What people in West don’t know about Palestine; and what happens if they do?

Mojtaba Darabi, researcher and journalist

At an unprecedented moment in modern Western history, the streets of major European and American cities were flooded with massive demonstrations in support of Palestine. This wave began in mid-October 2023, when London witnessed protests that astonished politicians and observers alike. Estimates varied—some spoke of 100,000 participants, others of 300,000—but no one denied the massive crowd waving Palestinian flags from Hyde Park to Downing Street. Similar scenes unfolded in Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow, where tens of thousands called for an end to the siege on Gaza and the cessation of the genocide being perpetrated by the Zionist regime in Gaza with US backing. Weekend after weekend, from the United States to Germany, activists took to the streets with one message: Enough is enough. Palestinians must not be ignored and subjected to genocide without a global reaction.

Few in the West had ever seen scenes like this before. In the US too, demonstrations emerged in a staggering fashion. Dozens of cities —including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Houston — held massive rallies with tens of thousands in attendance. Social movement analysts described the geographical scope as historic. Whereas previous invasions by the Zionist regime may have sparked limited or scattered gatherings, this time, a continuous wave of protests formed, gaining attention even in cities where rallies are typically reserved for sports or entertainment events. Civil society groups, humanitarian organizations, religious communities (Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and interfaith coalitions), student unions, and other social activists came together. This broad coalition gave the protests a strength not seen in previous attacks on Gaza and brought Western complicity under the spotlight.

But the real turning point came when this protest wave entered elite American territory—academia. When students at major US universities such as Columbia and UCLA organized large sit-ins and nationwide campus protests, the federal government reacted harshly. Here, “protest as a sign of free speech” transformed into “protest as a threat to national security.”

In 2024, a sweeping wave of student protests engulfed campuses across the nation. These protests called for an immediate end to US support for the Zionist regime, especially in light of the regime’s intensifying genocide in Gaza. They also demanded divestment from companies involved in weapons manufacturing or surveillance, having realized how their research was being used to create bombs that kill children in Gaza. Although the protests were peaceful, they were met with heavy-handed repression from US authorities, resulting in the arrest of over 2,000 students nationwide. At Columbia — one of the protest epicenters — images of police dismantling student protest camps and arresting more than a hundred protesters were broadcast globally. At UCLA, riot police attacked a student demonstration and arrested more than 200 individuals. Dartmouth College, the University of New Hampshire, and the University at Buffalo also turned into hotspots of tension, as campuses became battlegrounds for protest and saw widespread arrests.

In the midst of these protests, on May 25, 2024, Imam Khamenei wrote a letter to the students, calling them “a branch of the Resistance Front” and described their struggle under the ruthless pressure of the US government as “an honorable struggle.”

The issue went beyond arrests; the situation cast serious doubt on American claims regarding freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Civil rights organizations condemned the government’s harsh response, invoking the First Amendment and raising alarms about the suppression of academic freedoms. By March 2025, the Department of Justice had launched an investigation into possible violations of anti-terrorism laws related to the Columbia protests — a move many civil liberties advocates saw as a deliberate attempt to stifle legitimate dissent. The crisis deepened when then-President Donald Trump announced a cut of $400 million in federal funding, citing Columbia’s “weak” response to what he described as antisemitism on campus. That same month, the US government abruptly revoked the green card of a Palestinian graduate student named Mahmoud Khalil. He was arrested by ICE agents in front of his pregnant American wife — a scene that quickly became a symbol of the violation of free speech in the US.

All this happened because these individuals had seen, beyond a momentarily look, the brutal scenes unfolding in Gaza — the bombings by the Zionist regime that flattened neighborhoods and slaughtered families. But here’s the chilling question: What if even this student outrage was based on only the tip of the informational iceberg? Despite 24/7 news cycles and social media, is it possible that the Western public has seen only fragments of the truth, while the darker half remains hidden behind a wall of sophisticated propaganda?

The story missing from the media

Critics argue that much of Western media coverage of Gaza is systematically censored. While outlets like the BBC use terms such as “massacre,” “slaughter,” and “atrocities” to describe Hamas’s attacks on Zionists, they refrain from using equally strong language for the Israeli airstrikes that have killed or displaced thousands of Palestinians. Likewise, major US newspapers and broadcasters provide extensive coverage of Zionist casualties and the suffering of Israeli families, while Palestinian anguish is often relegated to the margins, stripped of similar emotional weight.

Some criticisms within the US support this view. At CNN, several journalists have pointed to an institutional bias — where editorial decisions often deliberately avoid addressing the core grievances of Palestinians: The years-long siege of Gaza, illegal settlements, and daily humiliations at checkpoints. This bias manifests in everything from guest selection on analysis programs (frequently Zionist officials, rarely Palestinian voices) to syntactic framing—such as the use of passive voice when referring to Palestinian deaths, which avoids naming perpetrators.

As a result, the news narrative is rendered unbalanced. Reports often focus on rocket fire by Hamas or its attacks in occupied territories but seldom on the scale of devastation caused by Israeli crimes. This selective framing, critics say, leads many Western viewers to believe that violence began with inexplicable Palestinian aggression, ignoring the decades-long cycle of occupation, displacement, and blockade that preceded Hamas’s rockets. Thus, Western public opinion continues to receive a distorted image: a strong democracy defending itself against a faceless aggressor. In the process, the massive civilian toll among Palestinians remains hidden in the shadows.

The dominance of social media platforms

Some may argue that in the digital age, mainstream media can no longer hide behind editorial policies. Anyone with a phone in Gaza can record footage and share it with the world. But this belief assumes that social media platforms are truly free and uncensored spaces. Evidence suggests otherwise.

Since October 2023, X (formerly Twitter) suspended “hundreds” of accounts it claimed were linked to Hamas, to prevent the spread of what it labeled violent or hateful content. However, Palestinian activists say many of those accounts had no ties to armed groups and simply reflected the voices of people in Gaza. The issue of shadow–banning (secretly limiting post visibility) has also arisen; users report that posts critical of Israeli policies or supportive of Palestinian rights are hidden or their reach drastically reduced without explanation. Simultaneously, studies show that 96% of hate content reported for anti-Arab or anti-Muslim abuse remained online despite user reports.

Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has also faced criticism. A December 2023 report by Human Rights Watch stated that Meta’s enforcement policies disproportionately silence Palestinian voices and content defending their rights. This suppression may stem from the way the platforms’ algorithms are designed — suggesting that Western tech giants apply greater pressure on pro-Palestinian content.

Ultimately, the result is that people in the West remain largely uninformed about the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza. The few narratives that pass through the filter — such as heart-wrenching videos of children pulled from rubble or shattered families — are drowned in the glittering sea of other content. Even the most committed activists struggle to convey the full picture, and the audience receives only fragments of reality.

Disrupting the Status Quo

And yet, the awakened conscience of free people around the world reacts even to those fragments. Protesters in London and Los Angeles—or the angry students at Columbia—say that US financial and military support for the Zionist regime enables the ongoing genocide.

In fact, American leaders have consistently stood firmly in defense of the Zionist regime. Annual military aid continues with bipartisan approval in Congress. Meanwhile, narratives dominant in mainstream media persuade Western public opinion to prioritize Israeli security over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. While pro-Palestinian marches, university protests, and activist campaigns on social media challenge this narrative, they still face censorship and suppression—especially when they become too powerful.

Nevertheless, the mass demonstrations indicate that an awakening is underway in the West—people are beginning to ask questions long pushed to the margins. They are encountering layers of truth that challenge the polished imagery offered by the media. If these truths become more widely known, and as more Westerners confront the complex and horrific reality of life in Gaza, the political calculus may shift dramatically. Just as public support for the BDS movement has caused multibillion-dollar losses for pro-Zionist interests, public opinion could also condemn political actors who support genocide and confront them with serious challenges. It can send a message to pro-Israel politicians: supporting Israel is a red line—and crossing it means losing the people’s vote.

This was precisely the message emphasized by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, during his Eid al-Fitr sermon this year:

“Nations around the world are angry and upset about the things that they are aware of. Many nations around the world aren’t aware of many matters and crimes. The fact that you see them chanting slogans against the Zionist regime in the streets of Europe and even in the US is due to the limited knowledge that they do have. If they had more information, they would protest even more.”

(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)