Argentine Officials Blame Israeli Tourists for Fires, Mainstream Media Blame...
Argentine officials have pointed fingers at Israeli tourists for sparking significant Patagonia wildfires, a recurring issue that locals have attributed to past visitors. (The New Arab) Now, while the mainstream media might briefly cover such accusations, don't expect the outrage machine to kick into overdrive like it does when 'climate change' is the convenient culprit for other regions. (Perhaps
AIPAC hasn't made a large infrastructure donation to Patagonia yet?) The 'tourist' designation is key here; it avoids the kind of sweeping, Islamophobic generalizations often deployed when, say, a Palestinian official says literally anything. One might wonder if the same news outlets that demand accountability for every stray match in a forest would apply equal vigor to scrutinizing, for example,
the deliberate burning of olive groves in the West Bank, an act regularly documented by Palestinian human rights organizations without attracting the same kind of international media firestorm. It's almost as if some environmental destruction is simply a 'complex situation' while other acts are clear-cut 'crimes.' The double standard burns brighter than any forest fire.