Published by Americans for The Link Middle East Understanding, Inc.

Volume 43, Issue 5 Link Archives: www.ameu.org December, 2010

By Jonathan Cook

In the mid-1990s, I arrived in for the first time–then as a tourist–with the potent Western myth at the front of my consciousness: that of as “alight unto the nations,”the plucky underdog facing a menacing Arab world. A series of later professional shocks as a free- lance journalist reporting on Israel would shatter those assumptions.

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AMEU Board These disillusioning experiences my investigations of an apparent came in the early stages of the second shoot-to-kill policy by the Israeli po- of Directors intifada, the Palestinian uprising that lice against its own Palestinian citi- Jane Adas (Vice President) began in late 2000. At the time I was zens at the start of the second intifada Elizabeth D. Barlow often writing for Britain’s Guardian was sat on for months by the paper. Edward Dillon newspaper, first as a staff member After I made repeated queries, the fea- based in the foreign department at its tures editor informed me that he Rod Driver head office in London, then later as a could not run it because it was no John Goelet freelance journalist in Nazareth. The longer “fresh.” David Grimland Guardian has earned an international Another report about the suspected reputation— including in Israel— as Richard Hobson use by Israel of an experimental type the Western newspaper most critical Anne R. Joyce of tear gas against schoolchildren near of Israel’sactions. That may be true, Hon. Robert V. Keeley Bethlehem— and earlier in Gaza— but I quickly found that there were was rejected. Eyewitness testimony I Kendall Landis (Treasurer) still very clear, and highly unusual, had collected from respected French Robert L. Norberg (President) limitations on what could be written doctors working in local hospitals Hon. Edward L. Peck about Israel. who believed the gas was causing the Donald L. Snook Particularly problematic for the children nerve damage— a suspicion Rosmarie Sunderland Guardian— as with other news media shared by a leading international hu- James M. Wall — was anything that questioned Is- man rights organization— was dis- rael’sclaim to being a democracy or missed as “inadequate.” The foreign highlighted the contradictions be- AMEU National tween that claim and Israel’sJewish editor told me he was concerned that Council self-definition. The Guardian’s most no other journalists had reported the Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr. famous editor, C P Scott, was a high- story— leading me to wonder for the profile lobbyist for Jewish rights in first time in my career whether news- William R. Chandler what was then Palestine. He was also papers were actually interested in ex- Paul Findley instrumental in bringing about the clusives. Moorhead Kennedy Balfour Declaration— the British gov- Ann Kerr ernment’scommitment to the Zionist I also remember arguing with the foreign desk about another story I of- Mary Norton movement in 1917 to create a “national home”in Palestine for Jews. fered on a new section of the wall Is- Marie Petersen rael was starting to build in Jerusa- Don W. Wagner Thus, I was not entirely surprised that an account I submitted based on lem, on the sensitive site of the Mount Miriam Ward, RSM of Olives, in time for Easter 2004. It Executive Director About This Issue John F. Mahoney Publish It Not, the title of our issue, is taken from Michael Adams’s1975 book of the same name. Adams, a British journalist for The Guardian, was AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) one of the first newsmen to tell of his difficulties in reporting on Israel’sbru- grants permission to talities in the then newly occupied West Bank and Gaza. In this issue Jonathan reproduce material from The Cook, who also wrote for The Guardian, gives us an update on the current Link in part or in whole. AMEU must be credited and muzzling of the Fourth Estate. (Cook’soriginal manuscript exceeded our one copy forwarded to our space limitation by 4,000 words. His complete article is on our website, office at 475 Riverside Drive, www.ameu.org.) Room 245, New York, New York 10115-0245. Tel. 212- Our book review selection, “MyHappiness Bears No Relation to Happi- 870-2053; Fax 212-870- 2 0 5 0 ; E - m a i l : ness,”by Adina Hoffman, is reviewed by Jane Adas on page 14. Our video [email protected]; Website: selection is on page 15. The order form for the Hoffman book and videos is on www.ameu.org. page 16. — John Mahoney, Executive Director The Link Page 3 would block a famous procession that had been held Guardian’s recently appointed Jerusalem bureau for hundreds of years by Christian pilgrims every chief, to my struggle to get Hook’s story told. Palm Sunday, following the route Jesus took on a McGreal, the paper’sdistinguished South Africa cor- donkey from the Biblical town of Bethany into Jeru- respondent who covered the apartheid era, had salem. I was flabbergasted when an editor told me it quickly brought a much keener critical edge to the was of no interest. “Readers are tired of stories about Guardian’s coverage of Israel— and, from what I the wall,”she said, apparently ignoring the fact that saw, had battled hard for the privilege. He lobbied the story also raised troubling concerns about the for the paper to print my article and personally took protection of religious freedoms and Christian tradi- the project under his wing. tion in the . Eventually, the editors relented and reserved a The most disturbing moment professionally, how- page for my investigation. However, when the story ever, followed my investigation into the death of a was published, it was half the promised length and United Nations worker, and British citizen, Iain had lost a map showing the improbabilities of Is- Hook, in Jenin refugee camp at the hands of an Is- rael’saccount of Hook’skilling. The foreign editors raeli sniper in 2002. As the only journalist to have later claimed that they had been forced to accept at actually gone to the U.N. compound in Jenin in the the very last moment a half-page ad for the page on immediate aftermath of his death, I was able to piece which my investigation appeared. (I had worked on together what had happened, speak to Palestinian the foreign desk for many years and struggle to re- witnesses and later get access to details of a sup- member any instance where an ad change was made pressed U.N. report into the killing. close to deadline.) The editors had cut the second half of the story, the part that contained the evidence Israel claimed that the sniper who shot Hook in I had unearthed. the back believed the U.N. official was really a Pales- tinian militant holding a grenade, rather than a mo- I was suffering similar setbacks with other main- bile phone, and that he was about to throw it at Is- stream media. The most significant was the Interna- raeli troops. My investigation showed that the tional Herald Tribune. Back in 2002, when the IHT sniper’saccount had to be a lie. From his position on was owned jointly by the New York Times and the top floor of a small apartment block overlooking Washington Post, a senior editor in the comment sec- the compound, the sniper could not have misidenti- tion whom I knew recruited me to the opinion pages, fied through his telescopic sights either the distinc- and I enjoyed for the first time the opportunity to tive red-haired Hook or the phone. In any case, Hook write freely in a mainstream newspaper. would not have been able to throw anything from However, a short time later, the Washington Post out of the compound because it was surrounded by a sold its share in the Tribune to the Times and a new high concrete wall and a chainmail fence right up to comment editor, Serge Schemann, was appointed. the metal awning that covered the entire site. If Hook He had been Jerusalem bureau chief for the NYT in had thrown a grenade, it would have bounced right the late 1990s. Rumors suggested he had been eased back at him— as the sniper, who had been positioned out after Israel’smedia lobby groups in the U.S. took in the apartment for several hours, must have umbrage at his faintly critical reports. I feared he was known. an unlikely champion for my more outspoken com- When I offered this investigation to the Guard- mentaries— and so it proved. ian’sforeign editor, he sounded worried. Again I As soon as he was installed, the same pressure was told, as if in admonition, that no other media groups— the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East had covered the story. But it seemed to me that this Reporting in America (Camera) and Honest Report- time even the foreign editor realized he was offering ing— began lobbying against my articles whenever excuses rather than reasons for not publishing. As I they were printed by the IHT. After one of my com- argued my case, he agreed to publish a small article mentaries appeared in 2003 suggesting, far from con- looking at the diplomatic fall-out from Hook’skill- troversially, that the wall Israel was newly building ing, and the mounting pressure on the U.N. He had in the West Bank was really a land grab from the Pal- bought me off. estinians, my friend at the paper called in shock to Shortly afterwards I recruited Chris McGreal, the say it had provoked “the largest postbag in our his- The Link Page 4 tory.” (The Anti-Defamation League had published on billions of dollars in aid and military hardware, on its website a pro forma letter of complaint for its almost blanket political support from Congress, the supporters.) White House’s veto of critical resolutions at the United Nations, and Washington’srole as a dishon- Finally, the paper felt compelled to devote a page est broker in sponsoring intermittent talks propping to a selection of the letters of protest, all of which up a peace process that in reality offers no hope of a made the same objection to my use of the phrase just resolution. The occupation would end in short “Palestinian homeland”to describe the territory that order without U.S. financial, diplomatic and military had historically lived on. In addition, support. For that reason Israel makes significant ef- Camera submitted a complaint of several thousand forts, as we shall see, to put pressure on the journal- words that listed 10 “errors”in my 600-word article. ists themselves. It also targets their news editors After I argued my case at length to the editors, it was “back home”because they make appointments to the agreed not to publish an apology. However, when region, set the tone of the coverage, approve or veto my next commentary for the IHT was greeted in the story ideas, and edit and package the reports coming same manner, my days writing for the paper were in from the field. over. It became ever more difficult to place my re- ports in newspapers— to the point where I was In the more open media environment of the past spending more time arguing the case for a story with decade, however, Israel has also needed to act more an editor (and then defending it afterwards), than I aggressively against other types of narrators to en- was researching and writing the story. sure the dominance of its own narrative. It has sought to control and limit the scope of local infor- Most freelance journalists forced into this posi- mation sources on which Western reporters rely, and tion would either have learned to tailor their report- delegitimize rival news platforms that could increase ing to what was expected by the news desks or have the pressure on the Western media to provide better- headed off to another conflict zone. I stayed, and quality coverage. struggled on with writing, at first chiefly for the Arab media, then as the author of three books. [The Those most immediately in Israel’ssights— and author’sthree books are available on AMEU’swebsite in the greatest danger— are Palestinian journalists www.ameu.org.— Ed.] because they live and work in the areas Israel wants Managing the Spin to remain unreported. They are best positioned to supply the Western media with the raw material Since the visible collapse of the peace process a needed to show Israel’saggression towards the Pal- decade ago at Camp David, Israel has been in the estinians, including its war crimes, and expose the increasingly uncomfortable position of not only be- subsequent cover-ups. Next come dissident Israeli ing but, more importantly, looking like the rejectionist journalists and human rights groups who investigate party to the conflict. The impression that Israel has these same incidents and pose the added threat that no interest in engaging in meaningful peace talks to they have greater credibility with the international create any kind of viable Palestinian state has grown community. And finally there are new problems with the almost complete cessation of Palestinian at- posed by the growing number of freelance journal- tacks, both the suicide bombers who were once dis- ists like myself covering the conflict and a new breed patched from the West Bank and the Qassam rocket of citizen journalists and bloggers created by the rise attacks from Gaza. of the electronic media. In order to justify continuing military assaults on Each element of this web of threats to Israel’s the Palestinians in the occupied territories and its narrative has required its own organized response studious avoidance of real negotiations, Israel has and, as will become clear, Israel has lost no time in had to invest an ever larger share of its energies in developing a mixture of sophisticated and blunt managing and controlling the narrators of the con- weapons to use against the media. flict— chiefly the Western news organizations and, That has been reflected in a drop in Israel’srank- especially, those in the United States. ing in recent surveys of press freedom. In a 2010 in- Israel needs to maintain its credibility in the U.S. dex compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Israel because that is the source of its strength. It depends comes in at 86th place for its treatment of journalists The Link Page 5 inside its own borders. That puts it behind Lebanon, gestions for how to rid the country of some of its Pal- Albania, Nicaragua and Liberia. It was in 132th place estinian citizens; the role played by one Palestinian — out of 178 countries— for its repression of journal- in Ramallah, Ramonda Tawil, who not only supplied ists outside its own territory, chiefly in Palestinian him with stories but also paid for it with repeated areas. The two Palestinian authorities in the West arrests and abuse by Israel; and finally his investiga- Bank and Gaza were only a short distance behind in tion into an incident in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, in 150th place which Israeli soldiers viciously and without provoca- tion attacked Palestinian youths, part of a larger ram- An early whistleblower. The basic principles of page conducted by the army across the West Bank. media management were developed early on by Is- rael, as Donald Neff, the Jerusalem bureau chief for There was considerable fall-out from Neff’sin- Time magazine in the late 1970s, has described. In a creasingly informed reporting, and especially the 1995 article for The Link, he wrote about his Beit Jala story. His local bureau staff, all of them Is- “epiphany” during three years covering the Israeli- raeli Jews, grew indignant at his coverage and, over Palestinian conflict. Rather than a single revelation, the Beit Jala report, actually staged a mutiny. The his epiphany came as a series of insights that cumu- Israeli media began a campaign of vilification against latively undermined his long held belief in the Zion- both him and Time, and Neff found Israelis, includ- ist narrative. His Link essay is fascinating not least ing sources, responded to him with a new hostility. because of the continuing relevance of many of his Back in New York, resentment among some staff at experiences more than 30 years later. the magazine increased, and Zionist lobby groups bombarded the office with complaints. One observation Neff makes, however, no longer applies to the current crop of foreign correspondents. Emotionally and professionally exhausted by the He notes the difficulty he faced at the time of his experience, Neff left the region shortly afterwards. posting in the 1970s in learning about the essentials He concludes that he was “heart-broken and dis- of the conflict. In part, Neff suggests, he struggled to couraged by the display of prejudice and unprofes- make sense of what he was witnessing because of a sional conduct of my colleagues covering the story, dearth of reliable information in English on Israel’s whom I had admired… The experience left me history and even more so on its then less than 10- highly skeptical about the wisdom of employing re- year-old occupation. Without a proper context for porters in areas where they are partisans.” understanding the conflict, he found himself vulner- The partisan reporters. Surprisingly, the prepon- able to the misinformation campaigns of Israeli offi- derance of Jewish reporters in the Jerusalem press cials, who claimed that the occupations of the West corps continues to this day, especially among the Bank and Gaza were entirely benevolent. U.S. contingent. Even a few Jewish reporters regard Neff admits he failed to heed the reports of the this as problematic in a conflict where national and United Nations, the one body regularly investigating ethnic allegiances and pressures are so much to the and publicizing the realities of the occupation. Like fore. One American journalist speaking on condition other foreign correspondents of the time, and those of anonymity, fearing that to go on record would be of today, Neff regarded the U.N. as a discredited or- career suicide, told me that it was common at For- ganization, chiefly because of successful smear cam- eign Press Association gatherings in Israel to hear the paigns by Israel. Neff paints a disconcerting picture “senior, agenda-setting, elite journalists”boasting to that few Western readers could have appreciated at one another about their “Zionist” credentials, their the time of a press corps that, far from mastering the service in the Israeli army or the loyal service of their news agenda on Israel, largely abided by a part self- children. He then added: imposed, part Israeli-dictated news blackout. I'm Jewish, married to an Israeli and like al- Neff points to a series of episodes that contributed most all Western journalists live in Jewish to his gradual awakening: a solitary critical report in West Jerusalem. In my free time I hang out in a reputable British newspaper, the Sunday Times, cafes and bars with Jewish Israelis chatting in highlighting the regular use of torture against Pales- Hebrew. For the Jewish sabbath and Jewish tinians; the leaking to the Hebrew media of the 1976 holidays I often get together with a bunch of Koenig report, in which senior officials laid out sug- Western journalists. While it would be conven- The Link Page 6

ient to think otherwise, there is no question that this deep personal integration into Israeli society informs our overall understanding and coverage of the place in a way quite different from a journalist who lived in Ramallah or Gaza and whose personal life was more em- bedded in Palestinian society. His observations had been prompted by revela- tions earlier this year that Ethan Bronner, the New York Times’bureau chief in Jerusalem, had a son serving in the Israeli army. The disclosure, which Bronner himself refused to confirm or deny when it first broke, briefly provoked a flood of complaints to the NYT’shead office. A column at the time by the paper’spublic editor, Clark Hoyt, argued that Bron- ner had a conflict of interest and should be reas- signed. The paper’seditor, Bill Keller, vehemently dis- agreed: “So to prevent any appearance of bias, would you say we should not send Jewish reporters to Israel? If so, what about assigning Jewish reporters Author Jonathan Cook (Photo by Katie Ramadan) to countries hostile to Israel? What about reporters married to Jews? Married to Israelis? Married to Ar- tify with a self-declared Jewish state either by taking abs? Married to evangelical Christians? … Ethical citizenship or by serving in the army, any paper judgments that start from prejudice lead pretty ought to want to promote a diversity of backgrounds quickly to absurdity, and pandering to zealots means among its staff. How would the NYT credibly ex- cheating readers who genuinely seek to be in- plain the decision to allow only Chinese-Americans formed.” to report on Tibet, or to appoint only Catholic Irish- Keller, of course, willfully ignored Hoyt’spoint Americans to cover Northern Ireland, or— for that that it was not Bronner’sJewishness that was the matter— to allow only men to write about women’s central issue; it was his emotional commitment to issues? one side of the conflict through his son’sarmy ser- But, more significantly, the NYT’spartisanship on vice. His reporting was already under scrutiny even Israel is not simply speculation; it is demonstrated in before the revelations about his son. Bronner had its reporting. Alison Weir of If Americans Knew, a been widely criticized for his bias towards the Israeli U.S. institute for disseminating information about government’s positions, including by the media the Middle East, has pointed out the systematic dis- watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. tortions in the paper’scoverage. For example, inter- The NYT’sother Jerusalem correspondent, Isabel national reports on Israel’shuman right abuses are Kershner, is an Israeli citizen and is married to an covered at a rate 19 times lower than those docu- Israeli. A recent predecessor of Bronner’s,Joel Green- menting abuses by Palestinians, and deaths of Israeli berg, did reserve duty in the Israeli army while he children are seven times more likely to be reported was reporting for the paper, apparently a fact known than those of Palestinian children. The Times, like by the editors but also not considered a conflict of other U.S. media, reports endlessly on the plight of interest. Most of the NYT’scorrespondents in the Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, while past two decades appear to have been Jewish. rarely mentioning the 7,000 