For Western media, the optics of the prisoner swap is a case study in Palestinian dehumanisation
Khalida Jarrar, former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, speaks to the media upon her release from Israeli prison, Beitunia, 20 January 2025
Hamza Yusuf writes in The New Arab on 25 February 2025:
It quickly became clear that, after whitewashing and downplaying Israel’s genocide and with a ceasefire of sorts in place, the Western mainstream media set out to stir up hysteria and dehumanise Palestinians through the captive swaps.
Their response laid bare the visible hierarchy of human life. It didn’t matter that Israel had already killed the very hostages it insisted its entire genocidal campaign was apparently catered to saving. The Israeli government “doesn’t really care about the hostages,” concluded the brother of one slain captive.
Meanwhile, months into Israel’s onslaught, instead of calling for the return of their loved ones, other family members were calling for an intensification of Israel’s bombardment.
When Israeli captives were released, looking healthier than many anticipated and bearing goodie bags, the media highlighted the “bizarre” exchange, the “horrific” symbolism, and the overall “grim” ordeal.
Those adjectives were absent when Palestinians were released as part of the same exchange, like Khalida Jarrah. Detained without charge or trial and kept in a 1m-1.5m cell, she looked drastically different upon her release. Her condition showed the wretched circumstances Palestinians are put through in Israel’s brutal torture chambers. And yet the media used its tried and tested propaganda by omission strategy; no one can take notice of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians if the details are deliberately diluted.
As Israeli commentator Gideon Levy pointed out in Haaretz, “nobody in Israel cared”. Actually nobody anywhere cared. Levy bluntly noted that she too was a hostage, but seemingly the wrong kind from the wrong place which meant that characterisation was forbidden.