Israeli media and the language of conflict
In a recent London Review of Books article, Yonatan Mendel, a former correspondent for the Israeli news agency Walla examines the semantics of the Israeli media, making the case that “journalists and publishers see themselves as actors within the Zionist movement, not as critical outsiders.” Analysing the Israeli media's use of language, Mendel found that while Israelis ‘confirm’ or ‘say,’ Palestinians always ‘claim;’ and while Israelis ‘respond’ to violence, Palestinians ‘provoke,’ or ‘attack.’ Additionally, Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks often tend to be posthumously "promoted" – after a Hamas secretary was assassinated in 2003, media organisations immediately adopted the IDF assertion that he was head of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza.
Beyond lexical choices, the very infrastructure of Israeli media reflects a similar unwillingness to grant Palestinians a fair voice. Native Arabic speakers are almost never hired as Israeli correspondents for Arab affairs – they must always be Jews. Foreign media deemed insufficiently pro-Israel have been prevented from broadcasting. But while these measures have been internalized in Israeli media, “a majority of Israelis feel that their media are too left-wing, insufficiently patriotic, not on Israel’s side.”
The toD verdict: While the Israeli media is careful to regulate how issues are framed and language is used, by employing media to prop up government policy, Israel distances itself further and further from any kind of real journalism and as well as from the realities on the ground. By maintaining a system that is fundamentally exclusionary, the media becomes little more than a state mouthpiece with few claims to legitimacy. In this respect, perhaps what is most telling in Israeli journalism is what is not being said.
Kidnapped Iraqi archbishop found dead
A Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped last month in northern Iraq is now dead, according to reports from Iraqi church officials. Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted in Mosul last month after leaving mass, the latest in a growing list of Chaldean clerics who have been kidnapped since the onset of the war in 2003. His body was found buried near Mosul.
Tibetan protesters arrested in India
More than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested this week as they began a six-month march in protest of China’s control of Tibet. The marchers, mostly monks and nuns, were arrested in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh after police detained one of their members and the rest of the group sat in the road in protest. Beginning the march in Dharamsala, the home of the Tibetan government in exile, the group planned on reaching the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in August, timing their arrival with the beginning of the Olympic games in Beijing. The group has since undertaken a hunger strike in protest of the arrests.
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Following the collapse of Serbia's ruling government last weekend, President Boris Tadic dissolved the country’s parliament and called for a new round of elections to be held on 11 May. The collapse came after nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica declared that his party would not stay in a coalition with the liberal, pro-western Tadic government. The move comes in the wake of increasing tensions over Kosovo, which Kostunica maintains must be recognized by the EU as part of Serbia, while Tadic has refused to link the Serbia’s future in the EU to the issue of Kosovo.
Janjaweed leader cites direct link to Khartoum
Mohammed Hamdan, a Janjaweed leader who controls over 20,000 troops in Southern Darfur, has gone on record saying that his men received direct orders and arms from the government in Khartoum to undertake military campaigns in the region. In video footage to be aired in Britain on 14 March, Hamdan claims he met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on two separate occasions, and was given orders to carry out operations in Um Sidr and Kiryari in northern Darfur after rebels successfully conquered the area. In the video, Hamdan argues that the government made rebels a scapegoat for the violence after enlisting their help. This marks the most concrete evidence to date of a link between Janjaweed rebels and the Sudanese government.
Ugandan president refuses to turn rebels over to The Hague
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has declared that he will not turn members of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, stating instead that rebels will be tried in traditional Ugandan courts. Museveni argued that it was the victims of the conflict who wanted LRA members tried in local courts—known for emphasising apologies and compensation over punitive measures. The trial, intended to bring closure to a 21-year civil war, has exposed a rift between African governments, who want to deal with such cases internally, and the ICC, which was created to set an international standard and act as a global arbiter for justice.