Palestine conflict in the press

Seven months since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Seven months of war in Gaza. How does the newspaper press report?

The sections were quickly created in the press in a similar way to after Russia’s attack on Ukraine: „Israel“ in the FAZ and SZ, also in the politics section in the WAZ, „War in the Middle East“ in the TAZ, „War in Israel and Gaza“ in the weekly newspaper „DIE ZEIT“, „Gaza War“ in the Freitag etc. etc.

The titles of the sections sound unbiased and down-to-earth. The reporting on the Middle East conflict in the Western and especially the German print media is monitored very closely by both sides and is often sharply criticised. Nevertheless, the German Press Council announced at the end of February that it „was able to reject complaints about the most relevant news topics as largely unfounded. ‚On major topics such as the wars in Israel and Gaza as well as in Ukraine, the print and online media have predominantly done a clean job‘, said von Hutten“ (spokesperson for the German Press Council, https://www.presserat.de/presse-nachrichten-details/vorstellung-unseres-jahresberichts-am-28-februar.html).

Today, 8 May, we want to talk about a selection of press reports, about how media coverage on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict contributes to emotionalisation and thus polarisation, and also about what this has to do with our own history and ourselves.

Dr Anja N. Stuckenberger is the director of the Evangelische Stadtakademie Bochum, Dr Irmtrud Wojak is the director and initiator of the Fritz Bauer Forum, which is currently being set up in Bochum.

Please note that the time has been changed due to the commemorative event on 8 May (starting at 3 pm instead of 4 pm).

A joint event of the Fritz Bauer Forum and the Evangelische Stadtakademie Bochum.