Israel At 60 In The UK Media – An Analysis

That is the title of a report from Just Journalism, a non-profit organization which "aims to promote accurate and responsible reporting about Israel in the British media." Of course, the first step would be to point out inaccurate and irresponsible reporting about Israel in the British media.

That would be the easy part.

From the conclusion of the report [PDF]:

The 60th anniversary of Israel’s creation was an event that received extensive coverage in the UK media. This coverage varied across the media outlets, but the strongest theme overall was that Israel was created at the expense of the Palestinians. The focus on this theme suggests a shift in the British media towards the Palestinian narrative on 1948.

A second theme that emerged from the UK media was that Israel does not seek peace, characterised by the focus on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its policy towards Gaza. In contrast, there were few references to the concessions that Israeli governments have made over recent years in order to advance peace with the Palestinians– from Oslo in 1993 through to the Camp David talks in 2000 and the Disengagement from Gaza in 2005.

Arguably, the most noticeable omission in the coverage was the lack of focus on Israel’s domestic issues, such as the hi-tech industry, the impact of immigration on Israeli society or relations between the religious and secular populations. Israel’s 60th anniversary provided a rare opportunity for the UK media to explore and scrutinize the diverse challenges facing the Jewish State and its society. Yet, with a few exceptions, such as the Economist, the Financial Times and BBC Radio 4, the British media missed this opportunity.

Read the whole thing.

I guess now would be a good time to start the part where they promote the accurate and responsible journalism...

[Hat tip: Emanuele Ottolenghi]

Technorati Tag: Israel.