Egyptian woman (Rahma Zein) called out Western media for “controlling the narrative’ calls for Arabs’ voices be heard.
A video of Egyptian activist and podcaster Rahma Zein confronting CNN reporter Clarissa Ward at the Egypt–Gaza border, over the channel’s coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict has taken the internet by storm and gone viral.
Rahma Zein was participating in a protest at the border against the Israeli government’s orders not to allow aid to enter war-torn Gaza and attempting to create obstacles by bombing roads leading into Gaza.
The whole thing started when Ward shared a report that supposedly had fake information after people started doubting a video where the journalist seemed scared near Gaza’s border with Israel, which was said to be made up.
Rahma accused Ward and CNN of helping the war and letting Israel off the hook for their crimes, like occupying Palestinian land for years, kicking out Palestinians, and attacking innocent civilians recently.
The Egyptian activist was really annoyed with how the Western media seems to be biased. She pointed out how big news channels keep spreading Israeli stories while hiding the truth about the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank in the last couple of weeks.
She slammed the Western media for turning a blind eye to the deaths of over 4,000 Palestinian people including 1,000 children at the hands of Israeli forces that are massing troops on the border for an expected ground invasion of Gaza.
During her powerful interaction with Ward, she exclaimed: “We ask you to condemn! Where are your condemnations? Where is your channel (CNN) covering this? Cover this! Say the truth!”
When Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, the US was one of the first countries to come out in support of Israel’s “right to self-defence.”
Since then, Washington has continued to support Israel’s expected invasion of Gaza with military aid, despite endless loss of Palestinian civilian lives.
When Ward, who was listening from a distance, came closer to the young podcaster to respond, Zein stopped her from speaking and continued her heated rant, saying: “I understand you have your foreign policy. I understand you speak for your government. I understand you represent your government, but with that being said, you’re a country that has claimed ‘free speech.’
“Your customised democracy is actually what led to Hamas and now we are watching an occupation. We are watching the result of your silence, of your misrepresentation of Arabs, of your dehumanisation of Arabs. What do you have to say for yourselves?”
“We stand with Palestine. We stand with Arabs,” Zein said before calling out the Western media for “controlling the narrative” and pressing that the voices of Arabs, who “suffer for it”, need to be heard as well.
Listening to the young girl anguished by the cruel world she had witnessed around her, Ward requested her for an interview.
Zein responded by asking, “Will you even air it? Will you edit it?”
However, her interview was aired by BBC Arabic.
The young podcaster had been camping out with other protestors at the Rafah crossing, urging the immediate release of aid into Gaza.
She has been advocating for a free Palestine and the end of Israeli occupation in Gaza, via social media platforms like Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter.
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