The Middle East Conflict in Austrian Media: One-sided Reporting and Civil Society Silence

In the face of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, Austrian media coverage appears to many as biased. The depiction through the media focuses heavily on Israeli military operations and desolate ruins, while injured Palestinian civilians receive little visibility. This portrayal suggests less a bloody conflict and more a military expo or coverage of a construction company.

The choice of language in the media creates a clear distinction between active and passive phrasing: Israeli victims are often described as “murdered by the radical Islamic terror militia Hamas,” while the suffering of Palestinians is often uncommented and contextlessly described as “died.” These linguistic distinctions contribute to a portrayal that unequally weights the victims and deeply influences the perception of the conflict.

The selection of guests in news shows and talk shows tends to favor voices sympathetic to Israel, echoing the stance of Netanyahu’s right-wing and perceived racist government. This government enjoys less than 20% approval within the Israeli population itself and includes individuals who have been convicted as terrorists.

Editorial guidelines in TV, radio, and newspapers in Austria dictate avoiding terms like “genocide,” “mass murder,” or “Israeli attack.” In contrast, reports on attacks against Israel are laden with extreme attributes such as “murderous” and “terrorist.” This one-sided language regulation is complemented by the Austrian political landscape’s complete solidarity with Israel. Any peace demonstration is quickly—and often mistakenly—branded as antisemitic. This stands in stark contrast to the silence of civil society—the same society that vocally condemned the Serbs during the Yugoslav wars at the Srebrenica massacre remains silent on reports of 36,000 targeted Palestinian civilian deaths, mostly children. From comedians to journalists civil society is marked by silence – in stark contrast to the usual practice of engaging in current events.

International reports and images that show the extent of the tragedy in Palestine find little echo in Austrian media, creating the impression that the massacre does not exist. This selective information offering reinforces misinformation among the Austrian population. In online forums of public broadcasters, users erroneously discuss why Palestinians do not simply flee to Israel, where there is food, shelter, and housing, not knowing that the State of Israel has been denying Palestinians extensive human rights for over 75 years and violently prevents entry to or exit from Palestine.

Furthermore, attacks on Christian communities are barely mentioned in Austrian media. When Israeli snipers shot two elderly women in a Greek Orthodox church, Pope Francis spoke of “terrorism.” Yet despite the gravity of the incident, these events hardly made it into public reporting. Likewise, the repeated bombardment of the Christian St. Porphyrius Church by Israeli forces is rarely discussed. The killing of Christians does not fit into the narrative of the “just war” against supposedly “subhuman” brown-skinned Muslims. These incidents reveal a disturbing tendency to ignore certain victim groups in reporting, raising serious questions regarding the objectivity and moral obligations of the media.

The actions and statements of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which some members portray as a vision of superiority over Arabs, have caused worldwide dismay. The UN Secretary-General has strongly condemned this approach, and both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have initiated investigations. The ICJ even recognizes the “plausible possibility of genocide,” and the ICC is preparing arrest warrants for members of the Israeli government.

The international community largely supports a peaceful solution, which, however, is blocked in the UN Security Council by the USA veto. This stance is contrary to the opinion of its traditional allies such as the United Kingdom and Germany who abstained in that vote. In the USA, the Biden administration’s support for Israel has led to massive student protests, with tens of thousands of Israeli and international students at hundreds of universities demonstrating for a peaceful solution.

In Austria, many media adopt the narrative of right-wing American broadcasters, which are normally criticized as “hostile to democracy” and “proto-fascist.” In this narrative shared by Austrian media, the peacefully protesting students are portrayed as long-haired social outcasts who need to be “disciplined” by right-wing Zionists and the police. This portrayal of events stands in sharp contrast to the real demands and actions of the students, who are merely seeking a just and peaceful resolution of the conflict.

This self-imposed news blackout prevents comprehensive information provision to the Austrian population and fosters a distorted view of the conflict, raising serious questions about the objectivity and moral obligations of the media. Austria looks away again, either out of ignorance or deliberatly – but certainly ignoring the urgent need for balanced reporting that recognizes all victims of the conflict and provides an objective representation of efforts for peace and justice.