#Hostile Environment For Arab Journalists

[xtruss]

In Internal Meeting, Christiane Amanpour Confronts CNN Brass About “Double Standards” On Isra-Hell Coverage

Amanpour Expressed “Real Distress” Over Isra-hell, Illegal Regime, Stories Being Changed, While Other Staffers Described a Climate That is Hostile to Arab Journalists.

— Daniel Boguslaw, Prem Thakker | March 1 2024

The CNN logo is seen on the building in Los Angeles, on Nov. 13, 2023. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto Via AP

CNN Employees, Including the renowned international news anchor Christiane Amanpour, confronted network executives over what the staffers described as myriad leadership failings in coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to a leaked recording of a recent all-hands meeting obtained by The Intercept.

In the hourlong meeting at CNN’s London Bureau on February 13, staffers took turns questioning a panel of executives about CNN’s protocols for covering the war in Gaza and what they describe as a hostile climate for Arab reporters. Several junior and senior CNN employees described feeling devalued, embarrassed, and disgraced by CNN’s war coverage.

The panelists — CNN Worldwide CEO and CNN Editor-in-Chief Mark Thompson, CNN U.S. Executive Editor Virginia Moseley, and CNN International General Manager Mike McCarthy — responded with broad assurances that the employees’ concerns were being heard, while also defending CNN’s work and pointing to the persistent obstacle of gaining access inside the Gaza Strip.

One issue that came up repeatedly is CNN’s longtime process for routing almost all coverage relating to Israel and Palestine through the network’s Jerusalem bureau. As The Intercept reported in January, the protocol — which has existed for years but was expanded and rebranded as SecondEyes last summer — slows down reporting on Gaza and filters news about the war through journalists in Jerusalem who operate under the shadow of Israel’s military censor.

“You’ve heard from me, you’ve heard my, you know, real distress with SecondEyes — changing copy, double standards, and all the rest,” said Amanpour, who was identified in the recording when an executive called her name. “So you’ve heard it, and I hear what your response is and I hope it does go a long way.”

CNN spokesperson Jonathan Hawkins declined to comment on the meeting and pointed The Intercept to the network’s previous statement about SecondEyes, which described it as a process to bring “more expert eyes” to coverage around the clock. “I would add to this that the staff members on this group include Arab staff based outside Israel, and have done since the group was established,” Hawkins said.

Amanpour did not respond to a request for comment.

Like other mainstream news organizations, CNN has faced a flood of internal and external criticism of its coverage of Israel and Gaza since October 7, accused of minimizing Palestinian suffering and uncritically amplifying Israeli narratives. Just this week, CNN described an Israeli massacre of more than 100 starving people who were gathered to get food as a “chaotic incident.” Earlier this month, The Guardian published an extensive story sourced to multiple CNN staffers who described the network’s Gaza coverage as “journalistic malpractice.”

During the February meeting, a half-dozen staffers spoke candidly about concerns with CNN’s war coverage. They said the coverage has weakened the network’s standing in the region and has led Arab staffers, some of whom entered lethal situations to cover the war, feeling as though their lives are expendable.

“I was in southern Lebanon during October and November,” one journalist said. “And it was more distressing for me to turn on CNN, than the bombs falling nearby.”

The Meeting Began as an effort for leadership to discuss editorial priorities. Thompson, in his opening remarks, spoke at length about his vision for evenhanded journalism and reiterated his personal openness to critical exchange and inquiry. “There’s something about the essence of CNN — its brand, what it stands for — which to me is great breaking news, with, right in the middle of the frame, a human being, someone you trust and whose background you know, acting as your guide to what’s happening,” he said.

As soon as the C-suite opened the discussion up to staff questions, the interrogation began.

“My question is about our Gaza coverage,” said the journalist who worked from Lebanon in the fall. “I think it’s no secret that there is a lot of discontent about how the newsgathering process — and how it played out.”

Instead of finding solace in CNN’s coverage of the war, the staffer continued, “I find that my colleagues, my family, are platforming people over and over again, that are either calling for my death, or using very dehumanizing language against me … and people that look like me. And obviously, this has a huge impact in our credibility in the region.”

The journalist posed a question to the executives: “I want to ask as well, what have you done, and what are you doing to address the hate speech that fills our air and informed our coverage, especially in the first few months of the war?”

Thompson responded that he’s generally satisfied with how the network has covered Israel’s war on Gaza, while conceding that “it is impossible to do this kind of story where there are people with incredibly strong opinions on both sides,” without “sometimes making mistakes.” He added that CNN has gotten better at admitting mistakes and trying to correct them and suggested, in response to the staffer’s concerns over dehumanization, that holes in coverage are a consequence of limited access to Gaza.

“I think the fact that it’s been very difficult for us until relatively recently, and even today, to get fully on the ground inside Gaza, has made it hard for us to deliver the kind of individualized personal stories of what it’s been like for the people of Gaza, in the way it has been more possible for us with the story of the families of those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas in the original Hamas attack on Israel,” said Thompson, who answered most of the questions.

If the network had the same access to Gaza as it does to the families of Israeli hostages, he continued, “I believe we would have done the same,” citing a story the network ran about one of its own producers caught in Gaza. “I think that we have for the most part tried very hard to capture the … our job is not to be moral arbiters, it is to report what’s happening.”

Another newsroom staffer chimed in to object to the network’s uncritical coverage of statements by Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “I think a lot of us felt very strongly about the fact that there were very senior anchors not challenging people like, comments like, the defense minister using what is considered under international law, genocidal language, ‘human animals,’ all of those things that made up the first seven pages of the South African legal case at the ICJ,” referring to the International Court of Justice.

The employee then turned to SecondEyes: “If we want a culture that truly values diversity, we need to be really honest about, nobody gets it right. But we did not have our key Jerusalem producers on that Jerusalem SecondEyes — we didn’t have an Arab on it for some time.”

The staffer went on to say that Muslim or Arab journalists at CNN were made to feel that they must denounce Hamas to clear their names and be taken seriously as journalists. “I’ve heard this, where a number of younger colleagues now feel that they didn’t want to put their hands up to speak up even in the kind of the local Bureau meeting,” the staffer said. “People were taking their names off bylines.”

Thompson interjected, saying that people seemed to be speaking up now and that he welcomes editorial discussions.

Another staffer disputed that characterization and noted that Arab and Muslim journalists walk a difficult line between feeling proud of working for CNN while facing pressure from their families and communities over working for a network with a pronounced pro-Israel bias.

“I think it’s very important for you to know that the degree of racism that those of us of Arab and Muslim descent face inside Israel, covering Israel, was disproportionate — the targeting of us by pro Israeli organizations, and what we had to hear,” another staffer added.

Amanpour chimed in toward the end of the meeting. She praised the reports of Clarissa Ward, Nada Bashir, and Jomana Karadsheh and suggested that CNN should have more experts like them on the ground and in the field, especially at the start of a conflict.

