The US media is biased against Palestinians

A few weeks after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians, as bombs ripped apart schools, hospitals, homes, and churches along the narrow strip of Gaza, I joined my Jewish neighbors to pray. They were gripped by existential fear. Several had children in Israel. On the bemah sat an empty chair, where it remains to this day—a place held for Israeli hostages whose fate is unknown. I prayed for their release, and over the coming months my empathy swelled as I learned their names and stories from their parents or from the news. In my prayers, I pictured the faces of Or and Kfir, of Omer and Judi.

In January 2024, when the ceasefire I’d vigilantly prayed for came to fruition, I rejoiced that Israelis and Palestinians would return to their families and communities through the hostages-­for-prisoners agreement. I watched the news to learn which Palestinians would be released, to see if families I knew in Aida refugee camp or Ramallah would be reunited with their loved ones.

Instead, each news report, from Fox News to ABC to NPR, gave me a number. I did not learn the names of Palestinians who were freed or the condition of their bodies and minds. I saw photos of Israeli hostages, gaunt and hopeful, but none of Palestinian child prisoners, incarcerated without trial for months based only on secret evidence. I saw no weeping mothers holding Palestinian daughters whose crime was protesting or joining a group banned by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories.