State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, in his latest report, castigates the government for not having implemented previous recommendations and decisions to improve Israel’s Arabic-language public relations network.
This is the third time that a Comptroller’s report has sharply criticized Israel’s lack of an informational / public relations campaign in Arabic. The Comptroller quotes from his 2007 report, in which he railed against the government’s failure to implement previous decisions to improve Israel’s informational efforts in Arabic, in Israel and the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, as well as around the world.
The report outlines in detail the previous recommendations for formulating strategies, coordinating between existing bodies, monthly brainstorming meetings, training spokesmen, building internet sites, and more.
“We cannot accept the [current] situation,” the Lindenstrauss report states, “in which there is no approach for presenting and explaining Israel’s positions to Arabic-speaking audiences, contrary to government decisions on the matter. In light of the critical importance of public broadcasting means in Arabic at times of emergency, it would be appropriate for the Minister of Minister of Information and the Diaspora, Mr. Yuli Edelstein, who serves also as the Supervisory Minister for the Implementation of the Broadcasting Authority Law, as well as the National Information Committee, to reconsider this matter and present it again to the Cabinet.”
Kedar: we need $15 million
Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Arabic Department of Bar Ilan University commented this afternoon on the Comptroller’s report, and said he agrees whole-heartedly with it: “The problem is not finding people to go on camera and explain our position in Arabic; there are plenty of Druze and others who can do this. The problem is that we don’t have an Al-Jazeera-type network, an Arabic language network of our own. Al-Jazeera is a jihadist station that always attacks Israel, with or without reason, and once in a while gives an Israeli spokesman a quarter-minute [of air time]. We need our own station, and I happen to know that there is a private initiative to do so, but it needs about $15 million…”
A video clip of a hard-hitting Arabic-language appearance by Dr. Kedar himself on Al-Jazeera over a year ago can be seen here, beginning approximately 10 minutes into the clip.