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Al Jazeera Gathering Draws a Full Minyan To Heart of Arab World
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More in NewsDoha, Qatar - Some participants at the third-annual forum of the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera were sorry they didn’t bring matzo with them — had they known how many fellow Jews were attending the media conference, they would have made a Passover Seder.
“We could have used the hotel wine to fill our cups,” Mark LeVine said only half-jokingly. A professor of Middle East studies at University of California in Irvine, LeVine was one of several Jewish participants who attended the invitation-only conference in Doha, organized by Al Jazeera.
Ethan Zuckerman, whose wife is a Reform rabbi, said that he had originally planned to hold a Seder in Doha. “I told my wife, and she wrote me a two-page Haggadah,” he said, shortly after speaking on a panel on Internet and the media. “But I didn’t bring the matzo.”
The Jewish participants were by no means relegated to the sidelines.
New Yorker correspondent Seymour Hersh gave the keynote address; LeVine and International Herald Tribune executive editor Michael Oreskes were panelists, and David Marash, the Washington bureau anchor of Al Jazeera English, logged a stint as a moderator.
The relatively high number of Jewish academics, journalists and media experts who attended the event stood in stark contrast to the view in some circles that the network is anti-Jewish and anti-Western. Some critics have gone so far to brand it “Osama Bin-Laden’s TV Network,” a name which Al Jazeera executives say comes from the Bush administration and conservative American television commentators.
The general atmosphere at the event was open and friendly among Arab and Western participants. “If there is any antisemitism lurking around here, it hasn’t been directed at me,” said Danny Schechter in a heavy New York accent. “They make a distinction between U.S. or Israeli policy and religion.”
Schechter, vice president of Globalvision, a documentary film production company, said that he attended the event because “in the post-9/11 world it is imperative to understand what people think and this forum provides the opportunity to mingle, discuss and even to get into arguments.”
Like many other participants, his main criticisms were that few women participated and panel discussions were not engaging enough. Indeed, whether dressed in sharp suits and ties or starched white floor-length dishdashas and white head coverings, the well-heeled forum panelists mostly agreed with each other. If anything, it appeared that some of the Al Jazeera moderators were avoiding conflict.
During breaks between panels, however, there was plenty of chatter in the elegantly appointed lobby outside the conference hall, where participants shmoozed over hors d’oeuvres, and journalists and academics feverishly networked.
“To be here with the media makers and icons of the Western world as they converge with those of the Arab world is really inspiring,” said Nora Friedman, as she sat around a round table where she shared a buffet lunch with a number of American and Arab journalists. A 28-year-old producer at Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, Calif., a left-wing radio network that tends to be fiercely critical of American foreign policy, Friedman said that the forum was “building a bridge between the Western and Arab media and confronting the prejudices in the so-called ‘War on Terror.’”
“There is no problem with Jews here,” said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic-daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a regular commentator on Middle East affairs who opposes American support for Israel as long as it occupies Palestinian territory.
In general, Al Jazeera officials took the same line, insisting that the network does not make distinctions based on race, religion or gender. When asked by e-mail to provide contact details for Jewish employees to be interviewed for this story, Lana Khachan, the senior spokesperson at Al Jazeera English refused. “We are not interested in pursuing a story based on our staff’s religion,” Khachan wrote back. “We have over 900 highly experienced staff based [around the world]. We have qualified people on board of all nationalities and religions each employed for their merit. The staff comprises of more than 30 different nationalities 45 ethnicities, enabling Al Jazeera English to provide a unique grassroots perspective on important world events and report on the untold stories from the under-reported regions of the world.”
Several of the top employees at the network’s English operation are Jewish: Marash and his wife Amy work in the Washington bureau with an Israeli-American producer, and former BBC journalist Tim Sebastian moderates the televised monthly Doha Debates.
Al Jazeera has been harshly criticized in the West for providing airtime to terrorists like Osama bin Laden, but it notes that American networks borrowed that material. It was also the first Arabic network to give Israelis air time. “Al Jazeera was seriously attacked by Arabs — Islamist, nationalist, and even governments like Saudi Arabia — for inviting Israeli journalists and government officials to present their point of view,” Atwan said.
Despite the network’s declared dedication to openness, not one member of the Israeli media was present at the forum, even though the Israeli YES satellite carrier pushed BBC Prime off air to make room for Al Jazeera English, which already boasts of having 500,000 homes viewing in Israel. The absence of Israelis was particularly noticeable given the theme of this year’s event: “Media and the Middle East, Beyond the Headlines.”
“I don’t know the reasons no Israeli journalists attended, but I think there is a general attitude of talking about peace with Israel but not talking to Israel,” said Yoav Stern, the Arab Affairs correspondent of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.
“I think it’s a pity,” said Stern, who is frequently interviewed in Arabic on Al Jazeera. “I know that Al Jazeera specifically can make pioneering decisions in this regard, because it has credibility and trust from its viewers.”
Comments
Mark LeVine is a known sypmathizer of the Palestinians, he supports the Muslim Student Organization at UC Irvine, and is part of the problem with the anti Semitism on that campus. Ken Marcus, from the Civil Rights Commission is speaking at the UCI campus tonight to address the problems with the anti Israel, and Jewish tenor on that campus and the lack of response from the administration. ZOA has filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school. Mark LeVine was part of a mission of anti Zionist Jews and it is no suprise that AL Jeezera would romance him, and Seymour Hirsch. They in no way represent the true Jewish community.
While all the left leaning Jews are (mostly) kvelling over the 'inclusion' of Jews at this Arab conference, and over the fact that several are in top management positions at Al-Jazeera, sadly these 'leading lights' have missed the intellectual boat.
If they paid more attention to what these Arab intellectuals were diatribing in Arabic, as opposed to their western bastardized version, they would realize that having Jews in Al-Jazeera's employ is a coup for them. How much better can it get than to have your arch enemy & nemesis shilling for you, then being able to point to Al-Jazeera's 'inclusion', and at the same time you are able to pay them to vent on behalf of Arab 'victimhood'?
In addition, their inability to tolerate even ONE Israeli participant shows that Israel/Zion as the macro Jew is what they truly abhor. IF heaven forbid Israel were to 'disappear' and diaspora Jews were to remain alive, they can live with that result - for a while. What a bunch of fools, er, useful idiots.
There was a time when Israel was at best, called the "Zionist entity" by the Arab world. There was a time when it was considered extremist by some so-called mainstream Jewish leaders for a Jew to countenance dialogue with the PLO. Thankfully this is no longer the case. Things take time. A good example: Jews at the Al Jazeera were not questioned as to whether they are Zionist or non-Zionists as indicated by the short list of invitees at the conference. Al Jazeera is leading the way out of the mold, slowly but surely. Progress in the Israeli/Palestinian peace process could expedite the thaw even further.
A 2-page Haggadah? The Reform movement is really going overboard in its 'moving toward tradition'. Or maybe 2 pages is the maximum amount of Hebrew a Reform rabbi knows.
OTOH maybe she should have come to Doha. She might have seen what Kosher food (ex-seafood) looks like.
It may be very difficult to do so, but Jewish audiences need to understand that to Muslims, Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. Zionism is hated because of what is going on in Israel and the Occupied Territories, while Judaism is revered because the Quran demands it. Al-Jazeera is the only face of free press in the Middle East (other than some Israeli media). It is also the only press that has been bombed by the US, whose journalists are in Guantanamo and other US prisons...without charges. If the US wants to promote democracy, it has to support Al-Jazeera instead of taking the tack that "Democracy comes from the barrel of a gun". By the way, there is no "true Jewish commuunity", any more than there is a single Muslim community, we are all diverse and may even be divergent from each other.
As for the participating Jews, maybe they've heard the phrase "useful idiots?"
Al Jazeera calls suicide bombers "martyrs." That should end the discussion. Of course, there are people like the Pacific reporter who are blinded by their hatred of America and Israel and don't recognize Islamic terrorism.
Fascinating article. Nowhere else do I see items like this.
This article is poorly written and lacks context.
After reading it, one gets the feeling that Al Jazeera is just some poor, unfortunate victim of right wing American and Israeli propaganda. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, but this 'reporter' fails to include any such critcism.
One wonders how journalistically honest Al Jazeera is when it says one thing in Arabic to its Arab audience and another to its English-speaking one. Al Jazeera is a politically-biased network that does not publish any positive information eminating from Israel, including the scientific contributions to mankind made by Israeli doctors and scientists. What contributions have Arabs made in the last century, save for teaching hatred to children of post-infancy? Having just returned from a tri-generalational trip to Israel with my family, it was inspiring to see the advances made since I was there last and it shocks me to see how impoverished Palestinians are by their own leaders'decisions. The Palestinians should have accepted the 1948 partition and have developed their own country 59 years ago. Arafat stole hundreds of millions of dollars that should have gone to make the lives of his people better. ( His wife should return her millions). Instead of fostering suicide bombers, education and job-skills should be taught. Where are the courageous leaders, like Sadat, to end the conflict? Abbas does not have the courage to do so.
It is so sad. Al Jazeera has a role to play. I am not saying you should be 'pro-Israel". Just be fair in your reporting!
strange strange
Don't hate reform Jews, Dave. If there's anything more upsetting than seeing divisive remarks like that it's seeing things like "the true Jewish community". C'mon.
Jeff Siddiqi makes a good point, but explains it poorly.
The Arab world's "anti-Zionism" is built around the notion that there is no Jewish people and that the alleged existence of same is a Zionist plot.
As such they are always happy to welcome "enlightened" Jews who, in the 19th century German-Jewish tradition and consistent with a now-abandoned tenet of the Reform movement, affirm that their Jewishness is a "religion" and certainly not an ethnic designation.
That all of the relevant quotes are consistent with this shoving of Jewish identity into the "religion" box, both from the conference's hosts and from its attendees of Jewish ancestry -- I have no knowledge and make no claim as to their religious practice -- is therefore perfectly consistent with mainstream Arab discourse and, particularly, its basic message that Jews are not a people and have no collective rights under international law.
Jeff Siddiqi is therefore correct to assert that, to Muslims, Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism -- because, to the Muslim-world mainstream, there is no Jewish people, only a Jewish faith, and the assertion that the Jewish people has the same right of self-determination as the Armenians, Scots, or Greeks is therefore seen as lies and trickery.
When Jews echo this fundamentally racist idea back to the "anti-Zionists" whose anti-Zionism rests upon it, they do the Jewish people few favours.
One of the ways which Al Jazeera is more liberal is that it opposes the traditional contempt and disdain that Arab intellectuals have had for Jewish culture and religion and also the disdain which Arab regimes use anti-semitism as a political scapegoat to deflect criticism of the corruption and problems of the Arab countries. Although AlJazeera takes a very hard anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli line, it imitates the U.S. Media is its view of the Arab world, and also the rest of the world, as a multi-cultural and multi-relgion society. Today, for example, they have an interview in Arabic with a Yemenite Jewish Rabbi Yahya Yaish. Such a thing would have been taboo in the past but it now broken by AlJazeera.