by Bob Boynton

Palestinian leaders discuss unity — the headline of Aljazeera, in English.

The president and the prime minister sat down to iron out their difficulties. It had been a difficult period leading to Fatah and Hamas supporters shooting at each other.

Aljazeera, in Arabic, and Aljazeera, in English, both reported the beginning of a rapprochement. BBC World and CNN World ignored it — at least as of midnight CST.

It was not what they wrote that was striking — well, since I cannot read Arabic I do not know what Aljazeera, in Arabic, wrote. But the photos accompanying the stories were very different.

Aljazeera in Arabic

Aljazeera in English

First, a caveat — I enlarged the photo from Aljazeera in English to make it equal to the size of the photo from Aljazeera in Arabic. The original was about two-thirds this size, which makes a difference.

In both photos the president and the prime minister are posing for pictures. The one from Aljazeera, Arabic, is lifeless. The two are sitting — you might say relaxed, but lifeless seems a better characterization. Abbas is not even looking at the photographer so you see him turned away from you. They are separated; there is a gulf, a space reflecting the political gulf between them. And their feet are firmly planted. They are anchored in their separate spaces.

The photo used by Aljazeera, English, is as lively as the other is lifeless. They are standing with joined hands and faces in smiles — as though celebrating either a joke or progress in their negotiations.

The foregrounds are very different.

But the backgrounds are equally important in the photographs. The one is gray — a gray wall ‘decorated’ with a gray drapery and a limp flag. They are enveloped in an environment of no hope.

But the Aljazeera, in English, photo tells exactly the opposite story. It is a smiling Abbas and a smiling Arafat — as close as Abbas and Haniyeh. Arafat and Abbas are the iconic images of Hamas and Fatah. The bold, smiling pictures in the background reinforces the hopefulness of the agreements reached.

Interpretation

Photographs are carefully chosen to reinforce the story being told in words. In this case I know the words of one of the news reports but not the other. But reading the photographs is not difficult. They tell different stories. And the gray, lifeless background in one case and the smiling icons of Palestinian history in the other make them very different stories.

But look at the Aljazeera in Arabic story the next day.

The optimism is back!

News reports

Aljazeera in Arabic

Aljazeera in English