We cannot turn away from suffering, but I can no longer watch the news coverage from Israel and Gaza | Simon Jenkins

Right now we have tabloid television, not broadcast news, offering a ghoulish voyeurism and simplified spectacle

For the first time in my adult life I cannot watch - or read - the news. Its presentation makes me profoundly upset. For over a week I have not read, heard or watched the news from Israel/Palestine. I am afraid doing this has made me feel better. I have asked around and many other people are doing the same.

I would normally consider it shocking to not know what is going on elsewhere in the world. We owe it to common humanity not to ignore inhumanity, wherever it occurs. We should listen and at least sympathise, even if to no concrete purpose. The obligation on journalists is more specific; it is to supply the requisite information, which can be unpleasant to collect and convey. I have visited war zones and found it harrowing. Unspeakable horrors are occurring somewhere on Earth all the time. The media may have space for only so much. When did you last hear about Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo - or even Ukraine? But the effort must be made, not dodged.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist