Germany’s mainstream media report in a highly one-sided manner on what is commonly labelled the “Middle East conflict” – a German term that ultimately obscures the confrontation between the Zionist occupying power on one side and the peoples of West Asia, above all the Palestinians, on the other. This is the conclusion reached in several investigations published since March 2025 by German journalist and Islamic studies scholar Fabian Goldmann on his blog, ironically titled “Schantall und Scharia“ (“Shantal and Sharia”).

In his latest report, dated 9 December, he presents the current findings of his research. Goldmann analysed 11,125 publications released between 7 October 2023 and 19 January 2025 across five of Germany’s most influential media outlets. The spectrum ranges from the right-wing, strongly transatlantic tabloid daily BILD and the Spiegel magazine to the liberal weekly Die Zeit the state-funded Tagesschau evening news, and the left-liberal to left-leaning daily “taz”. Together, BILD, Spiegel, Zeit and taz have a combined print circulation of around 2.3 million, with far larger online audiences. The Tagesschau is watched by 11.7 million people each day.

Palestinians carry out “massacres”, Israel “responds”

The results are striking. In 849 pieces, Israeli attacks were described as “counterattacks” or “retaliatory strikes”. Whenever these terms were used, 70 per cent of the time they referred to Israeli military actions. They were almost never applied to actions by........

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