The BBC’s language games: How media distorts the Israel-Palestine narrative in the captive exchange
The past 16-months in Gaza have exposed not only the brutal reality of Palestinian suffering but also the moral failure of those watching.
Civilians capture their own destruction—documenting deaths and ruined homes—to prove they are not invisible amidst Israel’s violence. Yet, Western media enables and justifies this brutality, shaping public perception with selective language and biased framing. How war is discussed shapes how it is understood.
The BBC, often lauded for impartiality, amplifies Israeli narratives while erasing Palestinian voices. In coverage of the recent hostage-prisoner exchange, this bias was glaring: Israeli captives were "hostages," evoking victimhood, while Palestinian detainees—many held without charge—were "prisoners," implying criminality. This framing reflects a larger, colonial dynamic where Western powers decide whose suffering is acknowledged, whose violence is condemned, and whose humanity is recognised.
The ceasefire deal: A revealing exchange
A ceasefire framework proposed on 15 January exposed Israel’s vast incarceration system: nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners exchanged for just 33 Israeli hostages. This imbalance underscores a key driver of Palestinian resistance: the demand for detainee release which was made clear by Palestinian groups since October 7, yet ignored by Western media. Instead, coverage focuses on Israeli hostages in an emotional narrative, while neglecting Israel’s systemic incarceration of Palestinians, many held without charge under administrative detention.
This reflects a broader media pattern: Israel’s actions are framed as self-defence, while Palestinian resistance is criminalised.
Palestine’s Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, noted that calling Palestinian detainees "prisoners" implies criminality, despite most never being charged. Israel’s policy of administrative detention—imprisonment without trial—has ensnared over 800,000 Palestinians since the occupation began. When Zomlot challenged this framing, BBC presenter Martine Croxall appeared to justify Israel’s mass detentions, asking, "Isn't it understandable that they round people up when they feel threatened?" This reflects a broader media pattern: Israel’s actions are framed as self-defence, while Palestinian resistance is criminalised. Roughly 80% of the released Palestinian captives were held without formal charges, demonstrating the system's arbitrary nature of the mass detentions.
This system, affecting such a large portion of the population, effectively treats civilians as “terrorists” by default, denying any due process. Among those detained are over 400 children, who face systemic abuses such as beatings and strip searches. Unlike Israeli citizens, who are tried in civil courts, Palestinians—including children—are tried in military courts with a staggering 99% conviction rate. This discriminatory legal system highlights the unequal treatment between Israelis and Palestinians, with devastating consequences for Palestinian families and children.
If their detention was justified, why can they suddenly be released en masse? The implicit message to Palestinians is clear: only through force will Israel concede. The human cost—families separated for years, children growing up behind bars—remains an afterthought in much of the BBC’s reporting.
The media’s imbalanced narrative
The BBC’s language choices reveal start disparities. The term "freed" for Israeli hostages conveys liberation and victimhood, while "released" for Palestinians suggests a routine and neutral procedure, stripping it of emotional weight and the historical context of mass imprisonment under occupation. While Gaza’s vast destruction is mentioned, the blockade and systemic factors driving Palestinian suffering remain completely unexplored. In contrast to the humanisation of Israeli hostages, the BBC’s reporting on Palestinian prisoners is detached. The phrase 'representatives claimed' when discussing detainees’ medical needs suggests doubt, undermining the legitimacy of their suffering.
By contrast, Israeli suffering is presented as undisputed fact. Eli Sharabi’s family’s distress at his 'gaunt' appearance is presented as undeniable, while concerns about hostages' wellbeing carry implicit credibility. Palestinian prisoners' medical needs, however, are framed more neutrally. This language asymmetry legitimises Israeli suffering while casting doubt on Palestinian pain, reinforcing a deeply unjust and biased narrative.
A BBC article’s photo choices further expose this bias. This family handout image of Israeli hostage Tsachi Idan was captioned: "Tsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away," creating a vivid, individualised narrative that clearly underscores his ordeal.
Meanwhile, a Getty image of Palestinian detainees was used: The BBC captioned it: 'Some of the released prisoners prayed upon arrival’. Note how they are reduced to an anonymous, faceless collective - stripping them of their individuality and the gravity of their experiences. Palestinian prisoners' experiences are a mere footnote, with no scrutiny of Israel’s illegal military detention system. By sidelining these stories, the BBC perpetuates a biased narrative that erases Palestinian suffering while amplifying the Israeli perspective, distorting moral and political discourse.
A call for change
For decades, Western media has framed Arab responses as irrational, reinforcing racial hierarchies that justify colonial domination. Palestinians are cast as an inherently violent “other,” with their resistance dismissed as hostility instead of a righteous struggle for decolonisation and justice. Meanwhile, Israeli violence is sanitised as self-defence, shielding occupation from scrutiny. In this narrative, humanity is granted to the occupiers, while the occupied are stripped of it.
Palestinians are cast as an inherently violent “other,” with their resistance dismissed as hostility instead of a righteous struggle for decolonisation and justice.
The BBC’s coverage of the hostage-prisoner exchange is not an anomaly—it is part of a systemic effort to distort reality. By erasing the context of occupation—an uncontested fact even among Israel’s staunchest allies—and criminalising Palestinian resistance, the BBC upholds the structures that sustain it. Occupation and subjugation of Palestinians are not just policies of a single state but pillars of an imperial system that drives cycles of violence and hatred. At the very least, the media must acknowledge that occupation—not resistance to colonisation—fuels violence and hatred.
Failing to do so is not just a journalistic failure; it is an endorsement of oppression. Furthermore, the media must recognise Palestinian resistance as a fight for liberation, justice, and decolonisation—not a symptom of violence. Continuing to ignore this sustains the false narrative that upholds imperial structures and allows violence to persist unchecked. The media must confront its complicity in humanising the occupiers while dehumanising the oppressed.
Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash
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