Summer is ending, and the Israeli school year is about to start next week. Unless, of course, we have one of our nearly annual school strikes — teachers, security guards, kindergarten assistants, and even university students always threaten strikes in the weeks before school.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Israel, the Israeli political season is heating up (primaries and elections are likely as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is stepping down), former Beatle Paul McCartney is reported to be on his way to Israel for a concert, and the Israeli version of “American Idol” is set to select its sixth winner tonight in a live broadcast from the Sea of Galilee.
With that background, here are a few mini-Tidbits touching on Israeli media issues:
Language barriers. Australian journalist Neheda Barakat, who came to the Israel and the Palestinian Territories on assignment from Search for Common Ground to teach objectivity, fairness, and journalistic skills to Palestinian journalists, reflects in an Jerusalem Post interview on her struggles with paring loaded language and preconceived notions from Palestinian media reports.
Blogging ethics. Jerusalem-based author and blogger Haim Watzman calls for bloggers to have stricter ethical standards after the U.S. organization Nefesh B’Nefesh (which helps American Jews emigrate to Israel) paid for Israeli bloggers to fly back and forth (some in business class) with new American olim (that is, immigrants who make aliyah — rise up — to Israel) and then sponsored a blogging conference. In response to comments on his post, Watzman also addresses the differences between bloggers and journalists.
Resource controversy. Finally, the media watchdog group Honest Reporting excoriated the Guardian newspaper for including the Hamas “military wing” in list of “useful links” on its Israel and the Palestinians special Web site.
