The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato

The insidious language of victimhood

News broke out last week that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had been using Palestinians as human shields when conducting operations in the Occupied Territories. While the practice had seemingly been used for quite a while, it took a brave human rights worker to capture it on film for the story to break out and to expose yet another IDF form of abuse. While the IDF breaking international humanitarian law is not exactly, beyond the story continues to be what I like to call the “insidious language of victimhood” in how the media covers Israeli, a longstanding practice that for 60 years now has portrayed every type of Israeli action — however inhumane — as that of the victim.

The Taipei Times published my article on the matter, titled “Victimhood and Media Rhetoric on Israeli Affairs,” in its April 18, 2007, issue. You can read it by clicking here.