PA Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Al Qidwa walked into a side room before his 11am press conference dressed in a dapper navy suit and smelling of aftershave. His sophisticated comportment refined by many years of service as PLO representative to the UN in New York, integrated well with the setting of the Palestinian press center hosting the event. As one of the Palestinians’ most internationally recognized talking heads, Qidwa no doubt had prepared a succinct list of talking points sufficient to provide the necessary sound bites to represent “the Palestinian perspective” for the evening news stories across the world. Too bad he never got a chance to say them though. Read more about Real News: Disengaged in Gaza
Given Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent promises to harshly punish any Palestinian attempts to disrupt the disengagement process, had last week’s gunman in the West Bank settlement of Shilo been a Palestinian rather than an Israeli, and the four dead Israeli rather than Palestinian, Gazans would have likely woken up the following morning to tanks in their streets. But as it stands, the shooting of four Palestinian laborers by an Israeli settler - whose motive is reported to have been to stop the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - has not even merited putting the more ideologically extreme settlements under military curfew, which Palestinian population centers have experienced for thousands of hours during this Intifada. Read more about Four murdered Palestinians not considered newsworthy during disengagement
On February 8, 2005, at the Sharm e-Sheikh summit, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) declared a ceasefire after more than four years of Intifada. Since the summit, the two sides have exchanged mutual recriminations on intentional and unintentional violations of the understandings that were reached. Keshev examined how the major Israeli media outlets covered the ceasefire, how they interpreted the actions (both positive and negative) of both sides, and how they dealt with each side’s pronouncements concerning violations of the ceasefire by the other side. Keshev concludes that the Israeli media played down Israeli violations and covered criticism of Palestinians profusely. Read more about Israeli media: "Quiet, We’re Disengaging!"
Journalist Jonathan Cook writing the letter one reporter in Israel wishes he could send news editors who ask him to cover Israel’s Gaza disengagement. Israel is not giving foreign journalists free access to the Gaza Strip, or even the settlements, during the disengagement. Apparently, the only way to “witness” the disengagement will be by applying to the Israeli press office for a place on a number of army coaches transporting reporters to individual settlements. I am opposed in principle to the idea of being shepherded around by the army while covering this event. How is this not just another form of “embedding”? But in any case I am told seats on the coaches will be extremely limited, maybe only a few dozen, and are bound to be snapped up by the media big-hitters. Read more about How to cover disengagement?
On July 22, E. J. Kessler, deputy managing editor of the oldest and most revered American Jewish weekly, Forward, reported that “a far-left pro-Palestinian group” sought to pass a divestment resolution at the AFL-CIO quadrennial convention, which takes place in Chicago next week. As a co-founder of this “far-left group,” Labor for Palestine — which is not a “group” but a campaign as its Web site’s watermark indicates on every page — I find it worth noting some errors and points of conjecture that my colleague’s article contains. LFP represents one of many organized movements that are dissatisfied with the AFL-CIO’s well-documented complicity with US foreign policy. Read more about Helping Forward move forward
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict gets a disproportionate share of mainstream western media attention, as compared, say, with conflicts in Africa. Yet the public, particularly in the United States, remains grossly misinformed. Even respected outlets like National Public Radio fail to provide objective and consistently fair coverage. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah examines trends in media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and finds that as news organizations come under increasing pressure from pro-Israel groups, there are fewer places to go for solid, independent coverage. Read more about Gross Misinformation: the media in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, delivered a message from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, “Reinvigorating the Peace Process: The Role of International and Regional Actors in Facilitating a Comprehensive, Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East in Cairo. “The people of the Middle East are now approaching a number of important turning points,” he said. With help from their regional and international partners, they can prevent a slide back into conflict and confrontation. And with help from responsible media — media that refrain from myths, stereotypes and hate propaganda –- they can avoid inflaming an already volatile climate.” Read more about Kofi Annan urges media to refrain from myths, hate propaganda in message to international media seminar
For nearly 40 years, Israelis have known Haim Yavin’s face. Now they also know his opinions. Whether that is leading to any deeper understanding of his message about the functioning of the Israeli media is less certain. “Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers suppressing another people.” It is in such terms Yavin has been expressing his disgust for the Israeli occupation in the five-week series of reports “A Land of Settlers” currently being broadcast on Israeli Channel Two. When Yavin “came out of the closet” and affirmed publicly his political views on the occupation it sent shock waves through his audience. Read more about The three monkeys of the Israeli media
Language, as George Orwell remarked, is a proxy for power. According to the celebrated author of “1984,” those in power use language to disseminate truth selectively through a process of representation and concealment. When applied to the region of Israel/Palestine, Orwell’s insights reveal how this interplay of representation and concealment permeates the exercise of power, and why, absent changes in the discourse of the powerful side, there is little reason to expect any progress in the situation. Read more about Power, propaganda and the promised land
In the 1960s, there were many jokes in Israel about the “Voice of the UAR (United Arab Republic) from Cairo”, which broadcasted news in broken Hebrew, written by spokesmen of the Egyptian regime. The absurdity of these broadcasts enhanced the credibility of the IDF spokesmen in our eyes. Today, we are not all that far from the “Voice of the UAR” ourselves, and in fluent IDF Hebrew. Tanya Reinhart reports. Read more about "According to security sources": What remains of the Israeli media
