Clare Sands demands RTÉ "report the unbiased truth" about Gaza in new video

Cork folk musician Clare Sands has posted a video on Instagram this morning, calling on RTÉ to improve its coverage of Gaza.

The three-minute video opens with imagery of demonstrators with Palestinian flags in front of RTÉ's Dublin headquarters on July 3, set to Sands' cover of 'How I Long for Peace' by American folk artist Peggy Seeger.

As she laid down blood-stained vests labelled "PRESS" on the sidewalk, Sands cited reports from the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, Amnesty International and experts who have identified Israel's attacks on Gaza as genocide.

"RTÉ journalists, why do you continue to call it a war?" Sands asked.

Sands went on to reference other incidents where RTÉ's reporting on Gaza used wording that she implied indicated an anti-Palestinian bias, such as headlines including "bodies recovered" without mentioning nationality, "Hamas-run health ministry" as a source of statistics and "heavy fighting" for a story about Gazans trapped in a hospital.

"This diminishes the equality and humanity of the Palestinian people," Sands said.

Sands claimed RTÉ's reporting excludes necessary context and unfairly leaves out Palestinian perspectives, opting instead to use quotes from pro-Israel sources. She denounced RTÉ for violating its duties to the public to maintain "impartiality and objectivity."

"We are a nation of céad míle fáilte [English: a hundred thousand welcomes]," Sands said.

She also told the broadcaster to add a disclosure to each of its articles that has been pre-approved by the Israeli Military Censor, the IDF intelligence unit tasked with restricting media sources in Israel, including sources which RTÉ has used in reports.

"You still have the opportunity to be on the right side of history," Sands said.

The video finished with a list of Palestinian activists, journalists and ambassadors, as well as a list of accounts which report on "media complicity" with Israel in Ireland. The video was dedicated to the media workers and journalists who have died in Gaza, and to the late Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, who was killed earlier this year.

Watch the full video below:

 

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A post shared by Clare Sands (@claresandsceol)