“Bottom line, we do actually have to send experts to these unbelievably difficult, contentious, you know, game-changing stories,” said Amanpour, a veteran war reporter. “It isn’t a place, with due respect, to send people who we want to promote or whatever, or teach. Maybe in the second wave, maybe in the third wave — but in the first wave, it has to be the people who know, through experience, what they’re seeing, and how to speak truth to power on all sides. And how to recognize the difference between political or whatever or terrorist attack, and the humanity, and to be able to put all of that into reporting.”

“For me, video is not a talking head on a balcony in a capital,” Amanpour said. “It just isn’t. To me, video is reportage.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

In light of the failure of UMASS Amherst to hold Communication’s Professor Sut Jhally accountable for the manipulation of the journalistic record in his movie “The Occupation of the American Mind,” the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has contacted the school’s chancellor, Dr. Kumble R. Subbaswamy. In a letter sent on Sept. 18, 2019, CAMERA asked Chancellor Subbaswamy to address Jhally’s persistent propagandizing against Israel.

A staffer from Dr. Subbaswamy’s office has informed CAMERA that a response is forthcoming.

The full text of the letter is posted below.

Kumble R. Subbaswamy, PhD                                                                   September 18, 2019 Chancellor UMASS Amherst

[Address omitted]

Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Ph.D., Chancellor of UMASS Amherst.

Dear Dr. Subbaswamy:

I write to you from the offices of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) in Massachusetts. We are a media-monitoring organization supported by 65,000 members in the United States.

A member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, CAMERA promotes fair and accurate coverage of the Middle East. Most of our work is focused on media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict in media outlets such as the New York Times, CNN and National Public Radio. We also have a campus program that seeks to promote honest and accurate discussion about the Middle East in colleges and universities throughout the United States.

One of the troubling realities that we have been forced to address is how inaccurate and biased media coverage about Israel promotes hostility toward Jews in American civil society. This problem is particularly acute on college campuses.

Detailed reports by the AMCHA Initiative headquartered in California document a “statistically robust correlation between anti-Israel campus activism and acts of anti-Jewish hostility, as well as a clear association between faculty support for anti-Israel academic boycotts and an increase in campus antisemitism.” Moreover AMCHA has “demonstrated empirically that anti-Zionist harassment is the biggest contributor to a hostile environment for Jewish students, and that Israel-related incidents are becoming more flagrant and include open calls for the boycott of Jewish and pro-Israel students and groups.”

The logic is pretty simple. When propagandists falsely portray the Jewish state as a murderous, marauding, and genocidal nation, extremists in the United States are given leave to portray American Jews as enemies of democracy, human rights, and the American people writ large.

[mideastsoccer]

Crisis in Georgia: Russians challenge Putin’s civilizationalist ambition

By James M. Dorsey

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, and Patreon, Podbean and Castbox.

A political crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia challenges the fundament of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s civilizationalist effort to project Russia as a major power whose defense of the Russian Diaspora allows it to redefine the country’s borders.

The challenge emerged as protesters demanded the resignation of interior minister Giorgi Gakharia  for violently breaking up demonstrations against the Georgian parliament’s invitation to Russian communist lawmaker Sergei Gavrilov and Russia’s de facto occupation of two Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

More than 240 people were injured when police fired rubber bullets and water cannons to turn back crowds trying to enter parliament on June 20.

Georgia fought a five-day war in 2008 against Russia that resulted in Russian forces leaving behind large contingents of troops in the two Georgian breakaway regions.

A 2018 survey by the Center for Insights in Survey Research concluded that 85 percent of Georgians consider Russia a “political threat.”

Mr. Putin’s spokesman Dimitry Peskov and state-run media described the protests that have entered their third week as “Russophobic hysteria.”

In response, the government sought to disrupt tourism and trade and squeeze Georgia economically by stopping Russian airlines from flying to Georgia as of July 8 citing their debts and safety issues and advising tour operators to drop the country as a destination.

Mr. Peskov said the flight ban was to protect the safety of Russian tourists.

An estimated 1.4 million Russians visited Georgia in 2018. Tourism last year accounted for almost eight percent of Georgia’s GDP.

Russian trading standards body Rospotrebnadzo warned about a “decline in quality” of Georgian wine in a signal that the government could increase pressure by banning one of Georgia’s major exports. Georgia exports 70 percent of its wine to Russia.

“The issue is simply for Georgia to return to a non-Russophobic path. As soon as we see that, then we can think about re-examining the decisions that have been taken,” Mr. Peskov said.

Members of Georgia’s ethnic Russian community and Russian journalists, however, rejected Moscow’s assertions that they were threatened by the protests or widespread anti-Russian sentiment.

“Nothing near the horrors that Russian television has been broadcasting…is happening here. I’m walking around with my perfectly Russian physiognomy, asking questions in Russian and do not encounter a shred of anything even remotely reminiscent of hostility.” said Russian journalist Aleksey Romanov on YouTube.

Russians are not being chased down with “torches and pitchforks,” Anna Trofimenko, a 31-year old Russian web designed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi told Eurasianet. Ms. Trofimenko added that Georgians had good reason to be critical of Russia.

Some Russian analysts suggested that Mr. Putin was turning a mouse into an elephant to demonstrate Russian power and the government’s commitment to a state that defines its borders in civilizational rather than national terms.

Mr. Putin alluded to his civilizationalist aspirations in an interview with the Financial Times as he was leaving for last month’s Group of 20 summit in Japan.

Mr. Putin bemoaned the fact that “25m ethnic Russians found themselves living outside the Russian Federation. Listen, is this not a tragedy? A huge one! And family relations? Jobs? Travel? It was nothing but a disaster.” Mr. Putin was referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Putin’s remarks loom larger than a moan against the backdrop of his endorsement in 2013 of a civilizationalist foreign policy whose objectives included “ensuring comprehensive protection of rights and legitimate interests of Russian citizens and compatriots residing abroad.”

That year, Mr. Putin illustrated the flexibility of his notion of compatriots when he noted that Russia and Ukraine had “common traditions, a common mentality, a common history and a common culture. We have very similar languages. In that respect, I want to repeat again, we are one people.”

Unmarked Russian forces entered Crimea a year later. Russia subsequently annexed Crimea following a referendum in which Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation.

Russia also intervened in support of pro-Russian groups in the Donbass area of Ukraine as well as the self-declared regions of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

At the core of Mr. Putin’s philosophy is Eurasia’s 21st century Great Game that aims to shape a new world order in an environment in which a critical mass of world leaders, including US President Donald J. Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines, effectively agree on illiberal principles of governance.

That tacit understanding reduces the Great Game to a power struggle in which players jockey for their share of the pie.

Far-right anti-Semitic ideologues associated with the Moscow-based Izborsk Club, who influenced Mr. Putin’s thinking, describe their country’s stake in the game as “restoring Russia as a Eurasian empire.”

The club was , named after a 16th century Muscovite fortress that protected Russia’s north-western border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put anti-Russian sentiment in Georgia squarely in that context.

“The Western overseers are prepared to close their eyes to the excesses of nationalists, to Russophobia, even if it severs all ties of the Georgian people with our country. We are soberly assessing the role of the United States and its allies in the world arena,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture.

[displacedprincess]

True Facts About Elena & Avalor

A collection of headcanons about Avalor

Country Facts

Official languages: (Avaloran) Spanish, (Avaloran) Portuguese, Avaloran Sign Language

major announcements from the government are given in Spanish, Portuguese, and AvSL.

88% of Avalorans are bilingual in Spanish and Portuguese

there are pockets of Portuguese-monolingual speakers, mostly along the border with Brazil.

other common minority languages: Amerindian languages such as Quechua, Arabic (tied for fastest growing), Farsi/Dari (tied for fastest growing), Chinese (mainly Cantonese or Hokkien), French, German, English, Russian, others

Arabic and Farsi/Dari, and Pashto are becoming more widely spoken due to Avalor having taken in refugees from the Middle East conflicts

A huge number of asylum seekers from magick-hostile countries come to Avalor as well - hence large pockets of Russian, German, and French speakers.

Avalor is full of natural resources; gold, nickel, copper, and an abundance of rivers.

The country has a small coastline, where the capital city is located, and mountain regions bordering Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Brazil.

There are also several islands as part of Avalor’s territory

 80% of Avalor’s electricity is hydo or solar powered. Of the remaining twenty percent, 15% is wind-powered, 2% is from tidal energy, and only 3% is from non renewable sources like coal.

Avalor was heavily influenced by Catholicism in its development, but it’s not the dominating religion anymore. Catholicism and Protestantism are about evenly matched in numbers. 

The biggest protestant denominations in Avalor are - Nazarene, Methodist and Presbyterian

The Avaloran nobility tend to practice Catholicism more devoutly than the lower classes; lower classes are more religiously diverse

Avalor has the 4th highest population of Jewish people in Latin America, behind Argentina, Uruguay, and Panama.

Islam and Buddhism are the fastest growing religions in Avalor.

Some Amerindian peoples practice their traditional religions.

Avalor is prone to earthquakes, and occasional volcanic eruptions - there are only ten known active volcanoes in the country. 

In 2008, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck a small city near Avalor City, causing widespread damage throughout most of the small country. Landslides, fires, thousands lost their homes, and almost one hundred people were killed. Then fourteen-year-old Princess Elena criticized foreign governments on social media, and again publicly during a press conference, for being slow to aid her country. Her parents apologized on her behalf, but the princess made it very clear in a Tweet following the apology that she was “not sorry, and that people are dying, they don’t have time for me dance around your feelings while calling the world out for failing us.”

The racial makeup of Avalor is primarily mestizo and white, with sizable Afro-Avaloran (growing fast as well) and Amerindian populations, and growing Asian (East, South, Southeast) and Middle Eastern populations. 

Avalor is often considered a third-world country, but many Avalorans would disagree and they reject the term “developing. ” 

Avalor’s literacy rate is 96.2% of total population

Average life expectancy is 88

Avalor’s birth rate has fallen in recent decades, with higher education becoming much more affordable, birth control methods being covered under the country’s national healthcare program, comprehensive sex-ed being more widespread, and women now marrying later and having babies later.

The birth rate currently sits at 2.33 babies for every one woman

As recently as the 1980s, the birth rate was 4.10 children

Avalorans do tend to have larger families than other industrialized countries - most families want at least two, family is very important in Avaloran society

Average age of first birth in 1975: 20; average age of first birth in 2015: 26

Average age men first marry: 28; Average age women first marry: 24

Women are generally marrying only 3-4 years later than they did in 1975, but they are holding off on having children for a few years.

Despite the drastic plummet in the birth rate, Avalor’s population alternates between stagnant and growing, due to the steady birth rate of 2-3 children per family and the large immigrant population.

Immigrant families to Avalor typically maintain much of their home culture, Avalorans tend to encourage it, and the local governments celebrate cultural holidays celebrated by large minorities in their regions.

A study by the University of Avalor - Avalor City, found that immigrant children marry into native born Avaloran families, other immigrant group families, and families within their own immigrant group about equally

Another study has shown that immigrant groups typically feel welcomed, and that their biggest concern before and after arrival is usually learning Spanish.

Common vectorborne diseases include - dengue fever, malaria, and yellow fever

Common food and waterborne illnesses in poorer, rural areas include - hepatitis A and typhoid fever

King Raul and Queen Lucia signed into law that children must be vaccinated to attend public school

Avalor is relatively easy to become a citizen of

citizen by birth

dual citizenship is recognized

must live in Avalor for 6 years before becoming a naturalized citizen

exceptions can be petitioned for, for parents, children, and spouses to speed the process along by 2 years

Avalor’s Military is comprised of five branches

Avaloran Army

Avaloran Navy

Avaloran Air Force

Avaloran Marine Corps

Avaloran Royal Guard*

*The Royal Guard is not always directly enlisted into, but can be. The Guard pulls many of its members from the AMC Special Forces. Training for the guard is known to be exceptionally rigorous.

Enlistment for active duty service begins at 18 years old

Until 2007, there was a compulsory enlistment written into law for men and women 18-24 for a period lasting eighteen months. King Raul and Queen Lucia ratified an amendment to the Constitution eliminating the draft.

Voting rights are given to all citizens at age 18. Felons are permitted to vote in most of the country, as of 2013. This was a social change supported by the late King and Queen and signed into law by Princess Elena.

There is no legal minimum age to smoke cigarettes, but purchasing, you have to be nineteen.

The minimum purchasing age of alcohol is eighteen, but in the presence of a parent or guardian, teenagers are often permitted a beer, a glass of wine, or a cocktail in restaurants. The alcohol culture in Avalor is similar to parts of Europe, where it’s introduced in controlled environments at an early age.

Most of the population doesn’t own a car. City dwellers take trains, buses, bikes, or walk. Townspeople bike or walk to the nearest bus or train station.

Horses aren’t commonly owned outside of the upper class.

Avalor is a popular study abroad destination for magick and mundus alike.

Pop Culture

Princess Elena is a style icon in her country and surrounding South American countries. Anything she’s spotted wearing sells out the next day, and designers were always asking if they could design a dress for her for X event.

Gabe is in the background and occasionally foreground of a lot of pictures of Elena that come up on Google Images. If you type in “Hot Avaloran Guard”, pictures of Gabe come up.

There’s a collection of thirst tweets out there about Gabe, Elena used to read them out loud to him.

American late night comedy shows are popular in Avalor, and Avalor has several of their own. The most popular is Avalor Esta Noche con Andre Esquivel. Andre Esquivel is often called the Jon Stewart of Avalor.

Avalor has a version of SNL, and Princess Elena is often parodied on the program. Her parents were too, and Esteban also is. All four had hosted the program at least once - Elena, twice. Once when she was 15, shortly before her parents were killed, and the second time when she was nineteen.

The Avaloran royal family, since SNL Avalor’s debut in the late 90s, has always supported the show for its satire - even when it was about them. They’re known for laughing at themselves and encouraging political satire because, in the words of the late King Raul Castillo, “A good leader welcomes criticism, both satirical and serious, because a good leader doesn’t attack journalists and comedians for doing their jobs.”

SNL Avalor liked to parody Elena for sneaking out of the palace to go dancing, often portraying her as a ditzy party girl.

Conversely, whenever Princess Elena told off another world leader via Twitter or Instagram, in a press conference, or told off an Avaloran politician that the Avaloran public also disliked, she was portrayed as a boss bitch on SNL Avalor. It depended on what they wanted to go for at the moment.

The actress who usually plays Elena on SNL Avalor is named Lana Basa; however, actor Pepe de Castro often dons a wig and a dress to portray the princess.

Avaloran telenovelas are known in several other countries, but they also have a following for their romantic comedy dramas, shot in a similar style to Korean and Chinese TV dramas.

Avaloran cinema is relatively well-known throughout Latin America.

A handful of Avaloran actors have broken into bigger industries. Juan Añonuevo is the Avaloran actor even Americans know, and Felisa Mondragón is the Avaloran actress most known.

[insideanairport]

Pekka Niskanen is the Best Example of White-Privilege ‘Profiting’ From Pain of Others

❍❍❍

On the occasion of Pekka Niskanen’s talk at Finland’s Bioart Society (8 October 2019)

I wrote another post on Pekka Niskanen’s last work “Ajankohtainen Iran” which was an Orientalist piece given space to by Hippolyte Gallery. Alongside some few other Eastern artists residing in Finland, we raised the question of whether the Finnish art scene is humane when so much space is given to such racist representation of the non-European peoples and especially Muslims.  

Yesterday, on the internet, I came across the invite for a talk that Niskanen is part of and is hosted by Bioart Society. Niskanen is claiming to make art, and research everything from ISIS to Chechnya to Iran to environment and help the ”Finnish people to understand these phenomena” (1) He is an artist who not only doesn’t see his white privilege which allows him to freely travel the world and represent minorities but he is also ‘profiting’ from this cultural violence. His artistic career in Finland (since he is only shown and supported here) is built on ’the pains of the others’ and problems that exist somewhere else outside of Finland. “Regarding the Pain of Others” is a book by Susan Sontang published in 2001 which might be helpful for isolated white artists such as Niskanen in Finland. However, what is shocking is that art venues such as Hippolyte gallery, and Bioart Society is giving space to such artists. “Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples” is another classic work by Linda Tuhiwai Smith professor of indigenous education, which explains why the word ’research’ is one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous lexicon due to its historical violence afflicted by the white folks to their communities around the world. This includes the Sámi indigenous peoples in Finland. Surprisingly we also have heard this month that Finland agrees to return Native American remains of Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe in Arizona. These remains were among the smuggled goods that the Finnish-Swedish researcher Gustaf Nordenskiöld tried to export to Stockholm. This resulted in his arrest in 1891. He was later released, and the collection was shipped to Stockholm. (2)

When we take a look around the world today, we see the rise of right-wing racism, fascism and hate crime. In El Paso and Christchurch both of the white terrorists identified themselves as ”eco-fascists”. (3) Pentti Linkola is one of the Finnish intellectuals of Eco-fascism and ”Deep Ecology”. He is promoting racism through his environmental rhetoric. (4) We usually don’t hear about these topics in Finland, yet so many artists and researchers including Niskanen are quick in changing the subject to somewhere else in the world and ultimately bringing a nationalist argument on how Finland will be effected by migration and refugees. I recommend everyone to watch his interview. ”Finland is now struggling with SOMETHING NEW,” says Niskanen, as if being part of the international community is something similar to ’The White Man's Burden’. All of a sudden Finnish white men have to struggle to live with non-white people, That must be a very interesting topic for the art institutions to give money to.

Including another minority-artist is classic move to bypass your white-privilege

I had a phone conversation with Yassine Khaled, a local artist of Moroccan descent who is working with topics related to technology, environment, and subjectivity. He was furious after going to one of Niskanen’s artist talks. Yassine believes that by including Mohamed Sleiman Labat, Niskanen is using his white-privilege to miss-represent Morocco and shift the conversation to migration rather than the environment. This is similar to what we saw this week in America, where Trump tokenized a few black folks (probably by money) to support his racist politics. (5)

I promise you, nowhere in Niskanen’s art or talk we will hear about the colonialization of Morocco by white French people. White people who are much closer to Niskanen’s identity than Sahrawi people. Why won't he talk about Mehdi Ben Barka, a Moroccan politician, an opponent of French Imperialism and King Hassan II, who "disappeared" in Paris in 1965? Last year the details of his disappearance were established by Israeli journalist and author Ronen Bergman in his book Rise And Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations. Based on research and interviews with Israeli intelligence operatives involved in planning the kidnapping of Barka, Bergman concluded that he was murdered by Moroccan agents and French police, who ended up disposing of his body. (6)

Niskanen’s interest and fake solidarity with the Western Sahara and dislocation of the Saharawi Nomadic community is a political move to undermine his white-privilege and ignorance. He is making a classical move to represent the Orient the same way the classical Orientalists did in the 18th and 19th centuries. As Edward Said said; the classical Orientalists moved around the Eastern world and Arabic lands to criticize Islam, and they utilized a variety of minority groups there to achieve their goal of categorizing Western culture as superior. If Niskanen is genuinely interested in minority rights, why doesn’t he start with his country, or at least himself first before moving to Islamic countries and making lame art about them?

Racism in Finland

In Finland which is currently one of the most hostile nations in Europe toward people of African descent and Muslims, we see no effort from the culture-sector to improve the unjust representation and miss-representation of Finnish ethnic minorities, and asylum-seekers. This month, the council of Europe has sharply criticized Finland over racism, trans rights, and immigrant issues. But the vast majority of the white artists in Finland still decide to go somewhere else in the world such as Morocco to talk about the people there without having any knowledge about their culture, history, and language. (7) You might be shocked to see the rhetoric of Finnish right-wing fascists and the intellectual racists such as Juhana L and Path to Impavara. But for the people of color living in this white society, this might be a simple everyday reality.

Bib.

1. Pekka Niskanen Tehran Dark Metal August 9 to September 1, 2019 Photo gallery Hippolyte. hippolyte. [Online] 09 1, 2019. https://hippolyte.fi/nayttely/pekka-niskanen/. 2. Susan Montoya Bryan, Felicia Fonseca. Finland agrees to return Native American remains to tribes. denverpost. [Online] The Associated Press, 10 3, 2019. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/03/finland-native-american-remains/?fbclid=IwAR3VzP7kWA2EDoPTA8w4Xnj4UuFFMy-Nain4J0ZrzT_mJNY9xVFfSzM1Mxo. 3. Weissmann, Jordan. What the Christchurch Killer’s Manifesto Tells Us. Slate. [Online] March 15, 2019. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/what-the-christchurch-attackers-manifesto-tells-us.html. 4. Owen, Tess. Eco-Fascism: the Racist Theory That Inspired the El Paso and Christchurch Shooters. vice.com. [Online] August 7, 2019. https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/59nmv5/eco-fascism-the-racist-theory-that-inspired-the-el-paso-and-christchurch-shooters-and-is-gaining-followers. 5. Dawson, LJ. Inside the Summit for Trump-Loving Young Black Conservatives. politico. [Online] Oct 6, 2019. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/06/trump-black-young-conservatives-summit-229435. 6. Davies, Lizzy. France accused 44 years on over Moroccan's vanishing. The Guardian. [Online] Oct 29, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/29/france-accused-over-moroccans-vanishing. 7. Dougall, David Mac. Finland sharply criticised over racism, trans rights and immigrant issues. NewsNowFinland. [Online] Sep 10, 2019. https://newsnowfinland.fi/finland-international/finland-sharply-criticised-over-racism-trans-rights-and-immigrant-issues

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[newstfionline]

Quandary in South Sudan: Should It Lose Its Hard-Won Independence?

By Jeffrey Gettleman, NY Times, Jan. 23, 2017

NAIROBI, Kenya--Tens of thousands of civilians dead, countless children on the verge of starvation, millions of dollars stolen by officials, oil wells blown up, food aid hijacked and as many as 70 percent of women sheltering in camps raped--mostly by the nation’s soldiers and police officers.

Just a few years ago, South Sudan accomplished what seemed impossible: independence. Of all the quixotic rebel armies fighting for freedom in Africa, the South Sudanese actually won. Global powers, including the United States, rallied to their side, helping to create the world’s newest country in 2011, a supposed solution to decades of conflict and suffering.

Now, with millions of its people hungry or displaced by civil war, a radical question has emerged: Should South Sudan lose its independence?

As international frustrations and worries grow, some momentum is growing for a proposal for outside powers to take over South Sudan and run it as a trusteeship until things calm down.

Several academics and prominent opposition figures support the idea, citing East Timor, Kosovo and Bosnia as places where, they say, it has worked, though of course there are plenty of cautionary tales where outside intervention failed, like Somalia and Iraq.

The Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani recently floated a plan in which the African Union would take the lead in setting up a transitional government for South Sudan. Ideally, Mr. Mamdani said, none of the current South Sudanese politicians who have helped drag their nation into civil war would be able to participate, and the trusteeship would last around six years, requiring United Nations support.

“The response to the crisis will need to be as extraordinary as the crisis,” he said.

But there is one not-so-little problem. Many South Sudanese might not go for it.

According to James Solomon Padiet, a lecturer at Juba University, most members of the nation’s largest ethnic group--the Dinka, who include South Sudan’s embattled president, Salva Kiir--are adamantly set against an international takeover. While smaller ethnic groups would welcome it, he said, the powerful Dinka see it as an affront to their sovereignty.

For that matter, so does Mr. Padiet, a soft-spoken scholar who is not a Dinka. He called trusteeship “offensive” because South Sudan has a potential crop of good leaders waiting in the wings who haven’t had a chance to rule. Still, Mr. Padiet conceded, the country desperately needs help.

“As we speak now,” he said, “South Sudan is at crossroads of disintegration or total fragility.”

Clashes have spread to new areas of the country, and ethnic-based militias are mobilizing in the bush. It’s all a staggering plunge from the country’s birth. I, along with hundreds of other journalists, was standing in a crowd that felt like a million people on July 9, 2011, the insanely hot day when South Sudan broke off from Sudan. The sense of pride, sacrifice, hope and jubilation will be hard to forget.

For decades, South Sudanese rebels had battled the better-armed, Arab-dominated central government of Sudan. They fought in malarial swamps and on sweltering savannas, incredibly hostile environments where it’s hard to survive, let alone wage a guerrilla war on a shoestring.

The South Sudanese had absorbed bombings and massacres. The Arabs stole their children and turned them into slaves. As a result, many South Sudanese were scattered across the four corners of the earth--the famous Lost Boys, but also many Lost Girls, ripped from their families and forced to flee to cold foreign places that they had never envisioned.

On independence day, South Sudan’s capital, Juba, partied until dawn. Lost Boys swigged White Bull (the local beer) next to hardened guerrillas bobbing their heads to reggae rap. All around us, there seemed to be a real appreciation of what had been achieved and what lay ahead. Most important, there was unity.

That crumbled quickly, undermined by old political rivalries, ethnic tension and a greed for South Sudan’s one main export: oil. The fault line was the most predictable one, the Dinka versus the Nuer. The two biggest ethnic groups had alternated between allies and enemies throughout South Sudan’s liberation wars.

Starting in December 2013, after a breakdown between their political leaders, who not so long ago had been hailed as heroes, Nuer and Dinka militias began killing each other and civilians across the country, especially in ethnically mixed areas.

Women were raped. Children were burned to death. The horror has been meticulously documented. Still, it goes on.

For years, the United Nations has stationed thousands of peacekeepers in the country, but often they have not intervened. I interviewed peacekeepers who told me how they had watched civilians get shot right in front of them, yet the peacekeepers felt too scared to raise their rifles.

United Nations officials in Juba have been excoriated for failing to spring into action and effectively step between Mr. Kiir and Riek Machar, the former vice president and the most influential Nuer, as their rivalry intensified and grew into nationwide bloodshed. This is a big reason some people think an international trusteeship will never work.

“Having completely failed in the international state-building project, now we’re going to move to an international takeover? With what army?” asked John Prendergast, who has been working on South Sudan for 30 years and co-founded the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group.

“Would the same international bureaucrats that undertook massive state-building experiments in Iraq and Afghanistan come to Juba to lead another failed political intervention?” he added. “It all seems fantastical, doomed and extremely unlikely.”

Bronwyn Bruton, the deputy director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, called South Sudan’s leaders “such a disaster.” She said Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar were “corrupt,” “self-interested” and “willing to stoke ethnic conflict and commit horrible violence in pursuit of power.”

“Genocide is beginning to look inevitable,” she said. “The situation could hardly be more hopeless.”

But she worries that no country has the appetite to spearhead a meaningful intervention. The Obama administration considered several ways to help usher in a political transition, a former administration official said, but eventually concluded it was not feasible.

It’s not as if Mr. Kiir or Mr. Machar or their inner circles, who are widely believed to continue to profit from oil and conflict, are going to volunteer to step aside. Thousands of armed men are intensely loyal to them, and even a few friends left in Western capitals make the case that the South Sudanese government has stabilized Juba in recent months, has become more inclusive and should be allowed to stay.

[khalilhumam]

COVID-19: Switching online is not an option in conflict-stricken countries in the Middle East

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COVID-19: Switching online is not an option in conflict-stricken countries in the Middle East

Nearly half of the world's population has no internet access

Street scene in Sana'a, Yemen, where the majority of those with internet access are young men, April 28, 2015. Photo by Rod Waddington via Flickr by CC BY-SA 2.0.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments across the world to impose lockdowns, forcing billions of people into home confinement. This exceptional situation has caused a lifestyle paradigm shift. Working, learning and socializing online has become the norm, as people severely restrict their time in the outside world to limit any prospects of catching the novel coronavirus. The use of the internet is not new, but COVID-19 fast-forwarded this global shift where the internet dominates all aspects of life for those who have access to it. If online is the way forward in these times of a pandemic, what about countries stricken by conflicts with limited internet access? 

