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November 21, 2011

Ha'aretz Leads and AP Follows in Defaming Israel

kibbutz-Meirav.jpg
Kibbutz Meirav

Ha'aretz journalists -- with Akiva Eldar frequently leading the pack -- are so eager to publicize controversial stories about Israel that they often rush to press without thoroughly checking out the facts or bothering to get the full story. The mainstream media could not be happier to let the Israeli daily do its dirty work for them. After all, what can be better than using an Israeli source to dig up dirt on Israelis?

Last Friday, Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz's chief political correspondent, wrote an article alleging that, for the first time, Palestinian land was absorbed by Kibbutz Meirav, an Israeli kibbutz within the country's 1967 borders. The message was clear: Palestinian land was being grabbed not only by so-called "settlers" but by Israelis within the 1949 armistice boundaries.

AP's Diaa Hadid eagerly jumped on Eldar's story, and enhanced it with quotations by anti-settlement activists and Palestinians with an axe to grind against their Israeli neighbors. No one from the Kibbutz was interviewed or cited, because they "weren't immediately available for comment because of the Jewish Sabbath." And obviously Hadid couldn't let a juicy anti-Israel story possibly elude her by taking the time to hear both sides of the controversy or take the risk that the story might be debunked. So she ran with the unsubstantiated claims. And many mainstream media outlets ran her story.

Had she actually bothered to adhere to journalistic norms and get the other side of the story, AP's Hadid would have been told that "the land in question has a long-term lease and actually belonged to neighboring Kibbutz Maaleh Gilboa (not Palestinians)for 25 years." No one is asking the journalist to judge whose claim is better, just to present both sides of the picture objectively. But of course, giving weight to both sides of the controversy would weaken Hadid's defamation of Israel.

To those who are curious about the other side's point of view, see here.

Is it any wonder, with so many journalists more concerned about being the first to expose dirt than about doing their job, that the public is increasingly distrustful of what they read in the mainstream press?

Posted by RH at November 21, 2011 11:43 AM

Comments

The news article by Arutz Sheva makes no sense at all. It claims that the land in question is located east of the highway that separates Bardaleh from the Jordanian border. However the parcel there is currently occupied by the Mehola settlement, and not Kibbutz Maale Gilboa.

Google maps link:-

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=32.378222,35.52083&hl=en&ll=32.383006,35.525322&spn=0.113363,0.154324&sll=32.376337,35.510731&sspn=0.113372,0.154324&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=13

Until the settlers actually provide a map showing exactly where the lands are, this claim must be regarded as unverified.

Posted by: Myst at November 21, 2011 04:23 PM

There spparently is not enough info on either side to know whose claims are better. But readers should know that. They should know that there are two sides to the question, even if there is not enough info to know which side has better claim. The problem arises when a journalist decides to spin the story by omitting one side's position or by only providing partial info on that side. The problem here is that only one clearly partisan side is quoted.

Posted by: anon at November 22, 2011 10:35 AM

Eldar is as radical as they come.
I'm always reminded of this when I think of Eldar, Levy and Hass.
Eldar wont even criticize when Israelis are lynched.
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/manager/features/display_message.asp?mid=528
Another Israeli journalist at a different newspaper, Nahum Barnea of
Yediot Aharonot, wrote in November of 2000 that there are Israeli
reporters who do not pass the "lynching test." These are journalists who
could not bring themselves to criticize the Palestinians even when two
Israelis were savagely murdered by a Palestinian mob in Ramallah. Which
journalists? Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, and Akiva Eldar of Ha'aretz

Posted by: Ed Frias at November 24, 2011 11:08 AM

The Palestinians history is terror, terror, and more terror against dozens of nationalities.
Sickening.
Then to think Akiva Eldar takes their side.
This is the same Eldar that called Yassin a moderate.
Read this article by Eldar after the mass murderer Yassin was killed in 04.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/killing-yassin-saved-sharon-1.117629

Everything Eldar said would happen, turned out to be wrong. The most shocking part, he actually views Yassin as a moderate. Hey Eldar, when someone orders blowing up pizza parlors, school buses, disco's, shopping malls to kill as many civilians as possible. That is a mass murdering terrorist.

Posted by: Ed Frias at November 24, 2011 11:25 AM

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