Monday, June 1, 2009

Special Report: Inside I'lam - Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel (The Center for Near East Policy Research)

Inside I'lam - Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel

by Samuel Sokol and David Bedein

I’lam (pronounced E’e’lam): Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel is a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO number 580355600.i) based in Nazareth, Israel. Its aim is to promote civic equality within the public domain and to advocate for the benefit of Arab media interlocutors and Arab institutions. I’lam’s stated mission is “promoting media rights and empowermentii.” At the same time, I’lam focuses much of its efforts towards the de-legitimization of Israel as a Jewish state and its defamation abroad.

I’lam and its staff members have promoted…
• The notion of a massacre in Jenin during Israeli anti-terror operations in 2002.
• The calumny that the recent incursion in Gaza was a massacre.
• Comparisons between Nazis and IDF service personnel.
• Unsubstantiated accusations of cold-blooded murder of journalists.
• Accusations of Israeli security personnel acting as death squads while enforcing the law with the Israeli-Arab public.
• The Palestinian “Right of Return”.
• Jerusalem’s status as an Arab cultural capital as well as a soon to be political capital by right as opposed to a Jewish capital.
• The Palestinian identity of Israeli-Arabs and the solidarity between Israeli-Arabs and the Hamas led Arabs of Gaza.
• The ideology that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was a disaster (Nakba)
• The very idea of a Jewish state is racist.
• The position that national service is illegitimate for Arab citizens of the state of Israel.
• Hamas as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
• The replacement of Israel with a Palestinian state

I’lam engages in media analysis which is highly tendentious, accusing the Israeli press ofwanton distortion and even of inciting the murder of innocent civilians. While engaging in such behavior, I’lam has worked to defend Israeli-Arabs who have violated the state’s incitement laws. In fact, I’lam board member Anton Shalhat was himself prevented from leaving the country by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon because of the risk that he posed to state security.

I’lam is funded by, among others, the New Israel Fund (NIF). The NIF receives donations from many Jewish Federations and organizations in the United States. Many American Jews may not be fully aware of I'lam's activities.

See the full report: Inside I'lam - Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel

The Philadelphia Bulletin: Israeli SWAT Team Kills Wanted Hamas Murderer

by David Bedein

Bringing an end to a manhunt that lasted more than 14 years, Israeli commandos killed senior Hamas terror leader Abed Majid Dudin in the southern Hebron hills on Thursday.

He planned at least two multiple suicide bombings in Jerusalem and outside Tel Aviv in 1995.

Five Israelis were murdered, and another 32 were killed in the bombing of Bus No. 20 in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan on July 24, 1995.

Another five Israelis were murdered, and another 107 were injured in the bombing of Bus No. 26 in front of Rene Cassin High School in Jerusalem’s Ramat Eshkol neighborhood on Aug. 21, 1995.

In each of these bombing attacks, the perpetrator of these killings blew himself up together with his victims.

Dudin, 45, recruited the two bombers who perpetrated these attacks.

Shortly after the attacks, Palestinian Authority (PA) security officials arrested Dudin at the Israeli government’s insistence, and the Israelis formally asked for his extradition after his capture.

In order to block the extradition, the PA tried Dudin and sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment. However, he never went to prison and continued working unhindered as a Hamas operative.

Dudin returned to prison under the framework of the 1998 Wye Memorandum, which was signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Yasser Arafat. He was imprisoned in Hebron, but was released in 2001 in the early stages of the al-Aqsa intifada, which was coordinated by the Fatah and the Hamas, working under the direction of the PA security forces.

Dudin had been on Israel’s most wanted list ever since and served, until his death, as the commander of Hamas’ military wing in the southern Hebron hills area.

The Israeli security forces tried capturing Dudin on a number of occasions following his release from Palestinian prison. The Israel Police’s SWAT team reached Dudin in his hideout in the village Dura in the southern Hebron hills, killing him following an exchange of gunfire.

Hamas has accused the PA of assisting Israel locating Dudin and has threatened to carry out revenge attacks. The PA denies that it assisted Israel in locating and killing Dudin.

View this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
View this story at Israel Behind the News