Hello everyone,
We, at the Arab Press and Public Affairs division at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are thrilled to launch today our very own blog. Being the people who convey Israel's policies to the Arab world, we would like to use this podium to express our thoughts about the way the Arab media is covering Israel and the conflict, and of course - to initiate a dialogue with our readers.
As you may know, interveiwing Israelis used to be taboo in the Arab world. The Egyptian and Jordanian Journalists' Associations still kick out a member who will dare to speak with an Israeli...
But things have thankfully somewhat changed. We appear regularly on most of the prominent TV and radio stations and clarify, in Arabic, our positions, to the Arab public opinion, in their own language.
But there's the rub: there's no real dialogue between us. We cannot speak to each other directly.
This is why we have launched a few months ago our own channel on YouTube - called israelmfaarabic, where we are regularly posting interviews and other videos. You are most welcome to check them out (most have English subtitles, for those of you who don't speal Arabic).
So, yesterday was a busy day for us. The UN's Human Rights Council's special repporteur, Mr. Richard Falk, has issued another biased report about the situation in the Gaza Strip, blaimg Israel stating that it has committed crimes against humanity by imposing sanctions there.
Not a word was written about the bombardment of Israeli towns and cities with thousands of Palestinian rockets and mortar shells, as if it's normal. Imagine that the UN was in existence back in 1941, when the Nazis attacked London day in and day out (the Blitz), and the UN was condemning Britain for fighting against the Nazis whilst exhonorating the Nazis from any wrongdoing!
How absurd and how sad for all mankind. Imagine all those poor people around the world who live under oppresive regimes and have no one to speak for them, beacuse the esteemed Counsil is ignoring them all together!
By the way, it is important to remind that most of the member states in the Human Rights Council are Arab and Muslim countries who violate the human rights of their own citizens, let alone ours. And indeed, the Council never said a word about the houndreds of thousands of Sudanese who were killed by Muslim millitias in Darfur.
So much for human rights... It seems that the Council does not really care when people's rights are offended. On top of that, the report actually plays into the hands of Hamas, which is violating human rights in the Gaza Strip every day, but no one, even Arabs, don't seem to give a damn.
That's all for today. Talk to you soon.
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