The media coverage and political response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine reveals racism, hypocrisy and double standards. Reporting on the conflict, on February 25, CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata said: “this isn’t a place like Iraq or Afghanistan…this is a relatively civilized European city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.”
The insinuation is that people from Iraq or Afghanistan – who are dark-skinned and non-European – are uncivilized. When conflict like this happens in faraway lands, it doesn’t matter as much as when it happens in Europe.
D’Agata’s statement is inherently racist; he exposes his ignorance of the fact that Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, is the cradle of civilization. Not to mention, it is Western European and American colonialism that left the countries he mentions atrocity-filled.
Media reaction to Ukrainian refugees
The CBS News correspondent is not alone in his bigotry, with similar statements filling the airwaves by journalists and pundits alike. Ukraine’s former deputy chief prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, told the BBC, unchallenged, he is very emotional seeing “European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed.”
When NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella was asked why Poland is suddenly accepting Ukrainian refugees and didn’t accept others in 2015 from other countries, she responded: “…to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria….these are Christians; they’re white”.
The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov shamelessly stated: “these are not the refugees we are used to; these people are Europeans… These people are intelligent. They are educated people.” We are to understand that refugees from non-European backgrounds are unintelligent and uneducated.
Non-white refugees face racism trying to leave Ukraine
These prejudices and biases translated on the ground, as many African, Indian and Middle Eastern students and visitors – trying to flee the war – were prevented from boarding buses or trains, and entering neighbouring countries. This racism, correctly condemned by the UN, reflects Cobiella’s response.
Europe closed its doors in the face of fleeing Syrians and Afghans claiming the inability to absorb them, but hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees were quickly accommodated in the past week.
The racist media response and prevention of racialized vistors from leaving Ukraine represents only the tip of the iceberg.
The U.S. invasions, occupation and bombing of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia caused untold suffering, death and destruction to millions of people. Let’s not forget, Saudi Arabia’s onslaught on the people of Yemen that is orchestrated with Western support and weaponry.
Yet all this is done with the implicit consent – and in some instances, the active cooperation– of other western governments and mainstream media. The lives of the millions killed, injured and displaced, are, in their eyes, less important.
We must talk about Palestine
Yet perhaps the most blatant case of racism and double standards is the international response to Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians. This illegal, decades-long military occupation of Palestine and its people is not only conveniently ignored and permitted, but it is actively supported. Israel receives billions of dollars annually from American taxpayers.
Despite the countless assaults on Gaza killing thousands of innocent civilians, war crimes, and initiating wars against neighbouring countries, Western countries did not impose sanctions on Israel.
While this is not a defence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or disagreement with the international sanctions imposed on Russia, but it does call into question the flagrant hypocrisy in play. To add insult to injury, Israel enjoys impunity from sanctions, various Western governments criminalize the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that calls for a peaceful means of protest, to exert pressure on Israel to uphold human rights.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that it will open an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine. In 2010, Israel attacked the Freedom Flotilla, a fleet of six vessels that were carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in the blockaded Gaza Strip. Israel killed 10 unarmed activists in international waters and wounded dozens.
I participated in the Flotilla and witnessed the attack. Yet despite the evidence submitted to the ICC, extensive legal efforts and a UN human rights investigative report which concluded that the conduct of the Israeli military “constituted a grave violation of human rights law and international humanitarian law,” the ICC repeatedly refused to investigate.
The world of sports responds
FIFA and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) suspended Russian clubs and national representatives from participating indefinitely. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) banned Russian and Belarusian athletes barred from the Winter Paralympics.
Several athletes like Egyptian star Mohamed Aboutrika called on FIFA to follow the ban on Russia with a ban on Israel, stating that “[Israel] is occupying and has been killing children and women in Palestine for years, but you used double standards.” Aboutrika received a yellow card during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations for revealing a shirt under his jersey that read: “Sympathize with Gaza.”
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