Pro-Palestine demonstrators are being used as pawns in a much bigger geopolitical game, according to an opinion column by Paul Baldwin published in the Daily Express. The article argues that the protesters are "useful idiots" in a battle to divide and destabilise the West, while much bloodier conflicts in Africa go largely unnoticed.
Baldwin's column, published on October 6, 2026, criticises the upcoming pro-Palestine march in London, suggesting that the students behind it could not locate Tigray on a map. He notes that as many as 800,000 men, women and children lost their lives in a recent civil war in Tigray, and that the conflict is about to escalate again.
Disparity in media coverage of conflicts
The column highlights a stark disparity in media coverage between Palestine and African conflicts. Researchers at the Media and Journalism Research Center analysed 78,667 articles from 49 influential English-language news outlets across eight countries, showing that Gaza generated far more coverage than any other conflict, irrespective of bodycount.
Baldwin presents a chart of estimated deaths from conflicts over the last 20 years: Palestine with 70,000 deaths, the Democratic Republic of Congo with 5.5 million deaths, Tigray/northern Ethiopia with 600,000 to 800,000 deaths, South Sudan with 400,000, Burundi with 300,000, and Sudan with 150,000.
Claims of selective outrage
The article argues that on an average day in the English-speaking world, Gaza receives around 60 news articles while the DRC gets one. Baldwin claims this means people "literally care about dead people in Palestine 60 times more than we care about dead people in Africa."
The column questions why there are no marches for Sudan, no student encampments flying Tigray flags, and no popstars monetising deaths in African conflicts. It suggests that Palestine sits at the intersection of religion, terrorism, Israel, America, Iran and the entire Middle East, making it a tool to divide and impoverish western nations.
Baldwin concludes that while a Palestinian child killed in Gaza is an appalling tragedy, so too is a Sudanese child killed in Darfur, a Congolese child dying because war destroyed a hospital, or a Tigrayan child starving because fighting cut off food.
