Sunday, July 28, 2013

Arab anti-Israel Activist Long Employed as “News” PhotoJournalist


Can someone who believes and works to ensure that there are no relations between Israel and the Arab Palestinians be a fair journalist?
The Jewish Press
Fadi Arouri is a rabidly anti-Israel photojournalist who currently works at Xinhua
Fadi Arouri is a rabidly anti-Israel photojournalist who currently works at Xinhua
For pro-Israel news readers, it is no surprise to learn that there are strong elements of anti-Israel reporting in much of the mainstream media.
But what about mainstream media outlets which employ people as their source for news about the Arab-Israeli conflict who are not only anti-Israel, but who are major players in anti-Israel activity? Can those media be trusted?

ANTI-NORMALIZATION MOVEMENT
How about a photojournalist who is active in the Arab Palestinian “anti-normalization” movement – that is, a movement created to prevent debate in any form between Arabs and Israelis because such a process legitimizes the pro-Israel position. For advocates of this stance, anything that allows the Israel position on any issue is illegitimate, because Israel is illegitimate and Israel’s presence in the Middle East is illegitimate.
But the anti-normalization movement goes further.  Its position is that there should not be any exchanges of any kind between Israel and the Arab Palestinians, including negotiations, of course, but also cultural exchanges, academic exchanges, student co-existence groups or any other form of interaction in which the Arab side could be interpreted as legitimizing, or “treating as normal” anything to do with Israel or Zionism. (Some in this movement make an exception for Arab Palestinians who live in the disputed territories and who would face unemployment if they did not work for Israeli companies.)
It is hard to imagine someone in this movement being able to report objectively about Israel.
But Fadi Arouri is a photojournalist who has covered the Arab-Israeli conflict not only for Arab Palestinian media, such as  Ma’an and al-Ayyam, but also for Reuters.  Arouri has been employed by the Chinese media powerhouse Xinhua News Agency since 2009.
al-Arouri is a very good photographer, but he is neither objective nor fair. PLS CONTINUE READING: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/arab-anti-israel-activist-long-employed-as-news-photojournalist/2013/07/27/


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Lori Lowenthal Marcus

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