By YISRAEL MEDAD, ELI POLLAKTHE ESH KODESH settlement in the West Bank, the site of vineyards attacked by Palestinians in 2013.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Do you recall reading this item recently: “Jewish youths attacked the vineyards of the West Bank Arab village of Kusra on Saturday afternoon, according to the IDF.” Well, you didn’t, even though such news items are routinely reported in Israel’s media as well as the foreign media, and often receive a high profile.This parallel item, though: “Palestinians attacked the vineyards of the West Bank Esh Kodesh outpost on Saturday afternoon, according to the IDF,” did appear in this paper on January 6, 2013. Indeed, such an item would seem to be newsworthy.On the Friday evening of July 1, 2017, those same vineyards were again damaged, seriously. The suspects are Arabs who perhaps were involved in the same act of criminal vandalism four years ago. As reported at the INN news website, Arab vandals destroyed 2.5 acres of vineyards next to the town of Esh Kodesh, near Shiloh.Tzvi Struk, the son of former Bayit Yehudi MK Orit Struk, discovered that much of his Cabernet Sauvignon- variety grapes, that were due to be harvested in just two months, were no longer. The loss is estimated at several hundred thousand shekels.And again we ask you: did you read, see or hear this news item? Struk, one would assume, is newsworthy. In 2007 he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for wounding a 15-year-old Palestinian boy. In November 16, 2014, the media was reporting on an incident where he was suspected of planting vine saplings on Arab property.But now, when Arabs are suspected of a crime against him, could it be that the media is just not interested? Israel’s media is very interested in Diaspora Jewry.Reform and Conservative Jewry have been in the limelight most recently due to the disagreement regarding the Western Wall. Some elements of the media were threatening viewers and readers with dire consequences.But what happens when, in London, someone is recognized as a “Zionist” and promptly he and his family are expelled from an open event for which he registered? Or when a Jew at that same event who put on a kippa was also expelled? Is that reported? A week ago, David Collier attended the Palestine Expo in London, which was advertised as a cultural event and a family affair. He went to the QEII Conference Center with his wife and 11-year-old son to enjoy the exhibits and activities, and “most of all,” he wrote, he “looked forward to the food.” Midway through their lunch, they were expelled after being spotted by members of a local anti-Israel group “London Palestine Action.”He left in accordance with the requests of the security team even though he had told them he was a member of the press who was being evicted on discriminatory grounds. That didn’t help him.He wasn’t the only one. Jason Silver, after meandering about for three hours, sat down to eat lunch (included in the price of a ticket), and placed a kippa on his head. He was then asked to leave. The incident was captured on video. Police were called when he insisted that all he was doing was eating lunch. If a Muslim woman had insisted on keeping on her niqab and was therefore expelled from an event, for example, would that not be newsworthy enough for our local media? The event itself was not ignored. Haaretz’s Danna Harman published on July 8 this story: “Dogged by Claims of Extremism, Biggest Palestinian Expo in Europe Opens in London... controversial event... draws thousands.”Incomplete news is another aspect of hidden news.On Sunday this week, Haaretz’s Barak Ravid published at 1:07 a.m. on the paper’s website that Jordan’s king had condemned the Temple Mount attack and that a government spokesman called on Israel to immediately reopen the holy site and to avoid measures that change the status quo. However, just before 11 p.m. on Saturday, Jordan’s official Petra news site had this: “Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Wael Arabiyat on Saturday warned of Israel’s unprecedented and persistent violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif sanctity under the pretext of containing violence and tension. The minister held Israeli authorities responsible for the mounting tension and violence in the holy compound.”That viewpoint is significant but Haaretz prefers to keep its readers in the dark when it comes to negative news about a country which supposedly is at peace with Israel.We can understand that an extreme left-wing publication like Haaretz will suppress news which does not jibe with its point of view, but the state-sponsored Kan radio news, too, avoided mentioning the negative messages from Jordan. The king’s demand to reopen the Temple Mount was as far as Kan would go.The statement of Jordanian Minister for Media Affairs and government spokesperson Mohammad Momani on Friday that stressed that “any attempts to change the legal and historical situation in Jerusalem” by Israel were to be rejected was deemed unfit by Kan for public consumption in Israel. So, too, was the social media post of Jordanian MP Kais Zayadin, rapporteur of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Jordanian Parliament, that the international community should set punishments for Israel, as it has “executed unarmed Palestinian citizens, without a trial.”Kan also suppressed the negative statements and threat of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the Temple Mount. As noted by IMRA, the official PLO news agency WAFA reported that Abbas considers Israel’s closure of the Aksa mosque to be just as deserving of “strong condemnation” as the “fatal Jerusalem shootout.” According to the report, Abbas did not condemn the Arab attackers, only “the fatal shootout.” But Kan, basing itself only on the communique of the Prime Minister’s Office, left out the negative aspects of Abbas’ comments to Netanyahu.The IDF radio station Galatz did a much better job, providing a well-rounded report.Arguably, the most egregious withholding or downplaying of news occurred during the historic visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel two weeks ago. Historically, India, as a leader of the nonaligned nations, was a leader in anti-Israel rhetoric. It also is a country with close to 20% of the world’s population.In this day and age, when the media stresses time and again that Israel is being isolated, India’s Modi visits Israel and, moreover, does not visit the PA at the same time, nor raise the “two-state solution” mantra. The political implications of his position and leadership should have been the number one item on the news.But this was not to be. On his first day, which coincided with the primaries of the Labor Party, TV Channel 2 opened the news with the primaries, which were not even over at 8 p.m. But of course Channel 2, a longtime supporter of Israel’s Left, considered the primaries of this decaying political party to be more important than Modi’s visit, coverage of which was relegated to second place and not in depth at that.Fake news is less dangerous than suppressed news. It is much easier to root out. Media consumers, beware.The authors are members of Israel’s Media Watch (www.imediaw.org.il).
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