It’s hard to imagine a public that is so uninformed about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I moved back here and began reading the newspapers, I realized why the people know so little about this issue: The media here is skewed and biased, reporting only for one side. I have had to turn to the internet and the international newspapers at Barnes ‘ Noble to keep my information straight. I’m sure there are reasons for the blatant bias I will describe. I just don’t think they are good enough to misrepresent such an important issue.

One headline I’m sure we’re all familiar with is the one on the front page about a suicide bombing in Israel, next to a huge picture of an Israeli woman crying. Suicide bombings are disgusting, and Israelis do suffer. But Palestinians suffer much more frequently, and are ignored by the mainstream media. An organization called If Americans Knew was formed to expose the facts. When I read its findings, I was not shocked in the least, because I had been watching the media here and I had seen how biased it is. The sad part is that many do not know enough about the issue to suspect or even care whether it is misrepresented.

Let me share some of the facts that proved to me that Palestinian pain is trivialized or ignored in favor of over-representing Israeli suffering. One of the studies by If Americans Knew found that The New York Times mentioned Israeli deaths in the headline or the first paragraph of 159 articles during 2004 when only 107 Israelis had been killed, meaning some deaths were covered numerous times. In contrast, the Times only mentioned about 40 percent of Palestinian deaths — 334 of 808 — in the headline or the first paragraph of articles in 2004, a year in which about eight Palestinians died for every one Israeli. These are just the findings on The New York Times — a major liberal paper. The results for other media outlets are even worse. Sadly, the worst reporting is on children’s deaths. For example, according to If Americans Knew, The San Francisco Chronicle reported 150 percent of Israeli children’s deaths in headlines or lead paragraphs, while only 6 percent of Palestinian children’s deaths were given the same prominence.

An important issue that arises with this are the “militant deaths.” Whenever there is a militant death on the Palestinian side, the Israeli government’s story is stated as fact, without Palestinian witnesses or information from other organizations not tied to the government. Read any article covering one of these stories and you’ll find long Israeli quotes, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any Palestinian or non-governmental side of the story. If you do, chances are you’re not reading an American news source.

The facts and statistics go on. But my goal is not to try and make people pick sides. A lot of us don’t have enough information to make a responsible decision on which side to support. It is imperative that we all become aware of this issue and its many complications. Recently, Hamas officials have suggested that Palestine will recognize the state of Israel if Israeli leaders agree to respect the U.N. borders agreed upon in 1967. This means the burden now rests on Israel to recognize the state of Palestine — but I imagine Israel will continue to treat the idea of a Palestinian state as ridiculous, and deny the Palestinians the same right they demand for themselves. I would hope the two sides could agree, but with Israel and the United States refusing to even recognize the Palestinians’ democratically elected government, I’m not sure how successful Hamas’s attempt will be.

This situation has new and important developments every day. The media is reporting one side with a bias; according to most people, one of the governments used to be a terrorist organizations; and the other is the target of 65 U.N. resolutions. With all of these factors combined, it’s difficult to keep your information straight and understand the actual situation. We have slogans like “Democracy Now,” “Peace in the Middle East,” etc., but they mean nothing without comprehension of the issue.

Some Americans think they have no need or responsibility to care about these events, or follow up on them. They are wrong. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. It receives millions of dollars a day from taxpayers.

With facts likes these I am beginning to wonder if I want my tax money going where it is going. Do you know where your tax money is going? Is that what you want it to be used for? There are more facts out there. Don’t just listen to me. Do your own research. Find the truth for yourself. Read both sides and remember that numbers don’t lie — people and governments can. This conflict is frightening and has been destroying innocent Palestinians and Israelis for decades, whether by suicide bombers or men in uniform. Surely our attention can be given to the Israelis and Palestinians, seeing as it is our money fueling their problem.

Sufia Khalid, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at [email protected].