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ADC
NJ: Pro Israel's Media War in the USA. Will we wage our own?
By
Aref Assaf
As published in
Aramica, October 20, 2002
The
brutal treatment of the Palestinian people and mass killing of
civilians, the destruction of their property and infrastructure
has caused a tremendous negative perception of
Israel
here
in the
United States
and
around the world. Ironically, it’s the Israelis who are
complaining that the
US
media is biased against them for attempting to report the truth.
Whether it is public radio stations such as NPR, or major
newspapers such as The New York Times, or broadcast news such as
CNN,
Israel's
supporters are waging a massive campaign to lessen the damage
done by
Israel
’s
reoccupation of Palestinian lands and to reverse the resulting
negative backlash in the media. The goal is not fair reporting
but to demand that the conflict in the
Middle East
be
seen only through the prism of
Israel
.
Subsequently, a multimillion dollar campaign has been initiated
by
Israel
and
its lobbying groups in Washington
to
redefine
Israel
in
the almost mythical image that of a democratic country,
surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies.
Israel
’s
war for public relations dominance in the
US
is
being fought on many fronts. Pro–Palestine groups take notice.
1-
Television:
Two
groups, The American Jewish Committee and a group called
Israel21c have embarked on an unprecedented television ad
campaign intended to “increase
America
’s
sense of connection with the Jewish state.” Focusing on ‘shared
values” and “shared visions for peace,” the commercial begins by
stating that Israel is America’s "only real ally in the Middle
East,” and that Israel respects the rights of all of its
citizens (the image shows a Palestinian-Israeli placing her vote
in the ballot box). The ad does not mention Israel’s troubling
record of discrimination against non-Jewish citizens and
non-Ashkenazi Jews, let alone its continued brutal occupation of
three million Palestinians who live in the West bank and Gaza.
It cleverly focuses instead upon individual rights, such as
freedom of religion, press, and speech, and avoids any mention
of the rights of groups; it also fails to mention that
Israel
is
an ethnic democracy, favoring the collective rights of only one
group, Jews. Absent an effective Palestinian media campaign to
counter these claims, it remains to be seen how effective this
Israeli drive to secure
America
’s
public opinion will be.
2-
College Campuses:
Anti-Israeli occupation campaign is being nurtured across tens
of college campuses in the
US
and
Canada
.
Pro-Palestine student organizations are championing the cause of
Palestinian longing for freedom. Equating Israel's treatment of
Palestinians to that of Apartheid South Africa's Black majority,
they have succeeded in creating a significant student movement
critical of Israeli practices. They demand divestment and
boycott of Israel products and severance of cultural and
scientific exchanges between colleges and Israeli universities.
The rise of the Palestinian cause to this unprecedented level of
student activism has not gone unnoticed by
Israel
’s
supporters. In
New
Jersey,
Rutgers
University
, a
concreted effort is being sponsored by the Hillel Jewish student
organization to challenge pro-Palestine groups. Four campus
Jewish groups, Hillel, RIPAC, IACRU, and Hamagshimim- are now
part of a national council of presidents, called
Israel
on
Campus Coalition, which aims to improve coordination among them.
It is being headed Wayne Firestone, former director of the
Israel
office of the Anti-Defamation League. Pro-Israel professionals
such as the elite consulting firm, McKinsey & Company offer
pro-bono services to support
Israel's
image on college campuses. No similar non-student effort is
being organized by pro-Palestine groups.
About twenty Jewish student activists have trained an Anti-
Defamation League workshop designed to counter the pro-Palestine
groups. Additionally, a large contingency of members of the
Israeli
army--having recently completed their military service and still
serving as reservists- have been brought to the
United States
to
“show the human side of
Israel.
”
Their main audience is impressionable college students. What is
significant about these soldiers is their age- most are between
21 and 29 in an apparent attempt to appeal to college students
of similar age. While they are privately funded, the groups are
being helped with scheduling by Israeli consulates. This is an
attempt to camouflage their mission and present them as
individual not agents of
Israel
.
ADC NJ attended an event at
Rutgers
University
on
October 8, 2002
.
Zev Jacobson, a South African born Jew, who has just finished
his active military duty around Jenin, appeared before a group
of Rutgers Student, claiming to be on a personal mission to the
United States
. He
denied
Israel
’s
deliberate killings of Palestinian civilians, and implored his
Jewish student audience to fight Israel PR war. “
Israel
does
not need people to milk cows in an
Israel
kibbutz, nor does it need someone to fight in its army.” Rather,
he asserted, what
Israel
needed was Jews to present the “true human side of
Israel.”
He gave astonishing examples of how he personally gave sweets
and candies to frightened Palestinian children when he broke
into their homes looking for "terrorists”! He also claimed that
he personally allowed humanitarian aid to enter Jenin camp
while under siege. He made these points in an attempt to
disprove claims by Palestinians and CNN that
Israel
is
starving Palestinians and not employing civilized procedures in
dealing with its captive Palestinian population. This is the
true mission of these soldiers of
Israel
:
Israel
is a
civilized nation and the Palestinians and their supporters only
exaggerate their plight!
3-
Academic Censorship:
This
is perhaps the most far-reaching attempt to silence criticism of
Israel
by
College professors and students. A website called “Campus Watch”
(www.campus.watch.org),
launched by Israel supporters Daniel Pipes and Martin Kramer,
engages in what Nigel Perry and Abunimah of the Electronic
Intifada, label as a new form of “Middle East McCarthyism.” The
label is not misapplied. Pipes and Kramer have long histories of
making sweeping and outrageous anti Arab and anti Muslim
statements. “Campus Watch” is organized as a series of
“dossiers” that target specific academics (so far the list
includes about ten American professors and graduate students,
six of whom have recognizably Arab names) who have written
critically about
Israel
or
American policies in the
Middle East
.
The site has a form that solicits comments on the classroom
methods and statements of professors and instructors who address
Middle East
topics, or on nay other campus activities related to the
Middle East
.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, ADC, issued a
press release stating that "this organized national campaign to
silence academic criticism of
Israel
is
incompatible with the cherished American values of free speech
and inquiry. By seeking to intimidate supporters of Palestinian
human rights, it threatens to suppress dialogue. Such
intellectual intimidation also serves to cut off avenues for
exploring the possibilities for peace." Of note, an American
student has just launched a website called "Campus-Watch-Watch”
to expose the true intentions of Daniel Pipes.
4-
Internet Spamming:
The
fourth method that pro-Israel
supporters are using to silence pro-Palestine groups in the
US
relies primarily on the abuse of internet and email systems.
This is called spamming. Cyber hackers assault the websites and
email accounts of pro-peace organizations and activists in an
effort to block the free flow of information. Many of these
efforts involve a sort of identity theft in which emails are
distributed using the name and address of some activists, but
which actually originates from some other source. The sender
attempts to discredit the activist’s position by filling the
emails with offensive misrepresentations or even pornography.
ADC among others had its share of email spams lately in spite of
increased efforts to block such illegal tactics. The FBI has
been attempting to get to the source of this great nuisance but
so far has not labeled the actions illegal or criminal. In
addition to email spamming, many Palestinians and pro-Palestine
websites have either been severely affected or even shut down.
In an article in The Nation magazine, October 8, 2002, one
activist puts it, "In Palestine they’re fighting for their
lives; here we’re fighting for the truth.”
Conclusion:
As
Israel continues to escalates its attacks on the Palestinians
under its military control and continues to defy UN Resolutions
and international law, its ability to control America’s public
opinion is being challenged not only by a growing segment of
Americans who are finding the true face of Israel, but also by
the seemingly incremental but decisively successful efforts of
pro-Palestinian groups. As expected, Pro-Israel groups have
taken notice of this new development and have deemed it “a
threat to the survival of
Israel
’.
It appears that no boundaries will be set to the war
Israel
and
its supporters will wage to regain its “image as democratic,
peace loving nation”. Locally, there exists a fragmented student
movement among Arab students attending New Jersey colleges. A
unified and collective mechanism is essential if any tangible
results are desired. The New Jersey Chapter of ADC has launched
a new website called www.adcnj.us,
whose main goal is to disseminate accurate and timely
information about our community. We invite all interested
parties to contact us as we seek to streamline and consolidate
our efforts to counter bigotry, civil rights abuses, racial
profiling, and the foreign policy of the
United
States
. It
is no longer acceptable that we only believe our cause to be a
right one, or that eventually the American people will see the
justice of our cause. Unless we are ready to face the challenges
ahead, we must not blame our opponents for successfully and
diligently fighting and winning the war for
America
’s
heart and soul. It is up to all of us to see that they don’t
succeed
Aref Assaf, Chair, Media Committee
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee |
