Sky News Criticized for Lack of Palestinian Coverage Amid Conflict

Sky News faced criticism during a live broadcast on Monday when an expert questioned the network’s coverage of Palestinian families affected by ongoing conflicts in the region. The incident occurred during an interview with Ghada Karmi, a research fellow at the University of Exeter‘s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, who was invited to discuss the situation in Palestine and Israel.

During the segment, the Sky News host mentioned that images emerging from Gaza depicted the area as “completely under rubble.” The introduction focused primarily on the struggles faced by Israeli families since Hamas launched attacks on October 7 of the previous year. Karmi responded by acknowledging the suffering of Israeli families but questioned the absence of images depicting the plight of “thousands of Palestinian families who’ve lost everything.” She asked, “Where are the pictures of the thousands of Palestinian families who’ve lost everything? They’ve lost family members. They’ve lost their lives. They’ve lost their homes. Where are the photos of those people?”

The broadcaster, criticized for a perceived imbalance in coverage, reportedly presented the segment from an Israeli memorial site. Karmi, who was born in Jerusalem and relocated to England following the 1948 Nakba, expressed her frustration with the inability of Gazan families to commemorate their losses amid ongoing bombings. “The people of Gaza cannot set up memorials because they have been bombed and killed as we are speaking now,” she remarked.

Karmi further criticized Western leaders, including those from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy, accusing them of complicity in a “genocide” in Gaza. She claimed that the support and armament of Israel by these countries enabled ongoing conflicts in the region, stating, “Israel, apart from killing Palestinians, has killed international law. It has killed the norms of international behavior.”

Since October 7, 2023, over 41,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza, and approximately 2.3 million have been displaced. On the other side, the October 7 attacks by Hamas resulted in the death of approximately 1,200 Israelis, with around 250 individuals taken hostage. Sky News has been approached for comments regarding the criticism.