Gaza’s crisis beyond the headlines, through data, media, technology
Academics and journalists call for change in the narrative around the Palestine conflict, highlighting how impartiality and discussion of historical context are being widely ignored. Newer modes of communication beyond traditional broadcast mediums are hoped to help steer audiences toward content much closer to the source.
“The crisis in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023.” Such is the sentiment in Western media when covering the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory. However, a panel of speakers at “Beyond the Headlines: Gaza’s Genocide Through Data, Media, and Technology” were eager to point out the shortcomings and even detriment of fixating on that particular date, when Palestinian group Hamas-led militants crossed the border into Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage, triggering Israeli attacks and the continuing war, which has left more than 50,000 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures.
“We know it didn’t all start on that day. We know that the eradication of Palestine and Lebanon, against which Israel has also carried out military strikes, is a process that has been ongoing for 80 years. And we know how Israeli settler colonialism works,” said Assistant Professor Hanine Shehadeh of New York University Abu Dhabi, who is Palestinian and from Gaza, in an interview before the event. “When you start with Oct. 7, it centers attention on Israeli settlers, and not on Palestinian lives. I am also a scholar from the region and for us, the narrative is completely different. It doesn't focus on the Israeli position at all. It centers on the very long history of the colonization of Palestine, about which Western governments are aware and complicit.”
Held on March 31, 2025, at the University of Tokyo’s Hongo Campus, “Beyond the Headlines” was an international symposium bringing together scholars, journalists and experts from Japan, the Middle East and Europe. The event presented a multidisciplinary dialogue and chance to share insights on the interrelations between different groups and the data and technology used to communicate conflict.
