By Daoud Kuttab

One of the lessons professional journalists have learned over the years is that objectivity and balance can sometimes be wrongly used. If, as a journalist, you are witnessing rain, you are not obliged to report that one side says it is raining and the other side says it is not. You have an obligation to your audience to tell it simply that it is raining.
Such false balance is often seen in conflict-resolution cases where the side attempting to mediate a case where one side is clearly guilty and failing to act to resolve the conflict, presents a “balanced” solution to a skewed situation, accusing each side of committing some kind of mistake. This false balance naturally produces an angry response from the side that is actively trying to produce a solution.
In its attempt at striking balance in the asymmetrical Palestinian-Israeli situation, the Quartet made up of the US, UN, EU and Russia Israel’s nearly 50 years of military occupation and illegal colonial settlements with Palestinians’ “incitement to violence”.
The often-repeated accusations that Palestinian school textbooks and media are instruments of incitement to violence have long been scientifically debunked even though they were regularly repeated by Israeli officials and Israeli apologists.
The claim that Palestinians teach their children hate has been rejected by tens of and European, as well as Israeli and Palestinian, academic studies since the turn of the millennium.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Despite the Israelis’ initial claims that their efforts have partially succeeded in shelving a pro-Palestinian vote at UNESCO, the story that is emerging now is quite different. Palestinian and Arab officials say the delay in the vote that had been planned for July 20 in Istanbul was postponed due to the failed coup attempt in Turkey.

Omar Awadallah, the director of UN activities at the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al-Monitor that UNESCO had postponed voting on all resolutions, not just the one on extending the declaration that Jerusalem’s Old City meets UNESCO’s criteria for being endangered. “Due to the security uncertainty connected to the failed coup in Turkey, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee decided to postpone all decisions until it meets again in Paris in October,” said Awadallah.

Kuwait’s permanent delegate to UNESCO, Meshal Hayat, echoed this position in a press release issued by the Arab Group at UNESCO, saying the suspension was due to the “current tensions in Turkey.” In the July 17 press release appropriately titled “Israel’s false allegation,” the Arab Group paints a picture that contradicts the Israeli story, quoting the Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO. It read, “Ambassador Mounir Anastas explained that what happened at the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in Istanbul today is exactly the opposite of the Israeli claims, clarifying that the consultations that have been conducted in Istanbul within the World Heritage Committee showed that there was a consensus among all the committee members, including the EU members, to adopt the decision by consensus and without a vote. This is despite [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s outrageous campaign against the decision, and the Israeli strong opposition and diplomatic efforts to thwart it.” Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The story was totally false, but that didn’t stop the Israeli media machine from milking it all the way.

The postponement of a UNESCO resolution slamming Israel for the dangers it is causing to Jerusalem’s heritage was termed as a “partial victory” for Israel.

The Israeli prime minister and the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machine have been livid since April, when UNESCO approved a resolution that confirms the usage of the name Haram Al Sharif/Al Aqsa Mosque to refer to Islam’s third holiest shrine.

Israel is angry over the international organisation’s refusal to call the mosque area the “Temple Mount”, a reference to what most Jews believe is the former location of the Jewish Temple that historians say was destroyed in 70 AD.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee was meeting between July 10 and 20 to discuss a number of issues, including a Palestinian/Jordanian request to keep Jerusalem as one of 55 world sites that are in danger. Jordan had in 1982 added the Old City of Jerusalem to the list and the issue had to be voted on again. Continue Reading »