Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hasbara, Diverse, and interesting voices on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Twitter has done it again. Not only did I meet @Susanisk at the Cheshire Lodge a few nights ago, I just found a fascinating site that provides "Human Rights Activists, Moderate Muslims and Expert Investigative Reporters" to provide insight on events around the world.

The Hudson has a wealth of interesting stories, backed by experienced and respected reporters such as Khaled Abu Toameh, and Israeli-Arab who has been reporting from Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank for 30 years.

Toameh's most recent article deals with the radicalization of the Pro-Palestinian movement on campuses across the US. Toameh finds that students are often far more radical and anti-free speech than the very Palestinians they purport to support.

He paints a bleak picture:

I was also told that top Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for masterminding terror attacks against Israeli civilians, was thrown behind bars simply because he was trying to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

What struck me more than anything else was the fact that many of the people I met on the campuses supported Hamas and believed that it had the right to “resist the occupation” even if that meant blowing up children and women on a bus in downtown Jerusalem.


Toameh's full piece can be found here

Another piece deals with the influence that local translators and cameramen play in Gaza and the West Bank. The article's main idea is that, since most of the visiting journalists don't speak Arabic, they have to rely on local 'fixers' for interviews, and that the 'fixers' have a very easy time of influencing what gets heard and what doesn't.

That whole article can be found here

I support the work this organization is doing and think believe that the lenses are always exposed as lenses.

No comments: