Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Two conflicts are currently dominating the geopolitical and media landscape: the Israel-Hamas war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Many attempts have been made to create moral equivalencies between the protagonists, dependent on the politics or ideology of those involved.

CNN’s graph, based on World Health Organization data, makes a direct comparison between “attacks on health care” in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza during a set timeframe to demonstrate surges in such “attacks.”

While it looks impartial and purely statistical, it serves as an example of how visual aids can be misconstrued due to lack of context.

Why is the above so problematic?

• Russia deliberately and indiscriminately attacks Ukrainian healthcare facilities. Israel does not deliberately target such facilities unless they have, according to the internationally recognized laws of war, been militarized by Palestinian terrorists. Quite simply, there is no moral equivalence between Russia’s blatant war crimes and Israel’s adherence to international law.
• According to a note attached to the graph by CNN, the WHO defines “attacks” as “any act of verbal or physical violence or obstruction or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access and delivery of curative and/or preventive health services during emergencies.” What does this mean in practice? Is the suspension of Gazan hospital services due to a lack of fuel treated as an Israeli “attack?”Has the WHO considered the Hamas tunnels and operations center underneath Shifa Hospital as an “attack” on health care by virtue of Hamas turning the facility into a legitimate military target? We consulted with Israel’s Ministry of Health and were told that the WHO does not report the militarization of health assets. And what if an ambulance is commandeered to transport terrorists and is, as a result, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike? Are both considered “attacks,” even though the latter would be against a legitimate target?
• The graph includes attacks on “Occupied Palestinian territory.” Presumably, CNN has therefore included both the West Bank and Gaza even though Gaza has not been occupied since Israeli forces left in 2005.
• According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, the WHO considers all Israeli security checks on Palestinian ambulances to be denials of service and are thus included in the statistics. Given the number of times over many years that Palestinian terrorists have abused ambulances for their own ends, Israel has a responsibility to stop Palestinian emergency vehicles at checkpoints as they would any other vehicle.
• Where does the WHO get its statistics from? In the same way that the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza provides casualty figures, so it also submits so-called “attacks” on Palestinian medical facilities. This is clearly open to abuse. As for verification, the WHO is reliant on checking media reports, not all of which are accurate.
• The graph fails to differentiate between acts carried out by Israel and those of Hamas and/or other Palestinian terrorists. Clearly, the number of attacks on Israeli medical facilities is tiny compared to the Palestinian numbers. The obvious conclusion for an uninformed reader is that Israel has carried out a hugely “disproportionate” number of “attacks” compared to the Palestinians. In this particular case, the figures are also dependent on when each side has submitted details. We have been advised by the Israeli Ministry of Health that the statistics from the Israeli side are not up-to-date.
• This means that three direct rocket strikes on Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center are not registered, including one on the hospital’s child development center. Not to mention over 1,000 instances of rocket sirens being triggered in the area of the hospital. Not only have these incidents not been covered by the WHO or CNN’s graph but CNN itself has no mention of attacks on Barzilai anywhere on its website.

Ultimately, the above points demonstrate that a visual aid like CNN’s raises more questions than it answers. Reducing the issue down to numbers and making a direct comparison with another conflict simply doesn’t work. Moreover, it creates false moral equivalency between both Israel and Russia and between Israel and Palestinian terrorists. The statistics effectively absolve Palestinian terror groups of any responsibility for their actions.

Graphs and charts may look pretty and are used to simplify complicated issues. But sometimes, a situation like the Israel-Hamas war is just too complicated to be reduced to a visual aid.