COVID-19 accelerates digital transformation

The COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented measures taken to stop its spread have changed our lives. It has led to fundamental shifts in how societies and businesses operate. As the deadly virus disrupts the world and may continue to do so until a vaccine is discovered, the internet has taken over. Studies show that internet traffic has surged by between 50 percent and 70 percent since COVID-19 began.  Trapped at home, people turned to the internet en masse to continue their daily routines including shopping, working and learning, communicating and socializing. This will likely have a lasting impact well after the pandemic ends. 

A deepening digital divide

The internet is widely available and provides a lifeline in wealthy countries during COVID-19, but this is not the case for almost half of the world’s population, which has no internet access. The majority of this population lives in poor, war-stricken countries where infrastructure is failing and yet, the need for information is most urgent. In conflict-stricken countries, many citizens face this additional crisis without the internet. Meanwhile, in wealthy, peaceful countries, the internet has enabled citizens to mitigate the impact of lockdowns by allowing them to continue to work, study, communicate, socialize and access information. In some countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), COVID-19 struck at a time of economic crisis, and wide-scale conflict or uprisings. Years of conflict in Yemen, Syria, and Libya have brought immense suffering, displacement and destruction. Infrastructure has been targeted by warring parties with disregard for civilian life.  In Syria, for example, over 50 percent of the infrastructure is no longer operational. In Libya, much of the telecom infrastructure has been destroyed or stolen, including about a quarter of the country’s mobile tower sites. As a result, basic services — electricity, sanitation, water and the internet —have been brought to a standstill. In Yemen, labeled by Relief Web as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, internet access is a major obstacle. Only about 27 percent of Yemenis, mainly young men located in urban areas, have internet access. The majority of youth are striving to find ways to connect to the external world.  “The internet is our oxygen and is as important as food. I moved from my town to the capital to be able to connect,” said Ghomdan, a Yemeni journalist who asked Global Voices only to use his first name.  Women in the region are disproportionally affected by this digital divide. Fewer women have access to the internet than men, which reflects a regional gender inequality gap with Yemen, Syria and Libya ranking near the bottom of all countries. A combination of conservative social norms, less access to learning and financial resources and a hostile online environment impede women’s ability to connect and access information online and minimizes participation in online discussions. 

The internet: High cost, low speed and unreliable

In Libya, Syria and Yemen, strained by conflict and economic chaos, users face low-speed internet and prohibitive costs. Yemen has the slowest internet speed globally with an average speed of just 0.38 megabits per second in 2019: It would take over 30 hours to download a 5-gigabyte film. In January 2020, damage to a submarine cable plunged Yemen into an internet outage for over a month.  The COVID-19 pandemic has forced massive school closures, affecting 90 percent of the world's student population, which has led to a culture of virtual learning, online education, but learning proves nearly impossible without a reliable, high-speed internet connection.  This also prevents people from communicating and journalists from reporting and reaching a large audience. Low speeds make it difficult to browse, download or upload materials and communicate with sources. It also deprives access to valuable resources critical to writing reports, news stories and daily events. Without reliable internet, online conversations, or phone calls via Whatsapp or Facebook often get disrupted or disconnected. 

Censorship and lack of Arabic language content

War often includes a war on information with various warring parties trying to maintain a tight grip over their populations. They censor the internet and keep citizens under tight surveillance. For example, authorities in Sana’a, Yemen, and Damascus, Syria, block a large number of websites, including national, Arab and foreign news websites. These restrictions limit access to critical information on the pandemic. To bypass censorship, tech-literate users turn to virtual private networks (VPNs) to access blocked content. Though many are reluctant to use a VPN, “as it adds an extra load on the already limited bandwidth, further slowing download speeds,’’ according to Coda Story. Although native Arabic speakers represent about 4.5 percent of the world population, less than 1 percent of total global online content is in Arabic. The rapid increase in the number of Arabic-speaking internet users has not yet translated into more Arabic content — Arabic remains one of the most under-represented languages online. Nearly 70 percent of websites are in the English language. Most online resources about the pandemic are available in native or indigenous languages, which makes it harder for those with limited English language and literacy skills to access critical public health information online.  Internet access is considered a fundamental enabler of human rights and governments around the world have committed to providing universal and affordable internet access by 2020, but large swaths of the world's populations are left behind. COVID-19 has exposed the gap between those with reliable internet access and those for whom internet access is a distant prospect. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East only exacerbates and widens these gaps. 