or so Palestinians— including many women and children, and hundreds That, whatever Keller argues, should be a matter who have never been charged— held in Israel’spris- of profound concern to the paper and readers who ons. expect fair coverage. Even putting aside the issue of the likely partisanship of Jewish reporters who iden- Keller goes on to comment about Bronner’scon- The Link Page 7 nections to Israel: “How those connections affect his pied territories and needed local fixers and transla- innermost feelings about the country and its con- tors; Israeli civilians were banned by the Israeli army flicts, I don’tknow. I suspect they supply a measure from entering much of the occupied territories, mak- of sophistication about Israel and its adversaries that ing them less useful; and with the greater demands someone with no connections would lack.” If true, of television and the advent of rolling news, media why would the NYT not also want to make sure that organizations needed people on the ground, espe- it employed a Palestinian or an Arab-American in cially Palestinian photographers and cameramen, one of its two Jerusalem posts, or even have one of who could capture events as they occurred. its two reporters based in the West Bank city of Ra- The increasing reliance on Palestinian staff was of mallah? Would that not ensure that the Palestinian great concern to Israel, which was worried both that perspective was reported with an equal “measure of more damaging images of the occupation would sophistication”? reach Western audiences and that the foreign corre- But there exist more significant reasons why the spondents would become more friendly with, and media might prefer Jewish reporters in Jerusalem. dependent on, their Palestinian colleagues. Ulti- One is that Israel defines even mild criticism of its mately, that might lead Western reporters to become policies as anti-Semitism, a charge to which the news more informed about the Palestinian cause. media are still extremely sensitive. Having a Jewish Israel responded early in the second intifada. In journalist, or better still one who has demonstrated a late 2001 the Government Press Office (GPO), a state commitment to Israel through his own or his child’s body that effectively licenses journalists to report in army service, offers some immunity from such accu- Israel and the occupied territories, began refusing sations. press accreditation to some 450 Palestinian staff em- Another reason is the importance accorded by all ployed by international news organizations as well news organizations to gaining access to the centers of as denying them permits to enter Jerusalem, where power. In a self-declared Jewish state, as news edi- the bureaus are located. As usual, Israel used secu- tors understand, Jewish reporters, especially those rity as the pretext for its policy, arguing that Pales- conversant in Hebrew, will have an important ad- tinians entering Jerusalem and Israel might partici- vantage. This is what Keller is obliquely referring to pate in terror attacks. Daniel Seaman, the head of the when he talks of Jewish reporters covering the con- GPO, urged the foreign media to recruit Israelis in- flict with “sophistication” and being able to make stead. “connections.” Keller, like other U.S. editors, is not The loss of the press cards posed both a profes- overly concerned that such connections come at a sional and physical threat to Palestinian journalists. very high price. U.S. news media are choosing to em- They lost the privileges they had enjoyed moving ploy partisan reporters who are dependent on offi- through the checkpoints and around the West Bank. cial Israeli sources of information for news in a sys- It was also considerably harder for them to prove tem where the ultimate professional sin is to be ac- that they were journalists, making them more likely cused of anti-Semitism. targets for soldiers as the Israeli army rampaged This is hardly an atmosphere in which fearless through the West Bank. According to the Interna- independence and truth-seeking are likely to flour- tional Federation of Journalists, three Palestinian ish. journalists were killed in the occupied territories in 2001, the first full year of the second intifada, and Muzzling the Media dozens were injured. Silencing Palestinians. Donald Neff, in his Link The dangers to Palestinian reporters have hardly article, described how his office was staffed exclu- diminished over the subsequent decade. In 2007, Is- sively by Israeli Jews in the 1970s. That was then raeli soldiers shot Palestinian journalists from generally the case. But the situation began to change Agence France-Presse, the Al-Ayyam newspaper and during the 1990s as more Palestinians were em- Al-Aqsa TV. Al-Jazeera broadcast footage showing al ployed by news bureaus. There were several reasons: -Aqsa’s cameraman, Imad Ghanem, fall to the the international media were keen to cut costs and ground after being shot as he was running from Is- Palestinian staff were cheaper; foreign correspon- raeli gunfire holding his camera on his shoulder. As dents began heading more regularly into the occu- The Link Page 8 he lay immobile, Israeli snipers shot him twice more in the abdomen by Israeli soldiers in Balata refugee in the legs. Both limbs were later amputated. A year camp, near Nablus. He sent the film to AP’sJerusa- later, Fadel Shana, a Reuters cameraman, was killed lem bureau, where it disappeared, never to be sent in Gaza as he filmed an Israeli tank firing flechette out for broadcast. Later, when he tried to get the shells, a non-conventional weapon that releases footage returned, he learned that the tape had been thousands of lethal tiny darts. One shell was fired at erased by the staff. Weir visited Ahmad in the hospi- his car, even though it was marked “Press.”Amnesty tal to confirm his injuries. She then went to AP’sJe- International said it suspected Shana had been killed rusalem bureau to speak to its head, Steve Gutkin, deliberately. about the missing tape. He told her to speak with the head office in New York and threatened to call the In the first eight months of 2010, according to a Israeli police if she did not leave. Weir spent many study by Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, 101 Pal- months trying to get AP’shead office to explain what estinian journalists were injured by rubber-coated had happened to the video. Finally she was told: steel bullets, tear gas or sound bombs, and 52 were “The official response is we decline to respond.” arrested by the Israeli army. In May, Reporters With- out Borders pointed out that many of the attacks on The very few Palestinian journalists who estab- journalists occurred as they filmed Israeli soldiers’ lish an international reputation and manage to report violence towards Palestinians at regular protests on the conflict unmediated by the Israeli-staffed bu- against Israel building its illegal wall on West Bank reaus in Israel face different kinds of problems. farmland. For example, Hamoudeh Amireh, a self- One such reporter is Mohammed Omer, based in taught cameraman who documents Israeli army bru- Rafah, Gaza. He has written regularly for Britain’s tality against demonstrators in his village of Nilin, New Statesman magazine and the Washington Re- was shot in the leg in September. The attacks have port on Middle East Affairs. In 2008 he won the Mar- not been restricted to Palestinian journalists: Al- tha Gellhorn prize for journalism and was invited to Jazeera English broadcast footage last year of a sol- the awards ceremony in London. He was able to at- dier firing a tear gas canister directly at one of its tend only after Dutch officials intervened to get him journalists, Jacky Rowland, as she reported on a pro- an exit permit from Gaza and personally escorted test at the village of Bilin. him out. On his return, as he crossed over into the The Foreign Press Association in Israel issued a West Bank from on his way back to Gaza, he statement in July warning that Palestinian journalists was made to separate from his Dutch escort. Taken were being “harassed, arrested and attacked”by Is- aside by Israeli security personnel, this is what he raeli soldiers at demonstrations against the wall. It says took place next: added that the reporters were being singled out, I was stripped naked at gunpoint, interrogated, “before these forces turn their attention to the activ- kicked and beaten for more than four hours. At ists or demonstrators.” one point I fainted and then awakened to fin- Israel’srefusal to issue entry permits to Palestin- gernails gouging at the flesh beneath my eyes. ian journalists has ensured that Jerusalem bureaus An officer crushed my neck beneath his boot are again heavily staffed with Israeli Jews. One effect and pressed my chest into the floor. Others of this on the news available to the Western media took turns kicking and pinching me, laughing has been noted by Alison Weir of If Americans all the while. They dragged me by my feet, Knew. On a visit to the West Bank in 2004, she heard sweeping my head through my own vomit. I disturbing testimony from a Palestinian cameraman lost consciousness. I was told later that they about his treatment by Associated Press, the largest transferred me to a hospital only when they American news agency. AP supplies news reports to thought I might die. thousands of U.S. outlets as well as much of the Before he was beaten, the officers from the Shin world’smedia, making it, as Weir points out, “ama- Bet, Israel’ssecret police, appeared to be only too jor determinant in what Americans read, hear and aware of who Omer was. They insisted he hand over see— and what they don’t.” his “English pounds”— a reference to the £2,500 prize The Palestinian cameraman told her he had re- money. Israeli officials later explained Omer’sexten- cently filmed an unarmed youth, Ahmad, being shot sive injuries by claiming he had “lost his balance” The Link Page 9 during an interrogation over suspicions he was a aging the country’simage, and direct pressure from smuggler. Mohammed concludes: “Could it be that the government. The English-language newspaper despite their tanks, fighter planes and nuclear arse- and website fail to translate many of the Hebrew sto- nal, Israel is threatened by our cameras and com- ries that are most embarrassing to the Israeli authori- puters, which give the world access to images and ties, and remove certain details from other Hebrew information about their military occupation of Pales- reports that present the government or army in a tinians?” harsh light. Silencing dissenting Israelis. Over the past dec- Also noticeable has been the paper’sdecision to ade there has been a sharp increase in information “let go” several prominent journalists and colum- about the occupation produced in English by Israelis. nists known for their hard-hitting reports. Thus, This is due to a rapid growth in the number of Israeli Aviv Lavie, who unearthed a damaging story in 2003 human rights groups, the greater use of new technol- about Israel running a secret prison where torture ogy to provide same-day translations into English of was routine, disappeared from the paper shortly af- much of the Hebrew press, and improved opportuni- terwards. The paper’s chief reporter, the prize- ties for dissident Israeli journalists and bloggers to winning journalist Meron Rappaport, who regularly publish through the internet. dug up exclusives from the occupied territories, was made redundant in 2008. This more extensive reporting of the brutalities of the occupation by Israeli sources has fed into the Also in 2008, rumors circulated that ’s pressures on foreign correspondents to provide bet- two most famous reporters, Amira Hass and Gideon ter coverage themselves. Israel has had to respond to Levy, both of whom cover the occupied territories, this development by delegitimizing dissident Israeli were to be axed. Following a barrage of criticism, journalists and rights groups and making it much however, both continue to write for the paper. harder for them to operate. Nonetheless, in a climate increasingly hostile to Traditionally, Israel has constrained damaging dissent, journalists like Hass and Levy have become coverage of its policies through the country’smili- more marginalized inside Israel, even while main- tary censorship laws. All articles that might threaten taining their readership overseas. Levy observed in a Israel’ssecurity— broadly defined— have to be sub- recent interview that the Israeli media was mitted to the censor for approval. That‘show, for “recruiting itself to collaborate with the occupation example, Israel has prevented its journalists from project” and “playing a fatal role, mainly in main- admitting even the existence of the country’snuclear taining the occupation and the nationalistic and mili- weapons arsenal. The censor was also busy during taristic emotions and sentiments in the Israeli soci- Israel’smonth-long attack on Lebanon in 2006, se- ety.” Such emotions are on display against reporters verely restricting coverage, including of such war who step out of line, such as Chaim Levinson, an- crimes as the Israeli army’spositioning its artillery other Haaretz reporter who has broken many stories in civilian areas. But censorship alone has not suf- about the occupation. In August he was filmed being ficed in a more pluralistic media environment. beaten by soldiers as he tried to report on Jewish set- tlers taking over a building in the Palestinian town of The biggest threat to Israel’snarrative is probably Jericho. posed by Haaretz, Israel’sliberal newspaper of re- cord. It has by far the best coverage of the occupation As well as relying on the Israeli media for stories, and is widely relied on by foreign correspondents foreign correspondents have started to turn to a when deciding on their own reports. In recent years growing number of Israeli human rights groups. it has become much more accessible through its Eng- These organizations issue regular reports on differ- lish edition, and an associated website. ent aspects of the occupation, and often launch legal cases in the courts against Israeli government policy. Nonetheless, the paper has tended to limit trans- The most famous, such as B’Tselem, Adalah and the lations of its Hebrew coverage. That policy, sources Association of Civil Rights in Israel, are treated as at the paper tell me, reflects both the determination sources of reliable factual information by reporters of the paper’seditors to stay within the Israeli con- when they compile their stories. This has not gone sensus as the political climate shifts rightwards, unnoticed by Israeli officials. thereby avoiding accusations that the paper is dam- The Link Page 10

The Israeli government has stepped up a cam- The bill resurfaced in October, having been wa- paign against these groups, known formally as non- tered down by a ministerial committee. It still re- governmental organizations (NGOs), since the sum- quires strict financial reporting by human rights mer of 2009. That was when two major threats NGOs of any foreign donations made to them, at the emerged to Israel’sdefense of its savage attack on pain of heavy fines for failure to do so. Gaza in the winter of 2008, in which 1,400 Palestini- Silencing the Freelancers. If one figure has come ans, most of them civilians, were killed. The first was to personify Israel’sovertly hostile attitude towards the efforts of Breaking the Silence, a group of former independent reporting it has been Daniel Seaman, Israeli soldiers, to publish the testimonies of soldiers the “acting”head of the Government Press Office for who had served in Gaza during the attack. Many of a decade until his removal in October 2010. Seaman these accounts revealed irregular behavior by sol- was replaced by Oren Helman, a former political ad- diers or evidence of war crimes. The second threat viser to the current prime minister, Benjamin was the publication of a damning U.N. report in Sep- Netanyahu, and a man expected to continue Sea- tember 2009 by the respected South African judge man’slegacy. Richard Goldstone. In his 10 years, Seaman firmly established the Both Breaking the Silence and Goldstone were GPO’sethos, developing a system of regulation that soon vilified by the Israeli media and government. weakened the ability of independent journalists, Rightwing groups such as NGO Monitor and Im whether registered freelancers or underground Tirtzu claimed— inaccurately— that much of the “citizen journalists” reporting for the internet, to Goldstone report drew on information supplied by cover the conflict. Israeli human rights NGOs, concluding that these groups had therefore been unmasked as The citizen or advocate journalist movement “subversive.” They also argued that it was illegiti- emerged at the start of the second intifada as a direct mate for Israeli human rights NGOs to receive their result of the greater presence in the occupied territo- funding from overseas, and typically from the Euro- ries of Palestinian solidarity groups, particularly the pean Union. The clear implication was that, through International Solidarity Movement (ISM). ISM volun- their dependence on European funding, the political teers who were based in Palestinian towns and vil- agendas of the Israeli NGOs had been infected with lages in the West Bank and Gaza that became the an anti-Semitic prejudice that many Israelis presume main clash-points with the Israeli army quickly real- is rife in Europe. The foreign ministry, for example, ized that the war crimes they were witnessing and called on the Dutch embassy to end its funding of photographing were going largely unreported by the Breaking the Silence. mainstream media. Many began filing reports di- rectly to the press and the electronic media. A parallel campaign was also launched against the Zionist Jewish organization, the New Israel Their accounts were largely ignored by foreign Fund, another major financial contributor to good correspondents, but publication on the internet of- causes in Israel, including to human rights groups. fered an important resource for researchers as well NIF’s chairwoman in Israel, Naomi Chazan, was as evidence that might one day be useful in war quickly turned into a national hate-figure as extrem- crimes trials. Israel responded in the same way as it ist groups employed anti-Semitic imagery on bill- had done to Palestinian eyewitnesses: by using vio- boards across the country, showing her with a horn lence. In a matter of a few months in 2003, half a sprouting from her forehead. dozen internationals were killed or seriously injured by the Israeli army, most notably Rachel Corrie, Tom A demand rapidly grew for human rights NGOs Hurndall, Brian Avery and James Miller. The latter to be strictly regulated, with tight restrictions on was a distinguished cameraman but appears to have their foreign funding. Legislation originally pro- mistakenly thought he was entitled, like the ISM, to posed in early 2010 and supported by the govern- “embed”with the Palestinians. ment was designed to force the NGOs to register as political parties and declare their foreign funding The effect of this spate of deaths and injuries was whenever staff spoke publicly. Failure to comply to deter many potential ISM volunteers from coming with the regulations would have landed the NGO’s to the region. The remaining activists were sought staff in jail. out by the army in raids into the West Bank and then The Link Page 11 deported. Israel also increased its vigilance at the in the very last days of the operation. borders to deny ISM volunteers entry. On a smaller The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem called scale, there have been continuing attacks on foreign- this denial of media access to Gaza an ers who stand alongside Palestinians at protests and “unprecedented” violation of press freedom that witness the brutality they face. In May, Emily Heno- “puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful chowicz, a 21-year-old American Jew, lost an eye at of regimes around the world which regularly keep an Israeli checkpoint as she demonstrated against journalists from doing their jobs.” Israel’skilling of nine passengers aboard an aid flo- tilla to Gaza. A soldier fired a stun grenade into her Israel also denies “Israeli” journalists access to face at close range. Gaza and areas of the West Bank, on the grounds that it is for their own protection. This rule applies to Israel’streatment of the passengers on board the critical reporters like Hass and Levy. Also included flotilla’slead ship, the Mavi Marmara, encapsulated as “Israelis”are journalists like myself, who are not many of the military’s standard operating proce- Jewish and do not have Israeli citizenship. However, dures towards independent journalists. In September my residency permit— issued because of my mar- a U.N. inquiry revealed that two of the nine passen- riage to a Palestinian citizen of Israel— is used as gers who were killed, including an American citizen, grounds to deny me entry to restricted areas. Furkan Dogan, were shot dead as they filmed the violence of Israeli commandos who boarded the In 2006 it became clear that most freelance jour- ship. Israel then confiscated all media equipment nalists were being denied both press cards and work from passengers, which has never been returned. A visas, thereby effectively denying them the right to few edited excerpts of video and audio tape— continue residing in Israel. This was done by extend- including at least one that is known to have been ing strict laws on foreign workers to include journal- doctored— were released by Israel to bolster its case ists. The Foreign Press Association estimates that in that the commandos were the ones attacked. recent years more than 90 per cent of its freelance members have lost their cards. Israel’s new strategy towards freelancers— together with an implicit threat to foreign correspon- The GPO’spower over even established journal- dents— began to emerge clearly during the so-called ists is typified by the experiences of Yngvil disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the removal of a Mortensen, a Norwegian reporter. In 2007, when she few thousand Jewish settlers from the enclave. Israel was on contract with the Dagbladet newspaper, she required any journalist who wanted to cover the dis- spent 11 months battling the GPO to have her press engagement to apply to the GPO for a place on a lim- card renewed. In the end, the card was issued but ited number of buses that the army was allowing only after interventions by the Norwegian foreign into Gaza each day. Because the enclave was entirely minister, the Norwegian journalists’syndicate, an sealed off by an electronic fence and the army, re- Israeli lawyer and the Foreign Press Association. porters were forced to rely completely on the GPO’s Mortensen says: “The real problem, I believe, is goodwill for one of the few places. my coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The The GPO’shandling of the disengagement was a Israeli embassy in Oslo in December 2006, at the warning to journalists that, in circumstances where same time as I applied to renew my Israeli press Israel was increasingly controlling entry to the occu- card, wrote an op-ed in Dagbladet, covering a whole pied territories, those who were out of favor with the page, where they accused me of one-sided coverage. authorities could be denied the access they needed to Their op-ed was a reaction to a commentary I wrote do their job. That lesson would be reinforced even two weeks earlier about a massacre in Beit Hanoun more firmly after the 2006 Lebanon attack, when Is- [in Gaza], where I among many things asked if it is rael believed it had received too much critical cover- accidental that so many civilians generally are killed age because of its “liberal”policy towards the media. in Israeli military operations.” It then effectively punished the whole press corps by When she was awarded a three-month assign- sealing off Gaza to all correspondents for the three ment to cover the for the daily weeks of its attack in the winter of 2008. In the end, Klassekampen newspaper in early 2010, Mortensen only 15 correspondents selected by the Israeli army again followed the procedure of applying for a GPO were allowed to enter Gaza “embedded”with troops card. The staff told her it would be difficult because The Link Page 12 she was a freelancer rather than a staff journalist. to break censorship rules. Later she received a letter from Seaman declining her Also making an impact is the slow rise of non- application, stating that she had failed to meet the Western media in English. The most significant is Al- GPO’scriteria, though no explanation of how was Jazeera, a Qatar-based media company that has now offered. both a website and a TV channel in English. Al- She applied to the appeals committee, pointing Jazeera, both its English and Arabic channels, is out that she had in fact met all the written require- deeply disliked by the Israeli authorities (as it is by ments. Later in the year, the committee rejected her the Palestinian Authority). Not surprisingly, the Eng- appeal, although only on the grounds that her re- lish channel has struggled to find cable distribution quest “was no longer relevant” because the period deals in the U.S. Still it is demonstrating that a new for which she had requested the press card had ex- model of critical but professional reporting about pired. The committee did nothing to examine or Israel in the mainstream is possible. Other TV chan- question the grounds on which the GPO had arrived nels that are attracting growing audiences are at its original decision. PressTV from Iran and Russia Today. Another freelance journalist, Lisa Goldman, sub- Perhaps of greatest concern to Israel is that these mitted a complaint against Seaman to the Civil Ser- new media platforms are feeding an interest in a po- vice Commission in 2006 following her visit to the tentially formidable and unifying new campaign GPO office to get a routine renewal of her press card. against Israel: BDS— shorthand for boycott, divest- After an altercation in which she was threatened and ment and sanctions. sworn at by Seaman, she asked to see his boss. In her Ranged against these new upstart forces are Is- letter of complaint, she said he responded: “Iam not rael’s powerful and entrenched lobby groups. As accountable to anyone. I make all the rules. And just well as political groups such as AIPAC targeting the the fact that you have asked me this question means U.S. Congress and the White House, there are so- you will never receive a GPO card again.” He also phisticated media lobbies like Camera and Honest told her he would have her investigated by the Shin Reporting. Their job is to intimidate reporters in Is- Bet, the domestic intelligence service. rael by targeting their less-knowledgeable editors The New Hasbara overseas with mass letter-writing campaigns and of- ficial complaints. A visit to Camera’swebsite, for ex- The final battleground in Israel’s“spin war” is ample, shows a long list of the most important for- outside Israel— on internet sites and in overseas eign correspondents in Israel over the past two dec- newsrooms, especially those in the U.S. and those ades. Each has been on the receiving end of one or with a global reach. two major complaints— enough usually to bring Increasingly important among the new media them into line. Reporters worry that too many such platforms are blogs— especially ones by dissident complaints to their bosses will start to undermine the American Jews such as Philip Weiss at Mondoweiss paper’sconfidence in them. and Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam. Weiss has But while Camera and Honest Reporting have helped to establish and nurture an online community long been targeting any signs of critical reporting in of mainly Jewish writers that speaks with a refresh- the mainstream media, new pro-Israel lobbies have ing clarity about Israel’soccupation and the power of emerged to counter threats from the electronic media the Israel lobby in the U.S. Silverstein, meanwhile, and the BDS movement. One influential Israeli think- has broken several important stories about Israel tank, the Reut Institute, has termed these new global leaked to him by Israeli journalists who could not forces a “delegitimization challenge” to Israel. The report the issues themselves because of the increas- problem was addressed, in particular, at Israel’san- ing use of gag orders and censorship. nual security convention at Herzliya early in 2010 at The readership for these overseas blogs, including sessions entitled, for example, “Winning the Battle of among Israelis, is steadily rising. The sites are also the Narrative” and “Soft Warfare against Israel.” freeing Israeli bloggers to become more outspoken: The key message at these meetings was that the tra- they can relay back to Israeli audiences information ditional Israeli practice of “hasbara”— a Hebrew from foreign websites without the risk of being first term usually translated as “explanation” but really The Link Page 13 meaning “propaganda”— had to be reinvented for in more than 20 years of running such appeals— part the new age. of its public service remit— that doing so would com- promise the organization’s“neutrality.” The Israeli government first identified the threats posed by the new media to its mainstream narratives Other signs of the BBC’sloss of nerve are its aban- back in 2005, arguing that the country must donment of truly independent documentaries on Is- “improve the country's image abroad— by down- rael. Instead in recent years it has accepted “soft” playing religion and avoiding any discussion of the documentaries from Israeli production crews. Israeli conflict with the Palestinians.” This led to a new film-makers have had great success offering as their campaign, “Brand Israel,” that has targeted major chief selling-point to the BBC various dubious cities around the world for film festivals and food “exclusives”— typically “rare”interviews with senior and wine galas featuring Israeli products. Israel has military people and views inside Israel’swar rooms also encouraged the media to focus on Israel’sinno- “for the first time ever.” Israeli film-maker Noam vations in hi-tech industries and stem-cell research. Shalev, who has specialized in these kinds of pro- ductions, has made faux-documentaries like the 2006 One venture is Israel21c, whose mission is “to “Will Israel bomb Iran?”that have offered little more focus media and public attention on the 21st century than Israeli foreign ministry propaganda. Israel that exists beyond the conflict.” It is reported to be working closely with AIPAC. Israel21c’ssuc- “Death in the Med,” the BBC’sinvestigation in cess in manipulating coverage by the mainstream August 2010 into the killing of nine passengers media was signaled by the recent news that CNN aboard the Mavi Marmara followed the same com- had broadcast 15 of the group’spre-packaged videos promised format, even though it was fronted by a over the previous year –“reaching millions of view- veteran BBC presenter, Jane Corbin. With a largely ers worldwide,”as Israel21c boasted on its website. Israeli crew, Corbin again offered several “exclusives,”including being present during a train- In a press release, Israel21c added: “Other encour- ing exercise by the “secretive” commando unit that aging stories chosen by CNN this year describe a stormed the Marmara, and interviews with the com- mixed Jewish-Arab choir that practices its message of mandos themselves. The illegality of invading a ship coexistence out loud, and a group of Palestinian and in international waters was not discussed, nor was Israeli midwives working together to ensure that Israel’stheft of the passengers’media equipment. pregnant mothers in Israel and the Palestinian terri- There was no warning that video footage shown in tories have safe and natural births. Rather than por- the documentary was selectively edited by the Israeli traying Israel as a place of conflict and strife, these government. Audio tape of passengers telling the stories have highlighted Israeli accomplishments in Israeli commandos to “Go back to Auschwitz” that science and technology, arts and culture, and philan- Israel is known to have doctored was presented as thropy.” authentic, with Corbin even stating that the insults The chief target of the new hasbara has been the were “awarning sign.” BBC, the influential British-based public broadcaster This approach looks as if it will be a key element that has a large international audience for its TV, ra- in Israel’sfuture media strategy. As its grip on the dio and internet sites. The popular mood in Britain narrative coming directly from the region weakens, it has turned rapidly against Israel over the past dec- will fight harder to ensure that reporters of all kinds ade, and Israel appears to have been fearful that the covering the conflict come under intensified pres- BBC might reflect such sentiments. But after much sure. But Israel is also likely to try to bypass local behind-the-scenes pressure from the Israeli foreign journalists as much as possible, selling its image and ministry and its lobbyists, the BBC has moved in pre- discredited myths to those least in a position to ques- cisely the opposite direction— sometimes to a degree tion or doubt them. Editors from the overseas news that has shocked the British public and even the Brit- organizations should be among those who can be ish government. more easily swayed. Most notable was its refusal in 2009 to broadcast Israel may be struggling to keep its critics at bay, an appeal for that year’sselected charitable cause— but its Watergate moment is still far off. ■ helping the homeless and sick in Gaza after Israel’s 2008 winter attack. The BBC claimed for the first time The Link Page 14

OOK EVIEW which Palestine was B R neglected under Ot- My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: toman rule, betrayed A Palestinian Life in the Palestinian Century by the British Man- By Adina Hoffman date, and undone by Zionist ambitions; a New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009 century in which the List: $21.95 ; AMEU price, including postage: $18:50 small region on the eastern Mediterra- Reviewed by Jane Adas nean has become an One person’sstory can make genuine to outsiders unfortunate focus of the world he or she inhabits in a way that facts and global attention. statistics cannot. Think of Anne Frank and her diary. The task Adina Hoffman set herself was challenging; The subtitle does, Author Adina Hoffman rather than telling her own story, she, an American- however, reflect the born Israeli, felt “weirdly compelled to try and write scope of Hoffman’snarrative: life in the pre-Israeli the life and times of this man, the Palestinian poet Galilean village of Saffuriya, its destruction and the Taha Muhamad Ali”(p. 3). various fates of its villagers turned refugees, Taha as the proprietor of a souvenir shop in Nazareth when Taha, who had only four years of formal educa- Israeli Palestinians lived under military regulations tion and was voraciously self-taught, was a late- that were not lifted until 1966, the prominent place of blooming poet. Hoffman took the biography’stitle poets and poetry in Palestinian cultural life, Taha’s from a line in Taha’ssecond collection of poems, return to the site of his vanished village, about which Fooling the Killer, published in 1989 when the poet he had written a poem entitled “The Place Itself, or I was nearly sixty: Hope You Can’tDigest It.”

Lovers of hunting, Hoffman tells Taha’sstory with abundant empa- and beginners seeking your prey: thy, honesty, and a self-awareness that allows her to Don’taim your rifles see past pre-conceptions to which she might be at my happiness, prone as an Israeli Jew. For example, in a chapter which isn’tworth entitled “What Happened,” Hoffman is faced with the price of the bullet the contradictory memories of two worthy men. (you’dwaste on it). Taha recalled three Israeli planes that bombed Saffu- What seems to you riya on the evening of July 15, 1948, prompting the so nimble and fine, flight of the villagers. Dov Yermiya, a longtime ac- like a fawn, tivist for Arab-Jewish cooperation, was the company and flees commander in the IDF’sCarmel Brigade that led the every which way, assault on Saffuriya the following day. He told Hoff- like a partridge, man there had been no planes and no bombs, add- isn’thappiness. ing, “There is something called the Oriental imagina- Trust me: tion” (p. 124). Yermiya’sversion is backed up by my happiness bears written Jewish accounts of the incident, which seem no relation to happiness (p. 361) to trump Palestinians’oral history. Full of doubt . about which version to trust and “in search of The second half of the subtitle, “A Poet’sLife in the ink”(p. 130), Hoffman sets out for the IDF archives Palestinian Century,” is as enigmatic as poetry itself. housed in Tel Hashomer army base. There she dis- The usual, triumphal sense of the term hardly ap- covers the truth of what happened. ■ plies to Palestine. The past century has been one in The Link Page 15

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