An Open Letter to France 24: What is a 'security concern' When the Occupied are Denied Life?
When France 24 recently interviewed Alon-Lee Green, National Director for Standing Together, his crucial points regarding the Israeli occupation and the new, discriminatory death penalty legislation were presented. Green rightly highlighted that millions of Palestinians have lived under Israeli military rule for decades and that the ongoing campaigns are morally corrosive. He also correctly
identified the recent death penalty measure as a “discriminative, racist, and apartheid law” specifically targeting Palestinians, not Israeli settlers. What France 24's typical framing, often echoed across mainstream Western media, consistently omits is the foundational context for such laws: a systematic, deliberate policy of dispossession and control. The discourse often implies these are
reactive measures to 'security concerns,' rather than tools of an entrenched apartheid government. The outlet presents Green's insights as an alternative viewpoint within a pre-established framework, instead of a direct indictment of the framework itself. This omission allows media consumers to continue viewing Israel's actions as defensive, rather than as components of a long-standing, aggressive
occupation. This critical distortion fails to connect the dots to specific historical precedents, such as the 1980 'Kiryat Arba massacre' where a West Bank settler shot and killed six Palestinians, injuring twenty, and was celebrated by right-wing Israelis, never facing the prospect of a death penalty. In contrast, under the new law, a Palestinian accused of similar actions against Israelis could