THE genocide in Gaza that is "impossible" to see is before our eyes. The international media has clearly revealed their attitude and position on the value of human life — even in death, there is discrimination in the narrative.
The death of a Palestinian is not equal to the death of an Israeli, a European or an American. The international media still sees itself as an extension of empire, colonising the other.
The Othering of Gaza proliferates our images. This is not to forget other genocide sites in the past. The media treats Palestinians as epistemic others. Arabs, and other non-whites are narrated as stateless peoples — a journalistic product.
Embedded in popular culture, the Arabs are not able to tell the truth. The international media has always masqueraded themselves as a neutral and objective institution and authority.
How does the value of journalism operate in covering death and destruction? We are deceived.
We need to relook at laws and conventions pertaining to the destruction of human life by itself, and its intersection with media coverage, convention and profession.
The first framing of the reportage etches a permanent mark in our memory.
The role of the media has been much neglected in conflict. In situations of genocide, the media denies the victims to communicate. Sure, they cannot speak. But the predominant narrative innately supresses expression.
It has to be reiterated that the media is complicit to genocide, and by implication, erasing memory and history of the Palestinians.
The right to narrate excludes the right of the Palestinians to represent themselves. Palestinian Christian scholar Edward Said lives on in his 1978 work Orientalism.
There is a media blockade to the value of human life. The global media and cultural production system has terribly failed us. Even in death, the media discriminates.
Media treatment of human beings must be a subject of concern to the world. The valuation of man is essential to be made as we are seeing mankind suffering caused by his fellow man.
It is essential that we look upon another human being as precious in terms of his future potential to the world. Someone to be helped rather than to be used and destroyed.
In justice and law, the value of a human life taken by another through acts of murder is death or life sentence equals another human life. An eye for an eye.
The value of human life is divinely sanctioned; and the quintessence of religions. The birth of civilizations upholds the value of human life, not necessarilly human rights.
Human life should not only be confined to its scientific, economic and legal parameters. Human life is sacred. A framework for valuing man is needed to achieve this.
We have a moral, legal and sacred obligation to fight crimes against humanity. And the media is integral to war and genocide. What is needed is for us to work towards understanding this dimension which has been obliterated by the demands of progress and modernity.
Against this background, the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), through its International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC-IIUM) in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy is convening a conference to express a united front among people, civil societies and like-minded organisations, groups and individuals by declaring a resolution against genocide, while establishing and promoting the sanctity and value of human life.
The event is to be held on July 24, bringing together scholars and advocates who will speak on the value of human life from the religious, legal and sociopolitical perspectives.
IIUM's Rector Tan Sri Professor Emeritus Dzulkifli Abdul Razak will give the welcoming remarks and share the experience on Hiroshima as related by his father who survived the catastrophe.
The Constitutional head of IIUM, the Tuanku Ampuan Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah will grace the conference with a keynote address.
Notable speakers include Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University and Rabbi Yisroeal Dovid Weiss.
The conference will be attended by about 300 academics, non-governmental organisations representatives and civil society organisations, as well as parliamentarians.
It aims to challenge the indifference and injustice that perpetuate such atrocities and to advocate for a renewed commitment to human dignity and rights. A UN Charter of Human Life is now needed.
Ahmad Murad Merican is Professor of Social and Intellectual History, Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, International Islamic University Malaysia; Romil Shamsudin is Director of Advocacy, Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times