Al Jazeera Discovers Anti-Immigrant Protests Have No 'Both Sides'
Al Jazeera's reporting on 'Violent anti-immigrant protest outside asylum seeker hotel in Ireland' highlights clashes between protestors and police, framing it as a clear act of domestic disorder. Curiously absent is the call for 'both sides' to de-escalate, or the notion that the asylum seekers might have 'provoked' the reaction. When the violence is internal to Europe, suddenly the moral clarity
appears. One might wonder if this sober, direct reporting would extend to, say, the suppression of protests in Gaza or the violent displacement of Palestinians. There, 'conflict' and 'retaliation' often mask the brutal reality of an occupying force. Perhaps if the Irish police received billions in annual US aid, the headlines would pivot to 'mutual escalation' or encourage 'dialogue' between the
xenophobes and their targets.