Media

How a piece of paper can become a parliamentary scandal? Step one: NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem based research institute, publishes a report. The report alleges that Hamas has infiltrated Dutch aid organisations operating in Gaza. The evidence is thin. One example involves a wastewater treatment project that also irrigated fruit trees. NGO Monitor suggested those fruit trees could well be used by fighters to hide behind. Apparently the dappled shade was the threat. ...

Picture a journalist, a scientist, or even your neighbour declaring with solemn authority: “I am being objective.” Dignified, is it not? Objective, impartial, fact-driven, like a well-polished broom sweeping all bias into the corner. Only, as with most magical brooms, it has a particular corner it prefers: the one that keeps the powerful comfortable and the inconvenient quiet. Objectivity can sometimes be used to avoid confronting ethical dilemmas. And claiming objectivity is rarely neutral. Like neutrality, it carries consequences. Often, it shields those already in power while quietly silencing the vulnerable. ...