Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The world's media: pulling out of Israel?

The Jerusalem Post's readers may have reacted with glee, but no news on Palestine is bad news for Israelis

Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday August 05 2008

"The news that media interest in Israel is on the wane was devoured gleefully by Jerusalem Post readers over the weekend. Under the banner "Nothing to see here folks", the paper reported that foreign media were pulling their journalists from the country in droves and replacing them with local stringers, apparently as a result of the decrease in "spectacular" violence over the last few years.......

The olive trees are still falling to make way for the security wall, and just because there is no one from the world media around to hear does not mean it makes no impact on the Palestinian people. Similarly, the day to day effects of the all-encompassing occupation are no less severely felt just because the international press is packing up its cameras and decamping to other hotspots around the world.

What would truly be in the best interests of Israelis' security is for the focus of the international media to continue at the pace of previous years, since by doing so it would help keep a lid on the militants' cauldron and prevent it bubbling over out of frustration at their cause being ignored. If this doesn't happen, then no one should be surprised if the dam bursts once more, and the clock is rewound to the bloody beginning of the second intifada."

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