Last March, Pew Research released the results of a public opinion poll in Israel, including the disturbing finding that nearly half of Israeli Jews believe Arabs should be expelled from Israel. I’ve monitored American media coverage of Arabs for decades, so I immediately looked at the New York Times to see if they managed to report fairly on these survey results.
Unfortunately, in Isabel Kershner’s article in the Times the straight reporting was overwhelmed by tortured apologia and post-truth obfuscation. Thanks to Mondoweiss, I was able to publish for American audiences my analysis of the methods by which Kershner twisted the story to downplay and excuse mounting racism in Israel.
Since the 1970s, I’ve been involved with advocacy for Palestinian human rights and have sought to inform the discourse in the United States about Palestinians and other Arab concerns. I was a founding member and leader of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, co-founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and founded the Arab American Institute, which I continue to serve today as president. Through my weekly column and TV program, I’ve also worked to help people across the Arab World understand the dynamics of American political culture. And just this past summer I served on the Democratic Party Platform committee where I saw firsthand how Palestinian rights are entering the mainstream political discourse.
It hasn’t always been easy. My colleagues and I have been targeted by death threats, not to mention ostracism and mud-slinging. So I know what it takes for Mondoweiss to persist in publishing ground-breaking analysis and corrective journalism in the face of hatred, scorn and discrediting. I appreciate Mondoweiss as a vital source of truth, and I have contributed to sustain and grow the site’s valuable work.
I’m writing now to urge all of you who care about righting the record to join me in keeping Mondoweiss on the job.
I’m pleased that I was able to share my own perspective through Mondoweiss this year, and I’ve been impressed with their other hard-hitting pieces deconstructing the assumptions and propaganda fed to the public by mainstream media. Just since March, Mondoweiss has published several excellent explanations of how the New York Times, National Public Radio and the Atlantic magazine promote and perpetuate a dishonest framework that denies the humanity of Palestinians. Check out mondoweiss.net/ReportResist for highlights of 2016.
And going back beyond this year, Mondoweiss has provided valuable perspective and corrections—as well as plaudits where appropriate—to mainstream outlets including the Guardian, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and BBC. No other news source provides so large an audience with such regular, consistently excellent coverage of how the mainstream media all too often whitewashes and/or distorts news about Israel and Palestine.
Thank you, Mondoweiss. And please — all of you who benefit, as I do, from this relentless effort — join me in giving today. Let’s keep the momentum growing to shift public understanding.
Thank you for your dedication and good work Mr. Zogby. I am sure the good folk at MDW appreciate your efforts to bring this horrible situation to the world’s attention. The team at MDW I am sure gets threats too, and I have seen the insults here by zionist trolls in the comments section. You are all going against the forces of evil, and they try every trick in the book to shut down those who have taken up this good cause and fight to win freedom for people who have been occupied for too long, and have their lands stolen by an arrogant aggressor. Good luck and may the force be with you all.
Yes, much thanks to Mr. Zogby. I am glad his views are also published @- HuffPo where it reaches a far wider audience than Mondoweiss. But MW is the preeminent site dedicated to the very issues Mr. Zogby mentions here, and that is removing the blinders off the general publics lack of awareness of the IP conflict and how things are regularly distorted in the mainstream press by the likes of NYT and others.
Thank you Dr. Zogby! for truth, perseverance, dedication, everything. it’s an honor for us.