"Racist/racialized malinformation is the phenomenon of how we are conditioned, socialized, and repeatedly bombarded with racist and negative images and stereotypes. These stereotypes are repeated and normalized until they become malinformation. But how can these deleterious and destructive forces be eliminated? They need to be addressed and battled just as other societal ailments are, and critical cultural literacy can aid in this fight." - Dr. Nicole Cooke in Tell me Sweet Little Lies: Racism as a Form of Persistent Malinformation
Palestinians have been maligned and disparaged as "other" and Israel and the western media have created a narrative that enabled the normalization of brutality against them. For example, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant declared: “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.”
Following this up, an interviewee on Israel television called for Israel to "turn Gaza to Dresden" and still another called for "[dancing] on what used to be Gaza." Other words used have been a call to "erase" and "flatten" Gaza and Gazans (Segal, R. 13, October 2023).
Critical Cultural Literacy asks us to examine this history, current contemporary reporting and actions, and our own information privilege to understand and to start to disentangle misleading, false, and harmful information around the Palestinian people, the creation of the state of Israel, and Israeli-Palestinian relations since the 20th Century.