Some surprising reactions from Arab media analysts have surfaced over the past couple of weeks. The English language Jerusalem Times bills itself as an “independent Palestinian weekly,” — never mind the fact that publisher Hanna Siniora is a top Palestinian Authority official, who just last week was in Washington vying for a top PA spot there. Writing in the Times, Nufouth Al-Bakri accuses Israel’s new Arabic satellite TV channel of “helping to spread lies.”
Reporting on a media seminar in Gaza convened by the Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida newspaper, Al-Bakri quotes various Arab media experts who decry Israel’s efforts at penetrating the Arab-speaking market. “The Israeli satellite channel broadcasts lies, but Palestinian audiences are immune to such treachery,” said Maher Al-Reyes, general coordinator of PA Radio and Television Authority. But the most illuminating admission made at the seminar was a statement by Fayed Abu Shamaleh, identified as a Palestinian journalist working abroad. Shamaleh confirms what many Israeli media analysts have known for some time: “Palestinian journalists succeeded in entering foreign agencies and were able to convince them of the justice of the Palestinian cause…”
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Times (September 20, 2002) also reports on a $25 million fund set up by “Arab ministers” to improve the Arab image in American media. A Cairo University doctoral student completing a dissertation on CNN anti-Arab bias tells the paper that Arabs cannot expect the rest of the world’s media to be sympathetic to Arab concerns “as long as we are in a state of regression.” “Why should we criticize their media when ours focuses on triviality?” she asks.
Back in Israel, the Arab News Network (ANN), owned by Rifad Assad, exiled uncle of Syrian president Bashar Assad, has been signing up interviews with various extreme right wing Israelis. The goal is to impress upon Arab viewers that these are the people with influence in the Sharon government.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will never appear on ANN, says Mohammad Said, ANN Israel correspondent: “Peres is popular in the international community, and even part of the Arab world believes him and his explanations. He is exactly the kind of person we are not permitted to interview. Two others in the same category are opposition leader Yossi Sarid and Labor’s Yossi Beilin.”
Things aren’t so calm over at Israel’s government radio either. Last week Israel radio director Amnon Nadav received death threats by fax and phone, warning that his life would be in danger if he didn’t fire veteran journalist Uri Dan (see last week’s As I Read It column) from his post as guest interviewer. Prime suspects were the journalists who took over Israel Radio studios to protest Dan a few weeks ago. But members of the Radio Workers Committee cast doubt on Nadav’s claim and urged him to file a police complaint about the alleged threats.
Nadav, who became director of Israel radio after a stint as chairman of the Israel Journalists Federation, is seen by his former colleagues as a turncoat as he has led hard-nosed standoffs against management at the Federation, and turned the tables when he himself became management.
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The Haredi (ultra-orthodox) sector is moving into another sphere of the media world. No sports, no crime and no women mark the efforts of two Haredi media entrepreneurs to provide acceptable news coverage to their community.
Presently there are seven Haredi weekly and daily newspapers that include coverage of issues not generally covered by the secular press: shoddy kashrut supervision, halachic aspects of cellphone usage and the lack of safety on Talmud Torah school buses, for example.
Now, Kobi Sela and Ariel Berman have introduced a filmed talk show called Aktualisch, which is sold on CD-ROMs. Barely any ultra-orthodox families have TV in their homes, but there are some 75,000 computers. The CD-ROMs have been selling well, with news and features tailored to ultra-orthodox sensibilities.
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One of the biggest media sensations of recent weeks was the four-hour Keshet TV series, Ruach Kadim (East Wind). Produced by David BenShitreet, the program was devoted to Moroccan Israelis. Four Israelis of Moroccan heritage formed the backbone of the program: A former Black Panther leader from Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood: Former Cabinet Minister and Labor Party leader Shlomo Ben-Ami; Shas leader Rabbi Aryeh Deri, and a moshavnik from a community on the Lebanese border.
The series, which presented Moroccan complaints of discrimination and alienation, was slammed by TV columnists in almost every paper. Haaretz media watchers, Benny Ziffer and Tom Segev were almost apoplectic in their criticism. The Ashkenazi elites were incensed that the topic could still merit so much screen time. “It is doubtful that a more demagogic film, one so full of hatred and incitement to violence has ever before been broadcast in Israel,” screamed Segev in his Friday ‘Eye of the Beholder’ column in Haaretz.
Ben-Ami comes in for the sharpest criticism, since he is perceived himself to be part of the elite. In the program, Ben-Ami takes a potshot at his own Labor Party for being so out of touch with the Sephardic working classes. “The Ashkenazic leftists,” he said, “just couldn’t reconcile themselves to the reality of dealing with Sephardic workers, so the Sephardim have long been identified with the Likud.”