My years reporting on Gaza broke me down. Why did it take so long for the world to become outraged?

 ' I reported on forced displacement and punitive bureaucracy (Israel’s occupation is expanded through denied permits, home demolitions and revoked ID cards). I wrote about child killings, war crimes and terrorism (perpetrated by both sides). I tried to explain as best I could the annexation of the West Bank and the collective punishment of two million people in Gaza without using forbidden phrases such as apartheid or war crime. I included the necessary balance of voices and opinions. But still, every report of an atrocity in Palestine was met with highly personal accusations of bias. Editors were often twitchy, readers disengaged.

After two years of this, a grim reality became clear: people did not want to hear about it. By year three, I had started giving up trying to make them listen and the self-loathing arrived. Cynicism among reporters is a useful cipher for the fear, desperation and impotence that news industry norms do not allow them, but it has a dangerous side-effect: it dulls outrage. Without outrage, crimes such as apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide can continue uninterrupted – and they have."

"A friend working in television news told me a new verb had emerged: to Gaza a story, meaning to downgrade its editorial importance.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/aug/10/gaza-israel-palestine-outrage
 

My years reporting on Gaza broke me down. Why did it take so long for the world to become outraged? | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian