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Tuesday, November 26, 2024

The entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a very divisive topic in contemporary American society.Religious preference, ethnicity, political affiliation and social status often define and pervade the deep rifts that characterize this 60-year-old dispute.

The current situation involving the Israeli bombardment and incursion into Palestinian territories has undoubtedly agitated many strongly held beliefs and emotions on all sides of the conflict.

On page 13 in yesterday's Alligator there was an Associated Press wire story describing Israel's refusal to accept any calls for a cease-fire that also ran with a picture.

The story was well balanced, but the picture - which showed an Israeli child looking at damage done to a building by Hamas rocket fire - editorialized otherwise fair and balanced coverage of a major world event.

This picture undeniably did a poor job capturing the Palestinian point of view of the conflict and totally ignored the suffering of Gazans.

It is important to note that before the current Israeli military operation even started, there had been a brutal 1 1/2-year Israeli blockade imposed on the entire Gaza Strip.

Other than for intermittent aid provided by the United Nations, this blockade did not allow any food supplies, medicine, gas or monetary aid to be delivered to the Gaza Strip.

Now, on top of the blockade's effects on the Gazan civilian population - and on the heels of Israel breaking its agreement to a cease-fire with Hamas - the heavy Israeli shelling has killed more than 550 Palestinians and injured 2,500 other Gazans, including 200 civilians. Many of those injured or killed were women and children.

Moreover, through this unbalanced coverage, the voices and points of view of many UF students were marginalized and left in the dark.

In the future, the entire Alligator staff must be more sensitive to alternative points of view and provide its readers with increased fairness and balance when it comes to such discordant issues.

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