Wednesday, June 18, 2003

-Student Requests: Israel/Palestine, Independent Media

Recently students have been asking about the following:

(1) Why are the Jews occupying Arab land.
(2) Why not trust the official media?

Good questions.  The problem with #1 is that it assumes that all Jews support the government of Israel and that there are no mutual efforts opposing the occupation, and promoting social and economic justice.  The fact that this is not familar shows why we cannot trust the official media, which often distorts or oversimplifies the issues.  Here are some sites about #1:

A JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

ISRAELI SOLDIER REFUSAL SITES
http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp

http://oznik.com/web_masters.html

ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at electronicIntifada.net, publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. EI is the leading Palestinian portal for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media, currently receiving one quarter of a million visits a month.
http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

If these stories are unfamiliar it illustrates the problem with the mainstream media.

Other links:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/links.html

http://www.middleeast.org/mernew.htm

ABOUT #2
What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9710-mainstream-media.html

FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING
http://fair.org/

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE NEWS?
Ownership
Advertiser Influence
Official Agendas
Telecommunications Policy
The PR Industry
Pressure Groups
The Narrow Range of Debate
Censorship
Sensationalism

http://www.fair.org/media-woes/media-woes.html

PROJECT CENSORED
http://projectcensored.org/

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9710-mainstream-media.html

Here are some sites about #2