, died.
Hind, who was injured in her back, hand and foot, and her cousin managed to contact first responders from the Red Crescent. When the unarmed medics arrived at the scene, they were given permission by the Israeli military to treat the pair — only for Israeli soldiers to kill all of them. Their bodies were found near the burned-out car, along with the bodies of the rest of Hind’s family.
The Israeli authorities did what they always do when accused of such crimes: they denied any involvement and questioned the circumstances of the deaths in a press release that was reported as fact by the Western media.
However, a Washington Post investigation later confirmed that Hind was killed on the same day as the attack on her parents’ car, when Israeli soldiers fired 355 bullets into the vehicle. The tragedy was documented in “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a docudrama film written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania that has won several major international awards over the past few months, although it remains undistributed in America and Israel.
The film includes audio recordings of Hind as she spoke with the Red Crescent call center over a period of several hours, pleading for help, before she was killed.
What has happened in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, is not only the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians, but the massacre of humanity by Israel, Western politicians and the mainstream news media, which is afraid to report on the killing of Palestinians in the same way it reports on the killing of Israelis.
It is unjust and immoral.

• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. X: @RayHanania