On Sunday, the New York Times ran a photo essay entitled Female in Gaza.
It portrays Gaza women in a positive light, including women medical students, a girl riding a horse, and a woman recording a song.
While I am glad there are women prospering in Gaza, what struck me was what was not shown.
There are no photos of female terrorists or girls attending Hamas rallies.
Nor of honor killing victims, or women arrested by the Hamas modesty police.
In fact, Hamas is mentioned only twice, and not in at all a bad light: One photo caption includes “Hamas prides itself on its female police officers, who are helpful with domestic violence issues”, while another has the caption “The Gaza City harbor was recently renovated by the Hamas government..”
In other words, what is shown is a rather sanitized view of Gaza.
What also struck me was this photo.
Although it mentions blackouts due to fuel shortages, notice what is in the background?
Most Israelis do not have a television that large.
Update: Believe it or not, anti-Israel shmata Mondoweiss is complaining the pictorial is not anti-Israel enough!
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/04/feature-ignores-palestine.html
In what might be justified by the New York Times as an attempt to “depoliticize” and “humanize” Palestinian women in Gaza the paper ran a photo essay this past Sunday titled “Female in Gaza.” However the article obfuscates, covering up Israeli oppression and obscuring Gaza’s connection to the West Bank and to Palestinians in general.
The introductory text for the article mentions Gaza eight times, but never uses the word “Palestinian” or “Palestine” and mentions Israel only once, despite mentioning towering concrete blast walls, barbed wire, drones, patrolling soldiers, border controls, etc.. ”I have been photographing in Gaza for several years, initially to cover the conflict with Israel, but over time returning because I am mesmerized by the women, and their strength,” author Monique Jaques explained. Gaza is portrayed as a disconnected disembodied place in conflict with Israel where residents seem to have some undefined interest in the West Bank, “Her dream is to sing in Ramallah, a city in the West Bank.”
The article also avoids mentioning Egypt, except for one photo caption which only appeared online: “A girl completed a jump at Al-Faisal Riding Club in northern Gaza. Horses are brought in from Egypt and are well cared for by elite families.”
In the 14 photos online there is a single mention of the word “Palestinian” in a caption that also appeared in the print edition: ”A girl showed off her nails in the colors of the Palestinian flag.”
Only the first sentence of this caption was included in the print edition, so the word “Palestinian” does not appear in the print caption: ”A woman walked by an anti-domestic violence mural outside Al-Shifa Hospital. According to a 2012 study, some 37 percent of married women in the Palestinian territories have been subjected to domestic violence by their husbands.”
This photo and caption mentioning Palestine were not included in the print edition, and there is no mention here of who bombed the school: “Nisreen Shawa, a worker for the Palestine Medical Relief Foundation, did exercises with students at the Hamza Bin Abd-el-Muttalib School after a bombing.”
And this photo and caption mentioning bombing by the Israeli army were not included in the print edition: “In November, 2012, when the Israeli Army heavily bombed parts of Gaza, refugees waited out the siege in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in Gaza City.”
