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Israeli Government Increasingly Intolerant With Opposing Media
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, May 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Israeli
government have shown increasing intolerance of any opposition of its
policies in its war which it is conducting against the Palestinian
people, a U.K. newspaper reported Sunday, May 5.
New
rules have been issued for journalists working on the state-controlled
Voice of Israel radio station, reported U.K. daily newspaper, The
Independent.
“Israel's
army is now referred to as "our forces"; its Arabic division
has reportedly issued orders that Palestinians are not to be referred
to as "assassinated", but "killed", and that the
armed forces do not "take over" cities, they
"enter" them,” the paper said.
Israeli
media shows less criticism of the government’s policies as even
Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in the army which used to be a hot
issue in the near past is hardly being covered. “Ishai Menuchin,
chairman of Yesh Gvul – an organization representing Israeli
soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories – says that
he can barely attract any news coverage,” says the paper.
A
former Israeli justice minister, Yossi Beilin, who is known for his
liberal views is also being silenced by refusing interview requests.
“When academics at Ben-Gurion University discovered that Beilin was
to deliver a lecture there, 43 of them signed a petition trying to get
it stopped. (They failed.)”
An
Israeli singer, Yaffa Yarkoni, who is famous for patriotic songs has
recently gone under fire for comparing the Israeli army’s conduct
with that of the Nazis. "When I saw the Palestinians with their
hands tied behind their backs, I said, 'It is like what they did to us
in the Holocaust,'" she told Army Radio. "We are a people
who have been through the Holocaust. How are we capable of doing these
things?"
After
her statement she was attacked by several youth organizations who have
declared they would boycott her songs, reported the Independent.
“A
ceremony where she was to receive a lifetime award was cancelled. She
was denounced by ministers, and told by one town – Kfar Yona –
that she would no longer be welcome to perform at its Memorial Day
event.”
But
this is not the first time the Israeli government attempts to control
the media.
Last
August, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) banned its
reporters in London from describing Israeli killings of Palestinian
occupation resistance activists as "assassinations", news
agencies reported Saturday, May 4.
Instead,
the reporters received a circular telling them to use Israel's own
euphemism for the murders, calling them 'targeted killings'.
According
to the Independent, the circular is a "major surrender to Israeli
diplomatic pressure".
The
ban resulted from a discussion between Downing and Vin Ray, deputy
head of newsgathering at BBC World TV, after Israeli diplomats lunched
with BBC officials and complained that the corporation' coverage was
allegedly anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, the Independent added.
A
month later, following the footsteps of the BBC, the American
broadcasting mogul, CNN, has instructed its journalists to stop
referring to Gilo as a "Jewish settlement" and replace it
with "Jewish neighborhood", reported the daily Monday.
Israeli
newspaper, Maariv, reported last week that the Israeli foreign
minister is planning to build a media center in Jerusalem to join the
reporters of satellite channels and journalists to brief them on the
developments taking place in the occupied territories.
The
first assignment for the center was to lessen the impact of the Jenin
massacre which was committed by the Israeli occupation forces. The
center issued a report stating that the number of Palestinians who
were killed in the defensive shield operation only reached tens of
people.
In
August, news agencies reported Israel’s intention to launch an
unprecedented global propaganda blitz in a bid to reverse what it sees
as its rapidly diminishing image.
High-ranking
officials were dispatched to France to hire a major public relations
firm to restore Israel's reputation across Europe, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs' deputy spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon said at the time.
Israel
already employs a U.S. public relations firm, the New York-based
Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, to win the hearts and minds of
Americans, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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