Written by Saoussen Ben Cheikh · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Last week, rallies in support of Julian Assange were held around the world. We participated in two #AssangeUnity events seeking to #FreeAssange in Washington, DC. This is the beginning of a new phase of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without the threat of being arrested in the UK or facing prosecution by the United States. On April 10 2017 people gathered outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to celebrate the 11th Birthday of WikiLeaks. From Wise-Up Action: A Solidarity Network for Manning and Assange. The Assange Case is a Linchpin For Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information in the 21st Century The threat of prosecution against Julian Assange for his work as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks will be a key to defining what Freedom of the Press means in the 21st Century. Should people be allowed to know the truth if their government is corrupt, violating the law or committing war crimes? Democracy cannot exist when people are misled by a concentrated corporate media that puts forth a narrative on behalf of the government and big business. This is not the first time that prosecution of a journalist will define Freedom of the Press. Indeed, the roots of Freedom of the Press in the United States go back to the prosecution of John Peter Zenger, a publisher who was accused of libel in 1734 for publishing articles critical of the British royal governor, William Cosby. Zenger was held in prison for eight months awaiting trial. In the trial, his defense took its case directly to the jury. For five hundred years, Britain had made it illegal to publish “any any slanderous News” that may cause “discord” between the king and his people. Zenger’s defense argued that he had published the truth about Cosby and therefore did not commit a crime. His lawyer “argued that telling the truth did not cause governments to fall. Rather, he argued, ‘abuse of power’ caused governments to fall.” The jury heard the argument, recessed and in ten minutes returned with a not guilty verdict. The same issue is presented by Julian Assange — publishing the truth is not a crime. Wikileaks, with Assange as its editor and publisher, redefined reporting in the 21st Century by giving people the ability to be whistleblowers to reveal the abuses of government and big business. People anonymously send documents to Wikileaks via the Internet and then after reviewing and authenticating them, Wikileaks publishes them.  The documents sometimes reveal serious crimes, which has resulted in Assange being threatened with a secret indictment for espionage that could keep him incarcerated for the rest of his life. This puts the Assange case at the forefront of 21st Century journalism as he is democratizing the media by giving people the power to know the truth not reported, or falsely reported, by the corporate media. Breaking elite control over the media narrative is a serious threat to their power because information is power. And, with the internet and the ability of every person to act as a media outlet through social and independent media, control of the narrative is moving toward the people. WikiLeaks is filling a void with trust in the corporate media at record lows. A recent Gallup Poll found only 32% trust the media. There has been a significant drop in newspaper circulation and revenue, an ongoing decline since 1980. Also, fewer people rely on television for news. In this environment, the internet-based news is becoming more dominant and WikiLeaks is a particular threat to media monopolization by the elites. Research is showing that independent and social media are having an impact on people’s opinions. The threats to Julian Assange are occurring when dissent is under attack, particularly media dissent; the FBI has a task force to monitor social media. The attack on net neutrality, Google using algorithms to prevent searches for alternative media and Facebook controlling what people see are all part of the attack on the democratized media.. Free Assange: Don’t Shoot the Messenger. (Jack Taylor for Getty Images) The Astounding Impact of WikiLeaks’ Reporting The list of WikiLeaks’ revelations has become astounding. The release of emails from Hillary Clinton, her presidential campaign, and the Democratic National Committee had a major impact on the election. People saw the truth of Clinton’s connections to Wall Street, her two-faced politics of having a public view and a private view as well as the DNC’s efforts to undermine the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. People saw the truth and the truth hurt Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Among the most famous documents published were those provided by Chelsea Manning on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Guantanamo Prison and the US State Department. The Collateral Murder video among the Manning Iraq war documents shows US soldiers in an Apache helicopter gunning down a group of innocent men, including two Reuters employees, a photojournalist, and his driver, killing 16 and wounding two children. Millions have viewed the video showing that when a van pulled up to evacuate the wounded, the soldiers again opened fire. A soldier says, “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards.” Another massive leak came from Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who exposed massive NSA spying in the United States and around the world. This was followed by Vault 7, a series of leaks on the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities, and Vault 8, which included source code on CIA malware activities. WikiLeaks has also published documents on other countries; e.g., WikiLeaks published a series of documents on Russian spying.  WikiLeaks has been credited by many with helping to spark the Tunisian Revolution which led to the Arab Spring; e.g., showing the widespread corruption of the 23-year rule of the Ben Ali. Foreign Policy reported that “the candor of the cables released by WikiLeaks did more for Arab democracy than decades of backstage U.S. diplomacy.” WikiLeaks’ publications provided democracy activists in Egypt with information needed to spark protests and provided background that explained the Egyptian uprising. Traditional media publications like the New York Times relied on WikiLeaks to analyze the causes of the uprising. WikiLeaks informed the Bahrain public about their government’s cozy relationship with the US, describing a $5 billion joint-venture with Occidental Petroleum and $300 million in U.S. military sales and how the U.S. Navy is the foundation of Bahrain’s national security. John Pilger describes WikiLeaks’ documents, writing, “No investigative journalism in my lifetime can equal the importance of what WikiLeaks has done in calling rapacious power to account.” Free Assange rally at the White House, June 19, 2018. From Gateway Pundit. Assange Character Assassination And Embassy Imprisonment Julian Assange made powerful enemies in governments around the world, corporate media, and big business because he burst false narratives with the truth. As a result, governments fought back, including the United States,  Great Britain, and Sweden, which has led to Assange being trapped in the embassy of Ecuador in London for six years. The root of the incarceration were allegations in Sweden. Sweden’s charges against Assange were initially dropped by the chief prosecutor, two weeks later they found a prosecutor to pursue a rape investigation. One of the women had CIA connections and bragged about her relationship with Assange in tweets she tried to erase. She even published a 7-step program for legal revenge against lovers. The actions of the women do not seem to show rape or any kind of abuse. One woman held a party with him after the encounter and another went out to eat with him.  In November 2016, Assange was interviewed by Swedish prosecutors for four hours at the Ecuadorian embassy. In December 2016, Assange published tweets showing his innocence and the sex was consensual. Without making a statement on Assange’s guilt, the Swedish investigators dropped the charges in May 2017. The statute of limitations for Swedish charges will be up in 2020. As John Pilger pointed out: Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women Against Rape summed it up when they wrote, ‘The allegations against [Assange] are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder, and destruction… The authorities care so little about violence against women that they manipulate rape allegations at will.’ Assange is still trapped in the embassy as he would be arrested for violating his bail six years ago. But, the real threat to Assange is the possibility of a secret indictment against him in the United States for espionage. US and British officials have refused to tell Assange’s lawyers whether there was a sealed indictment or a sealed extradition order against him. Former CIA Director, now Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile intelligence service and described his actions as not protected by the First Amendment. In April 2017, CNN reported, “US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.” The Obama Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn’t alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning but the Trump DOJ believes he could be charged as an accomplice with Edward Snowden. When the president campaigned, Trump said he loved WikiLeaks and regularly touted their disclosures. But, in April 2017, Attorney General Jeff Session said that Assange’s arrest is a “priority.” Time To Stop The Persecution Of Julian Assange The smearing of Assange sought to discredit him and undermine the important journalism of WikiLeaks. Caitlin Johnstone writes that they smear him because “they can kill all sympathy for him and his outlet, it’s as good for their agendas as actually killing him.” Even with this character assassination many people still support Assange. This was seen during the #Unity4J online vigil, which saw the participation of activists, journalists, whistleblowers and filmmakers calling for the end of Assange’s solitary confinement and his release. This was followed a week later by 20 protests around the world calling for Assange’s release. Julian Assange has opened journalism’s democracy door; the power to report is being redistributed, government employees and corporate whistleblowers have been empowered and greater transparency is becoming a reality. The people of the United States should demand that Assange not face prosecution and embrace a 21st Century democratized media that provides greater transparency and accurate information about what government and business interests are doing. Prosecuting a news organization for publishing the truth, should be rejected and Assange should be freed. You can support Julian Assange by spreading the word in your communities about what is happening to him and why. You can also show support for him on social media. We will continue to let you know when there are actions planned. And you can support the WikiLeaks Legal Defense Fund, run by the Courage Foundation*, at IAmWikiLeaks.org. * Kevin Zeese is on the advisory board of the Courage Foundation. http://clubof.info/

[abszurdisztan]

EXCLUSIVE: How Reporting From Israel Changed My Worldview Forever

I’ve wanted to be a journalist for as long as I can remember. Journalism always seemed like such important work, challenging peoples’ biases, bringing hard truths to the public in order to keep them honest and informed. Ever since I spent two weeks in Egypt as a teenager – this was in January 2001, less than a year before 9/11 – I’ve dreamt of being a freelance reporter in the Middle East. I was fascinated by terrorism, by the idea that someone believed in something so much they’d give their life for it. Every journalist wants to cover the big stories, and I thought the Middle East was the biggest story on Earth. So I decided to go. In 2015, at age 32, my wife and I looked at a map of the Middle East and chose Jerusalem as our new home. Not only was the city Westernized and relatively safe, it was a stone’s throw from the most publicized conflict in the world. That summer we quit our jobs in New York City and moved to Israel. The public appetite for news from Israel-Palestine is almost bottomless, and it wasn’t hard for me to find work after moving to Jerusalem. I quickly started selling stories to news outlets in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, as well as for Al Jazeera English, which is based in Qatar. It was immediately obvious to me that most of these organizations wanted news that would highlight the suffering of Palestinians and lay the blame on Israel for that suffering. As Matti Friedman, a former editor at the Associated Press’s Jerusalem bureau, wrote in The Atlantic in 2014, the news media views “the Israel story” as a story of Jewish moral failure. Events that don’t support that narrative are often ignored. I was content to tell this story for my first few months in Israel, because I, too, believed it. As I wrote recently in The Jerusalem Report magazine, I had a deeply negative view of the Jewish state until I moved there. I grew up in a WASPy New England town where everyone is a liberal Democrat. For some reason, hostility towards Israel is a knee-jerk liberal opinion in the U.S. (and in much of Europe). As a product of my environment, I believed that Israel was a bully and the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East. But foreign affairs always look different when they become local, and nowhere is that more true than in Israel. I began to see that one sunny afternoon not long after I moved to Jerusalem. On that day, I went to cover a Palestinian protest at an Israeli-run prison near Ramallah. A reporter for The Independent and I drove out there and fell in with a group of about 100 Palestinian demonstrators as they marched towards the prison. When they arrived, about a half dozen Israeli soldiers came out to meet them. The Palestinians quickly set up a roadblock of burning tires to prevent the Israelis from escaping. More and more protesters arrived – I don’t know from where – but I soon saw them swarming over the hills above the prison, clad in face masks and keffiyehs. It was like a scene from Game of Thrones. Some had knives in their belts. Others had brought ingredients for Molotov cocktails. They took up positions on the hills above the prison and began using powerful slingshots to hurl rocks and chunks of concrete at the six or so Israeli soldiers down below. The Israelis were so outnumbered that I couldn’t help but question the narrative that Israel was Goliath and the Palestinians were David, because here in front of me it looked like the exact opposite. When I visited the Gaza Strip a few months later, I again saw the difference between how journalists portray a place and reality. Reading about Gaza in the news, you’d think the whole place was rubble, that it looks more or less like Homs or Aleppo. In fact Gaza is no different in appearance from anywhere else in the Arab World. During eight days in the Strip, I didn’t see a single war-damaged building until I specifically asked my fixer to show me one. In response, she drove me to Shujaya, a neighborhood of Gaza City that’s a known Hamas stronghold and is still visibly damaged from the 2014 war. Was the destruction in Shujaya shocking? Yes. But it was very localized, and not at all indicative of the rest of Gaza. The rest of Gaza is not so different from many developing countries: people are poor but they manage to provide for themselves, and even to dress well and be happy most of the time. Actually, there are parts of the Strip that are quite nice. I went out to eat at restaurants where the tables are made from marble and the waiters wear vests and ties. I saw huge villas on the beach that wouldn’t be out of place in Malibu, and – right across the street from those villas – I visited a new, $4 million mosque. Do Gazans endure some incredible hardships? You bet. Are most of them living in destroyed buildings, open to the elements, as news outlets often portray them? Absolutely not. I don’t begrudge them their marble tables or their beachside villas. Like anyone else, they want to be comfortable, to enjoy life. But I find it odd that once in awhile, foreign news organizations wouldn’t see fit to run an article about Gaza’s wealthy neighborhoods or million-dollar mosques. But no, they prefer to focus on the tiny minority of the Strip that is still damaged from the war with Israel in 2014 (a war that, by the way, Hamas started) because that is what confirms the narrative that Israel is a superpower brutalizing Arabs for its own selfish purposes and that is the narrative that too many people want to hear. Nevermind the fact that freedom of the press in Gaza and elsewhere in the Arab World is virtually nonexistent. In many ways, trying to report from Gaza was an absurd and dangerous endeavor. During a single week in Gaza, I got in trouble on two separate occasions with Hamas for breaking their strict rules for the press. On the first occasion, my fixer and I were at the beach boardwalk in Gaza City, interviewing people about an upcoming Gaza election (which was later canceled, not surprisingly, since most Arab leaders hate democracy). After about 15 minutes, a young fellow in a T-shirt and cargo pants approached us and had an unpleasant-sounding conversation in Arabic with my fixer, after which my fixer told me we had to leave immediately because the man was a Hamas intelligence officer and was displeased with us asking people political questions. On the second occasion, my fixer and I were photographing destroyed buildings in Shujaya when two Hamas soldiers, neither of whom could have been a day older than 25, literally ran over to our car, took our IDs, confiscated my camera and escorted us to a military barracks where a group of Hamas officials questioned us extensively about who we were and what we were doing taking pictures there. They looked through every photo on my camera before they allowed us to leave. My fixer was visibly shaken. I couldn’t blame her: Hamas often arrests, beats and sometimes even tortures journalists who say things that make them look bad. * * * While living in Israel, I noticed that a lot of journalists seemed to think of themselves as advocates. They spoke of journalism as a way to give voice to the underdog, and for too many of them, Palestinians were the underdog. Good journalism, of course, does not advocate. It tells the truth, regardless of who looks good and who looks bad. Because the truth does not have feelings. Considering this, it’s perhaps not surprising that reporters in Israel and the Palestinian Territories tend to be close with the staffers of human rights agencies. They run in the same social circles, go out to eat and drink together. Perhaps that’s why nearly every article on the internet about Israel contains a quote from the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or other such NGOs. As a reporter, it’s easy to quote these groups because they provide all the information you need, in an accessible, easily comprehensible way. I admire a lot of the work these NGOs do. The problem is that they often act in a way that’s biased against Israel. Too often, they place the blame for Palestinian suffering on Israel, rather than, say, the callousness and corruption of Palestinian leaders, who clearly bear a large part of the blame for their people’s pain. These groups each have their own agenda, but since their public-facing persona is appealing, since they cast themselves as the spokesmen for the oppressed, most liberals living in the U.S. and Europe take them at their word. * * * Working as a reporter in Israel for a year-and-a-half didn’t shatter my faith in journalism. But it increased my skepticism that it can do good in the world. Eight years of working for the news media has made me more and more alarmed by how partisan it’s becoming. News publishers these days target millennials on social media who’d rather see their own opinions validated than see an article that’s balanced and objective. These audiences don’t want to have their biases challenged. If the media exists only to reaffirm what we already believe, we’ll only become more divided, and there will only be more and more conflict in the world.   Hunter Stuart is a journalist and writer with more than 8 years of professional experience, currently working as a Senior Editor at Dose Media in Chicago. He was a staff reporter and editor at The Huffington Post in New York from 2010-2015. Most recently, he spent 1.5 years working as a freelance reporter in the Middle East, where he wrote for Vice, The Jerusalem Post, Al Jazeera English, the International Business Times and others. His reporting has also appeared on CNN, Pacific Standard, the Daily Mail, Yahoo News, Slate, Talking Points Memo and The Atlantic Wire. http://honestreporting.com/exclusive-how-reporting-from-israel-changed-my-worldview-forever/