Ha'aretz Flubs the Facts on Arabs in the Knesset

Yishai Goldflam
CAMERA Media Analysis
10 March '10

The charge that Arabs suffer inequitable treatment in Israeli society — usually simmering on a back burner — flares up anew from time to time.

There is certainly a place for newspaper articles and opinion columns that address concerns within Israeli society, not only between Arabs and Jews but also amongst Jews themselves — between native Israelis and newcomers, between men and women, between Ashkenazi and Sepharadi Jews, and in general, between different groups of people. It is a phenomenon that is certainly not unique to the state of Israel, but which exists in every Western democratic society and even more so in non-democratic societies and countries — one that is, and should be, covered in newspaper columns.

But such media commentary should distinguish between legitimate perceptions based on fact and those based on incorrect information. And no respectable newspaper should lend its pages to a polemic founded on fiction.
This, however, is exactly what the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, did when it provided a platform to Salman Masalha – "a researcher of Arab culture, a poet and a translator," according to the newspaper blurb – to spread false allegations against the State of Israel. ("Israel's apartheid doesn't stop at the West Bank," March 3, 2010)

The writer begins his column with the observation that "poetry and lies have much in common." But while Masalha uses the comment to denigrate Israel's Declaration of Independence as a disingenuous document, the observation is much more relevant as a description of how he, as a poet, crafted a thoroughly dishonest Op-Ed.

For example, Masalha outrageously asserts in the middle of his column:

The alienation is also evident with regard to the central government. This is the only democratic country in the world where one-fifth of the citizens - who are declared to have equal rights, at least on paper – have no representation in the government or in "provisional and permanent institutions...." [emphasis added]

One would expect a respectable writer and intellectual — and even more so, a respectable newspaper editor — to think twice before publishing such an overtly false statement. The inclusion of such an assertion indicates an overall disrespect toward readers who are apparently deemed ignorant of basic and obvious facts – namely, that Arabs are represented not only in government but in nearly every profession in Israeli society.

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