A U.K.-based Palestinian journalist took a Sky News presenter to task during a weekend interview in which the 23-year-old Gaza native challenged the Western media's misleading framing, double standards, and lack of critical context during coverage of Israel's war on the Gazan people.
Yara Eid—who is from Gaza City but lives in Edinburgh—pushed back after the Sky newsreader said that "it has been two weeks since Hamas first launched its attack on Israel that saw 1,400 people killed," and "since then, Palestinian officials say more than 4,000 people have died in Gaza."
Eid noted that the presenter referred to the Israelis murdered by Palestinian militants as being "killed," while describing Gazans slain by Israeli bombs, missiles, and artillery as having "died."
"I think language is really important to use because, as a journalist, you have the moral responsibility to report on what's happening," she said.
"Palestinians don't just die, they get killed," Eid stressed. "They are actually being subjected to ethnic cleansing, to genocide for the last 75 years."
"And you also mentioned that this is a Hamas-Israel war. This is not it," she said. "And framing it as such is very misleading because it poses the thing that Israel is an equal power, but it's an occupying power and it has the responsibility of protecting all civilian lives and children in Gaza."
"You need, as a journalist, to report on what's happening and say it as it is," Eid asserted.
Eid shared that 30 members of her immediate family—including 17 children—were killed by Israeli occupation forces.
The young journalist also said her best friend, Ain Media photographer Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi, was shot dead by Israeli troops. He is one of at least 20 journalists and 35 United Nations personnel who have been killed by Israeli bombs or bullets since the start of the war.
Palestinian journalists Yara Eid (left) and Ibrahimn Mohammad Lafi pose for a photo. (Photo: Yara Eid)
Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed nearly 5,100 people in Gaza, including more than 2,000 children, while wounding over 15,000 others, destroying almost 170,000 homes, and displacing around 1.4 million residents in what many experts have called a genocidal campaign.
Sky News was forced to apologize over the weekend after another host, Kay Burley, falsely claimed that a guest, Palestinian Ambassador to the U.K. Husam Zomlot, justified the Hamas attack by saying that "Israel had it coming."
Palestinian journalists Yara Eid (left) and Ibrahimn Mohammad Lafi pose for a photo. (Photo: Yara Eid)