April 29, 2007

By Arlene Bridges-Samuels

Delegates at The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Great Britain have voted 66-54 for a “boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa led by trade unions…” The 66 delegates who voted fo this misguided resolution did so while one of their own British journalists, Alan Johnston, is being held in the Palestinian Occupied Territory of Gaza (POTOG) kidnapped by Palestinian thugs.

The resolution also called for “the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza.” Where have these journalists been since Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005 and will they truly carry out their own boycott? And shockingly, why wasn’t their colleague’s kidnapping on their agenda? If they are true to their boycott, they must consider giving up the Israeli-developed technology they use daily to transmit their journalistic lies toward Israel. I am issuing a challenge to these British journalists to abandon the high tech tools they employ for their anti-Israel bias and return to the 1940’s when typewriters, teletype, and print media reigned supreme.

Here’s a partial list I propose to the NUJ that they must place on their boycott list: These Israeli inventions are listed at www.Israelc21.org and directly enhance journalistic work worldwide: Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. The cell phone developed in Israel by Motorola. Most of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft-Israel. The Pentium MMX Chip technology designed in Israel at Intel. Voice mail technology. The technology for AOL Instant Messenger developed by four young Israelis. The first PC anti-virus software. Israeli technology behind the successful testing of in-flight cell phone use.

To their credit–and I have blogged before about the lack of media freedom in the POTOG–the Palestinian Syndicate of Journalists is actively calling for the BBC journalist to be released. The Palestinian journalists called for a boycott against their own government –and I use the word “government” lightly since it is an anarchy dictatorship. I hope these brave Palestinian journalists won’t lose their own lives for expressing this level of freedom of speech. They have organized protests, sit-ins, and strikes in the West Bank and the POTOG.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear stated, “Once again our Palestinian colleagues have taken up the call for Alan’s release. We are grateful for all their magnificent efforts and echo their demands that our member Alan be freed and that all journalists be allowed to work free from threats, harassment and kidnappings.” Jeremy Dear must not realize that freedom from threats and harrassment would be diminished if the British journalists and others in the world media laid the blame for anarchy at the feet of Palestinian terrorists rather than freedom loving Israel. Anti-Israel journalists have been complicit in the anarchy that now reigns in the POTOG which fosters kidpappings and media reprisals because they ignore the terrorism, promote the terrorist propaganda, ignore the reprisal-laden excercise of free speech in the POTOG, and continue to lay the blame at Israel’s feet for all the POTOG’s woes.

I also challenge the NUJ to adhere to their own code of conduct in regard to accurate reporting on Israeli issues. These are listed at their web site www.NUJ.org. Here are the first three:

1. A journalist has a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards.

2. A journalist shall at all times defend the principle of the freedom of the press and other media in relation to the collection of information and the expression of comment and criticism. He/she shall strive to eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship.

3. A journalist shall strive to ensure that the information he/she disseminates is fair and accurate, avoid the expression of comment and conjecture as established fact and falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation.

And I want to close by posing this question to the NUJ: When was the last time a journalist was kidnapped in Israel? Hmmmmmmmmm.

Jeremiah 7: 28 “Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.”

Psalms 52:3 “You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.”

Jeremiah 9:3 “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph [ Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth ] in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.”