How Bombing Hospitals and Children Is Only Bad in Ukraine

Horrific news has emerged from the Ukraine-Russia war. After one of the largest bombardments in months, Russia has hit a children's hospital in Kyiv. At least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded in the attack on the city, but there has been no confirmation of casualties at Okhmatdyt children's hospital so far.

An outpouring of support for the victims in this bombardment came from prominent world leaders. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted, "Striking a children’s hospital — and the innocent children inside — cannot be justified." Trudeau followed this up by reiterating his disapproval of the attack in Washington D.C. during his trip to meet with other NATO leaders. Bob Rae, Canada's representative to the UN, said "What is Putin's explanation for this ?" apparently incensed that someone could bomb a hospital.

News media broadcast the story extensively in Canada. CBC News, Global News, and The Globe and Mail carried Reuters wire stories about it. The Globe additionally published a Reuters video. The National Post and CTV News carried an Associated Press piece on the strike.

Notably, the coverage of this attack places the blame squarely on Russia, and rightfully so. The Globe's headline begins:"Russia launches deadly attack," while the video's headline is "Kyiv children's hospital hit by Russian attack." CBC News' headline declares "Russian airstrikes kill at least 29 in Ukraine, damage Kyiv children's hospital." Both the Star and Post carry the AP headline, which uses less direct language, but it specifically names Russia as the culprit bombing Ukraine.

Which Deaths Matter?

Just two days before this bombardment happened, The Lancet, one of the most respected peer-reviewed journals, published a piece stating that the death toll of Israel's genocide in Gaza has been vastly under counted. According to the author's conservative estimates, 186,000 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza, while the official death toll is just over 38,000. In their article, they write "The [Gaza Health] Ministry has had to augment its usual reporting, based on people dying in its hospitals or brought in dead, with information from reliable media sources and first responders."

The Gaza Health Ministry does this because Israel has destroyed the functioning capacity of most hospitals in the strip. Israel's targeting of hospitals has been reported early and often. In November, reports emerged of Israel's "day of war on hospitals."A piece by Al Jazeera from April used satellite imagery to evaluate the damage done to Gazan hospitals before and after bombardments. Many are partially or completely destroyed. This includes al-Shifa, which was put under siege by Israel, who killed 200 Palestinians in the attack. Between Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals, almost 400 bodies were found in a mass grave with evidence of torture.

Shortly after The Lancet published its piece, Israel killed 16 in a strike on an UNRWA school. Important to note how with the first line in the Agence France-Presse story disgustingly states that the information comes from "Hamas-run Gaza."

Attacking hospitals is a key factor in under-reporting that The Lancet directly alludes towards. One would think that, since both stories have similar themes and factors, this news would receive similar, if not more, levels of reporting akin to Russia's horrific bombing of a children's hospital. Of course, this is not how our news media works.

None of the outlets that published a story on Russia's bombing of a children hospital have reported on The Lancet's article. None.

Instead, the closest we have are stories obscuring and downplaying Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Two Associated Press wire stories in CTV News distort the destruction. One headline states Israel simply "deepens" its operation in Gaza City. One, "Rafah is a dusty, rubble-strewn ghost town 2 months after Israel invaded to root out Hamas," takes the cake for clunkiest headline to downplay Israel's mass murder. Israel is mentioned only to absolve their actions by reminding the reader of the existence of Hamas. But no mention of how Rafah was designated a safe zone by Israel before their assault, only that "Israel's pledge to keep [a] route safe... has fallen flat," a phrase which absolves them from all malice. Global News also carried this story.

Meanwhile, CBC News publishes an article advising people on how to civilly discuss Israel's massacring of Palestinians on a grand scale. One expert they consult even recommends that people consider their trigger words in these discussions... an example of one of these words is "genocide."

Let's be perfectly clear: the horrific genocide perpetrated by Israel is creating unimaginable trauma for the children of Palestine. Children are dying of starvation in a famine Israel has imposed on them. Save the Children estimates that over 20,000 children are "lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves" as a direct result of Israel's invasion. Those who are keeping up with the genocide on social media have seen countless videos of headless corpses of children, or disfigured kids bloodied by Israeli bombs.

Earlier estimates posit that over 13,800 children have been killed in Gaza. But with The Lancet's latest article, that number could be up to four times as high. Yet no coverage of this report even remotely matches coverage and dissemination of the Okhmatdyt bombing.

Don't expect Canadian political leaders to express any sympathy for Israel's victims, either. To them, and our news media, they're unworthy. Their commitment to Israel is too deeply ideological to be dislodged by mere accusations of hypocrisy.

Unworthy Victims

In Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's landmark text Manufacturing Consent, they write "worthy victims are classified as individuals who are abused or killed in enemy states while unworthy victims are classified as individuals who are treated with equal or greater severity by its own government or clients." While this definition is useful, "worthy victims" can also apply to those in states under attack by geopolitical rivals, like the case of Ukraine.

Viewing the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts side-by-side through the "worthy vs. unworthy" lens allows us to see the true morals on display. Ukraine's victims are broadcast to the world to show the inherent evil of Russia, while victims of Israel's onslaught are downplayed or ignored. But those killed by Russia, too, are merely political pawns for our leaders, who use their deaths to further their agenda. After all, rather than pursue peace, which could save more lives, NATO and its members refuse to commit to peace, prolonging the conflict. It's immaterial whether politicians and those at news outlets genuinely feel for the victims in Ukraine, the selectivity of that feeling is a tool for political goals.

This is not to say the victims of Russia's attack are receiving undeserved focus. To claim this line of thought is to distract from honestly analyzing how our media serves to perpetuate the system we live in. Children attacked with missiles should warrant condemnation no matter the context. Instead, white children in an allied country are mourned, while brown children in a country we don't even recognize are left to rot by the side of the road.

Put simply, Palestinian lives do not matter to our political class or our news media. At best, they will be lamented as tragic collateral damage of circumstance, rather than the victims of an ongoing and continuous genocide. At worst, they will be ignored entirely as an inconvenience. Worthy victims, on the other hand, receive the honour of their deaths being used for brazen political ends.