Sorry, But ‘Resistance Journalism’ Still Doesn’t Deserve Press Credentials - by Pesach Benson

...He’s not directly employed by terror groups or their direct media affiliates. (That would open a separate discussion on the blurred lines between terror propaganda and legitimate journalism). What Karram’s really saying is that he doesn’t have to bloody his own hands because he can do more from his position as Tinderbox City’s bureau chief cheering on the violence and spinning it according to the needs of the “resistance.”

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting..
22 August '17..

The Government Press Office held a hearing for Al Jazeera’s Israeli-Arab reporter Elias Karram.

The GPO revoked Karram’s press credentials last week after an interview surfaced in which the Al Jazeera Jerusalem bureau chief said that journalists like himself sided with the Palestinians as part of their “resistance” to Israel. The hearing was essentially about whether to reinstate his accreditation.

Karam said in an interview to the Muslim Brotherhood television channel Dar Al-Iman in May 2016 that “as a Palestinian journalist who is in an occupied area or a conflict area, journalistic work is an integral part of the resistance and of political and educational action.

“A journalist fulfills his role in the resistance through his pen, voice or camera, because he is part of this nation and is resisting in his unique way,” he added.

At Monday’s hearing, Karram told the GPO that “the resistance he spoke about was not a violent one, adding that he denounces the use of violence.”

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Kills 3, Wounds 17 - A "graphic designer ... killed by Israeli security forces" at Time Magazine

..."There's no limit to incitement. I didn't know that leaving me with two scars on my body and a hole in my lung after he stabbed me with a 20 centimeter [8 inch] knife is a professional art and not an act of terrorism."

Israel Hayom Staff..
18 March '16..

Israel's Government Press Office went public with a complaint against Time Magazine Thursday, five months after the magazine published an article referring to a terrorist as a "graphic designer ... killed by Israeli security forces," with no mention of the people he murdered and injured.

Terrorist Baha Aliyan was shot by Israeli security forces after he and another Palestinian, Balal Abu-Janem, boarded the Route 78 bus in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem and launched a joint shooting and stabbing attack that killed three men -- Alon Govberg, 51, Haim Haviv, 78, and Richard Lakin, 76 -- and wounded 17 others.

On Oct. 15, Time's Rebecca Collard wrote: "On Tuesday, Allyan [sic], a graphic designer from the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood Jabel Mukaber, was killed by Israeli security forces after allegedly trying to carry out an attack in Jerusalem."

In an article published on its website Thursday, the GPO wrote: "To our sorrow, repeated requests to Time Magazine, initially by an Israeli NGO and subsequently by the GPO, have all failed to induce Time to correct the serious factual error in the Oct. 15 article.

Israeli minister summons Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood to protest publication of pro-terrorism letter

Adam Levick
CiF Watch
05 February '11

Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s Minister for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, on Thursday, instructed the Government Press Office (GPO) to summon the Guardian’s correspondent in Israel to protest a letter published in the paper which justified terrorism. (See CiF posts, here, here, and here).

As we noted previously, the letter, by Ted Honderich, a professor of philosophy at University College London, made the case that the Guardian’s “Palestine Papers” showed that Israel was such a morally indecent nation that:

“The Palestinians have a moral right to their terrorism within historic Palestine…Terrorism, as in this case, can as exactly be self-defence, a freedom struggle, martyrdom, the conclusion of an argument based on true humanity.”

Edelstein wrote Guardian editor Ian Black to express his outrage that his newspaper would publish a letter that calls for the murder of innocent civilians. He asked that Black print an apology and clarification stating that the newspaper did not condone terrorism in any form and did not consider it a legitimate tool in a struggle for freedom.

Edelstein also instructed GPO head Oren Helman to “urgently summon”Guardian correspondent Harriet Sherwood to discuss the letter. (Apparently, however, Sherwood is currently in Egypt.)

Coming on top of the heated criticism by Ron Prosor, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, of the Guardian’s commentary of the “Palestine Papers” (which, Prosor said, was so sympathetic to extremism it risked “out-Hamasing Hamas”) it appears that the Israeli government has made a decision to rightly “name and shame” the Guardian for their egregious anti-Israel agenda – an ideological orientation which increasingly seems sympathetic to the most radical, not to mention reactionary, violent movements.

(Read full "Israeli minister summons Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood to protest publication of pro-terrorism letter")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Editor's Notes: Danny Seaman’s farewell voyage

The departing head of the Government Press Office lets it all out.

David Horovitz
Editor's Notes/JPost
05 November '10

Winding up a torrid decade as director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman has plainly decided to give vent to years of pent-up frustration.

In this interview, during which he spoke for more than an hour and a half in rapid-fire English, he loosed off passionate criticism in all directions: At a misguided government bureaucracy that threatens to doom the GPO into irrelevancy. At the failure of some in officialdom to back him when he defended Israel against what he considered dire media misrepresentation. At Israel’s surrender of many of its own historical claims and rights. At some local journalists who bolster the delegitimization of Israel. At the Palestinian manipulation of the foreign press. And, most of all, at parts of the foreign press itself, which he depicts variously as unconscionably ignorant, disinclined to appreciate fundamental truths about Israel’s best features, incompetent and sometimes downright immoral.

Is the departing Seaman a heroic advocate for Israel who is being shamefully and counter-productively treated by his foolish, short-sighted, lily-livered bosses? Or should someone so candid and opinionated never have been entrusted with the ultra-delicate task of liaising with the international media?

By the end of this interview, which I have condensed of necessity and edited to clarify Seaman’s central arguments, his verbal onslaught may have divided readers as to whether he was a rare asset or crippling liability in a job he evidently loved. But very few, I suspect, will be unmoved. Excerpts:

(Read full story)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

'Paranoia from Press Harms Israel'

Yoni Kempinski
israelnationalnews.com
01 June '10

Matthew Kalman, a Jerusalem based foreign correspondent, spoke at the Anti-Defamation League's conference in Tel Aviv about Israel and the foreign media.

As seen in the following video, Kalman explained that there are three "P"s that affect the foreign news coverage of events in Israel – policy, parachutes, and paranoia. Policy refers to Israeli policies that are sometimes not understood or accepted by the foreign correspondents. The word 'parachutes' refers to journalists who 'drop' into Israel without even knowing the language. Paranoia is how Kalman refers to the attitude of the Israeli authorities towards the media, and he explained how this paranoia was felt during the most recent events of the Gaza flotilla.



Summing up the conference, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, came to Israel's defense in response to Matthew Kalman's complaints.

Matthew Kalman has been a foreign correspondent and filmmaker based in Jerusalem since 1998. He has reported for TIME, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, London Sunday Times, and other many newspapers, as well as PBS television in the United States, Channel 4 News in Britain and CTV in Canada. He is a frequent contributor to radio news programs in Canada and Britain.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

GPO advises foreign journalists on luxurious Gaza restaurant

Yaakov Lappin
Middle East/JPost
27 May '10

In a bid to stir awareness of anti-Israeli slants in foreign media coverage of Gaza, the Government Press Office sent an e-mail on Wednesday to members of the Foreign Press Association in Israel containing a guide to a luxurious restaurant in the Strip and a recently opened Olympic-sized pool.

The e-mail was based on a recent dispatch by journalist and commentator Tom Gross, in which he highlighted what he described as “the manipulative agenda of the BBC and other foreign media agencies.”

In the dispatch, sent on Tuesday, Gross added that much of the foreign media coverage was “deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel’s fault.”

Gross sent the dispatch ahead of the imminent arrival of a flotilla of boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists attempting to reach Gaza to deliver what they say is humanitarian aid to the Gazan people.

“In anticipation of foreign correspondents traveling to Gaza to cover reports of alleged humanitarian difficulties in the Hamas-run territory, and as part of efforts to facilitate the work of journalists in the region, the Government Press Office is pleased to bring to your attention the attached menu and information for the Roots Club and Restaurant in Gaza,” the GPO missive read.

“We have been told the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended. You may wish to enquire of a possible discount upon presentation of a valid press card. There is also the possibility of an enjoyable evening on the Greens Terrace Garden Cafe, which serves ‘eclectic food and fresh cocktails,’” it continued.

“Correspondents may also wish to enjoy a swim at the new Olympic size swimming pool as reported in the Palestinian media to have been opened last week,” the e-mail said.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Seaman said he not surprised to receive several outraged responses from foreign journalists.

“Those who act as spokespeople for Palestinian propaganda were furious with self-righteous indignation and were angry,” Seaman said. “This was to be expected.”

“There is much hypocrisy in the coverage by international media of Gaza, and unfortunately, to some extent, the Israeli media plays a part in it. We are receiving political, slanted coverage. This message could help them wake up and do a better job,” he added.

(Read full story)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.