Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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The media's defeat

By Salama Ahmed Salama

The Arab media has lost its battle to reveal the reasons for the Palestinian Intifada. The world is not adequately informed of the inhuman circumstances under which the Palestinians live -- of how, for instance, the Israeli army has prevented the flow of food and medicine to thousands of wounded civilians. For more than two months, it has been a daily exercise for Israeli troops to bombard residential areas, gun down demonstrators and assassinate public figures -- all in response to protests in which the Palestinians have only stones for weaponry.

It was clear that after the Camp David flop, the Israeli media machine would be mobilised for attack. Aided by the American and eventually the European media, it levelled accusations at Arafat, claiming that he was responsible for the negotiations' failure.

And the Arab media failed to clarify the Palestinian standpoint, or counterattack in any way. Except for Arafat's endless tours, and some Egyptian statements in support of the Palestinians, the Arab world looked on passively. It did not recognise the gravity of the situation until demonstrations extended to every Palestinian, and eventually Arab, town, with only the primitive means at most citizens' disposal: the throwing of stones, the burning of tyres and flags, the shouting of anti-Israeli slogans.

The Sharm Al-Sheikh summit was held early in an attempt to extinguish the Intifada, which everybody thought would be short-lived; then there were the Arab and Islamic summits. But Israel had already determined to resort to violence (and, if necessary, war) in order to achieve what unequal negotiations and American diplomatic pressures had not.

Usually, Arab media coordination does not start until after the crisis is such that we can do nothing but stand with our backs to the wall. By the time the Arabs became aware of the problem, the Israelis had already blurred the facts. Even traditionally disinterested parties were mobilised. The queen of Sweden, for instance, condemned the (alleged) willingness of the Palestinians to send their children to the front lines, thereby creating a human shield -- an utterly false piece of information, circulated by Israel, that spread incredibly quickly in the West, crucially diverting the world's attention from the dirty war that Israel has waged with impunity against an unarmed people.

What can Arab information ministers do now? Nothing much, beyond holding a meeting in which to indulge in pro-Intifada rhetoric and talk repeatedly about the necessity of mobilising in order to expose Israeli atrocities. Even when UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson visited Gaza and the occupied territories, meeting dozens of children blinded and maimed by Israeli snipers, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living under curfew so that Israeli settlers can frolic as they please -- even then, the media failed to seize the opportunity to demand international protection for the Palestinians.

An Egyptian woman who has been keeping up with Internet coverage of the Intifada told me that most Arab sites contain only slogan-mongering rhetoric. Even the electronic media, it seems, do not provide precise factual information. She felt that information on Israeli atrocities was hard to come by. And this is an even clearer indication of the failure of the Arab media. The crisis is such that very little can be done now; and we have only the Arab information ministers to blame.

Related stories:
Horror in your sitting room 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
See Intifada in focus 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Intifada special 19 - 25 October 2000

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