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Just Journalism Newsletter 8 June 2010

Palestine's Great Hope Last month, Just Journalism published 'Salam Fayyad and the drive towards Palestinian statehood', a report contrasting the negative portrayal of Salam Fayyad by British journalists with the keen interest shown by major US publications. Today, Just Journalism's Executive Director Michael Weiss assesses the achievements of the Palestinian Prime Minister in an opinion piece for Slate Magazine. To read the article in full, click here. Given the deadly confrontation off the coast of Gaza, the recent froideur in U.S.-Israeli relations, Iran's defiant pursuit of a nuclear weapon, not to mention two ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the broader fight against al-Qaida, it's perhaps forgivable that the biggest news story to emerge from the Middle East in years has been eclipsed. But no one can accuse the Palestinian prime minister of neglecting to call attention to himself. Since his appointment as prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority in 2007, following the Fatah-Hamas civil war that led to Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Salam Fayyad has completely transformed the West Bank from an immiserated backwater into a thriving, integrated society. Ramallah, the capital, where not too long ago Yasser Arafat's compound was encircled by IDF tanks, now resembles an embryonic Tel Aviv, featuring state-of-the-art office buildings, expensive boutiques and shopping malls, and ads for imported luxury goods. The casbahs of Nablus, once the cynosure for the second intifada, are busier than ever, and one can even mark the improved quality of life by the criminal indicators: This year Nablus saw its first arrest for drunken driving. Better that than suicide bombings. Urban revivification is impressive under normal circumstances, but in the face of a global recession and a regional occupation, it's extraordinary. The West Bank's economy grew by 8.5 percent in 2009 and is expected to grow an additional 5 percent to 7 percent this year. Meanwhile, the Palestinian security forces have been refashioned, thanks largely to U.S. training, from a ragtag assortment of ideologically promiscuous mercenaries into a professionalized police corps whose effectiveness at keeping the peace is proved by Israel's willingness to dismantle roadblocks and checkpoints. Advertisement Ask any Israeli how this is being achieved, and he'll point to Fayyad, a University of Texas-educated former World Bank economist whose technocratic style is a welcome counterpoint in a world more accustomed to violent utopianism unburdened by the expectation of material progress. Fayyad's own political independence helps-he ran unsuccessfully for the PA Legislative Council in 2006 in the so-called Third Way Party, which polled a meager 2.6 percent-as does his shrewd positioning within Israeli society. He has outed himself as an agnostic on the crucial question of Israel's self-designation as a "Jewish state," and he has said publicly that a future Palestine would allow full citizenship to Jews. An easy presence on both sides of the Green Line, Fayyad's stature with his Israeli counterparts is famous. When Ariel Sharon was still Israeli prime minister, Fayyad sat next to him at a wedding and chatted comfortably about the chuppah, or Jewish nuptial canopy. To continue reading, click here. To read the report, click here. BBC diminishes evidence of terrorist links Yesterday morning, the IDF announced that it had fired on a boat of armed militants in diving suits off the Gazan coast, claiming that it had done so in order to prevent an impending terrorist attack. Shortly after the story broke, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - viewed by the EU and US as a terrorist organisation - announced that the men who had been killed belonged to its organisation, supporting the IDF's contention that the group were involved in a hostile action against Israel. The BBC News website, however, did not mention that the organisation has admitted that those killed were members until the ninth paragraph of its article. Instead, it's headline, 'Israel navy kills four Palestinian 'militants' off Gaza', suggested that the Palestinians were only militants in the eyes of the Israelis, while the headline on the World page simply stated that the 'Israeli navy kills four off Gaza'. While the article was updated several times, so that the opening paragraphs included multiple references to the Israeli military claiming that the boat's crew had been preparing a terrorist attack, the admission from the al-Aqsas Martyrs Brigade only came much later in the article, after the subjects of Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla, and its control of the Gazan sea had been raised. While the article was updated several times, so that the opening paragraphs included multiple references to the Israeli military claiming that the boat's crew had been preparing a terrorist attack, the admission from the al-Aqsas Martyrs Brigade only came much later in the article, after the subjects of Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla, and its control of the Gazan sea had been raised. To continue reading, click here. For more information about Just Journalism, or to contact us, please visit www.justjournalism.com