Israelis, Palestinians, and Double Standards
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed titled “If Indians and Pakistanis Can Relocate, Why Can’t Gazans?” in it Sadanand Dhume argues on behalf of President Trump’s plan to relocate roughly two million Palestinians. The crux of his argument is that population transfers are not new and they work. He cites examples such as the Greco-Turkish war following WWI and most notably the infamous partition of India and Pakistan. While he acknowledges the difficulty of Trump’s scheme his rationale is applied selectively. Many critics were quick to point out that if the roles were reversed, its unlikely that the WSJ or other major media outlets would give voice to the argument.
it’s amazing that 500,000 Israelis live illegally in the West Bank (720k w East Jerusalem), and the idea of relocating them to Israel in line with the law is considered impossible and verboten to discuss
— James Rosen-Birch ⚖️🕊️ (@provisionalidea) February 13, 2025
but forcibly moving 2 million Gazans to other countries? That’s a WSJ oped. https://t.co/eP7pZl6vvP
Over the past five decades, Israel has steadily expanded its civilian presence in the West Bank, land that according to the UN and most of the international community belongs to Palestinians. Today roughly half a million Israeli civilians live in illegal settlements, often subsidized by the Israeli government, built on occupied Palestinian land. Another 220,000 or so live in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem. Yet, I’ve never seen a major American news outlet argue that Israeli settlements in the West Bank should be liquidated and Israelis return to live within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. While I say this, I must acknowledge that Israel did withdraw roughly 10,000 settlers from Gaza in 2005 despite still resistance from the settlement community.
Since the outset of the Oslo peace process in the early 90s, negotiations have generally advocated for land swaps rather than population transfers. I’ve never seen a serious newspaper like the WSJ or New York Times run an op-ed arguing for European states to set aside territory for a Jewish state. To be clear I would condemn any such argument calling for Jewish population transfers, but this lays bear the double standards often applied to Israelis and Palestinians in the Western media.
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) February 15, 2025
The Western media’s reporting on the conditions of the three Israeli hostages released on 8 February highlighted these double standards. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and others rightfully condemned the spectacle of Hamas parading the three emaciated hostages at gun point and forced them to give speeches thanking their captors. Yet those same outlets barely mentioned that four Palestinian detainees had to be hospitalized upon their release while many more have appeared malnourished and borne marks of torture and mistreatment. Is it any wonder that public trust in Western Media continues to decline.
