Israel’s latest prison proposal has drawn attention in Israeli media, but its limited coverage in the Anglosphere points to a deeper failure to confront the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel’s environment ministry has removed the protected status of Nile crocodiles to allow them to be used in a moat guarding the country’s largest prison, a move requested by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The story has been widely covered by Israel’s English-language press, alternative media worldwide, and news sites in non-English-speaking countries. But, in the Anglosphere, there is a virtual news blackout.

Searching within New Zealand and Australian internet domains yields nothing. In the UK, only The Telegraph has reported the story; the BBC and The Guardian do not deem it newsworthy. In the US, the only report I have seen was by the progressive independent outlet Democracy Now.

It feels nigh on impossible that a similar event in Putin’s Russia, Iran, or any number of dictatorships would go unreported by the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, The Age, the NZ Herald, or the English-language newswires.

Veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz: “National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is taking Israel to the next stage in its development: barbarism as a legal and explicit state policy.”

“Sadism is no longer just for deviants; it is the new political correctness,” he continued. “After years in which barbarity and sadism toward Palestinians were hidden as........

© Pearls and Irritations