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

Special Report: Inside Adalah - The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel (The Center for Near East Policy Research)

Inside Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel

by Arlene Kushner

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Adalah, an Israeli-registered non-profit, non-governmental organization, claims to
work on behalf of the human rights of Israeli Arabs. Many fair-minded persons – eager
to see equitable treatment for Israeli Arabs within Israeli society and lacking
information on how Adalah and the New Israel Fund operate – support the work of this
organization..

Buried within its stance as a non-partisan human rights organization, is the agenda of Adalah: Highly partisan and deeply politicized, Adalah seeks to delegitimize Israel and ultimately to destroy it as a Jewish state.

Utilizing rhetoric that echoes the positions of radical Palestinian groups, it:
· exhibits a total failure of objectivity
· willfully misrepresents facts
· levels unfounded and highly pejorative charges against Israel
· defends groups and individuals that are sworn enemies of Israel or have
connections to these enemies

Advancing a position founded on a spurious claim of the collective (as versus
individual) human rights of Israeli Arabs, Adalah promotes the position that the Jewish nature of Israel is inherently discriminatory. Thus, it has proposed a constitution for Israel that would strip away Jewish components and permit the “return” of Palestinian refugees.

In the course of its work, Adalah issues press releases, petitions the courts of Israel and makes presentations to international bodies. Most egregious has been its active participation in the Durban I Conference of 2001, which deteriorated into a forum for vituperrious Israel-bashing; Adalah will be participating in the run-up to this conference, scheduled for April 2009.

In various venues – including Durban – Adalah has charged or participating in
charging Israel with:
· grave breeches of international humanitarian law
· war crimes
· willful killing
· racism
· apartheid
· ethnic cleansing

See the full report: Inside Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel

Special Report: ON THE EVE OF THE SUMMIT AND RAMADAN, THE PALESTINIAN BROADCAST MEDIA: A SURVEY REPORT (The Center for Near East Policy Research)

ON THE EVE OF THE SUMMIT AND RAMADAN—
THE PALESTINIAN BROADCAST MEDIA:
A SURVEY REPORT

by Michael Widlanski

General Summary

On the eve of PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas’s planned visit to
Washington, the broadcast media of the Palestinian Authority (PA)
maintained a generally tough anti-Israeli and sometimes even anti-
American posture, regarding talks with Israel and American actions in
the Arab world.

For example the Fatah newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida published a
cartoon on October 15 condemning America for actions in Iraq and
Syria:


Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 15, p 15, reprinting cartoon from Qatari newspaper Al-
Watan, showing defiant Syrian flag being pulled down by balls and chains labeled
“America” and “Iraq.”

Although many Arab newspapers reported that Dr. Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) was set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, the official media reported (from late September) that such a summit was not a foregone conclusion, and that it depended on Israel meeting Palestinian demands.

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