World

Palestinian-Funded TV Channel for Israeli Arabs Challenged

Published

9 years ago

July 23, 2015

In this photo taken Wednesday, July 15, 2015, “Palestine 48” TV channel crew operate during a morning broadcast at a makeshift studio in the parking lot of a hotel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. A new satellite TV channel for Israels large Arab minority is off to a rough start: Israel shut down operations just days after the launch, arguing that it harms Israeli sovereignty because it is funded by the Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

KARIN LAUB, Associated Press
MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Now broadcasting live from a West Bank parking lot, a new Palestinian-funded satellite television channel for Israel’s Arab citizens already found its studio closed before it could even fill its airtime.

The flap over Palestine 48 — named for the year of Israel’s creation and Palestinian displacement — reflects strained relations between Israel’s government and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas at a time when a resumption of talks on Palestinian statehood is unlikely.

It also illustrates the complex ties between Palestinian communities separated by the Israeli-Arab conflict and the unique circumstances of Israel’s 1.7 million Arabs — descendants of Palestinians who stayed put in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation and now make up one-fifth of the country’s population.

“We are all one people and need to communicate with each other,” said Riad Hassan, head of the West Bank-based Palestinian Broadcasting Corp., which operates the new channel.

Israel closed the channel’s studio in the Israeli Arab town of Nazareth within days of its June launch because it is funded by non-Israelis — the Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank.

Since the closure, the channel has set up a makeshift studio in the parking lot of a hotel in a Palestinian-run part of the West Bank, from where they broadcast to Israel and the Arab world. Its on-air hosts are taking the move in stride.

“There are no borders when you have your own satellite,” said morning show host Doraid Liddawi, an Israeli Arab actor who easily switches between Hebrew, Arabic and English.

On a recent morning, Liddawi and co-host Afaf Sheni sat on an orange couch on a low stage in the parking lot, a fountain bubbling nearby as they interviewed a beauty expert, a rapper and a group performing Islamic songs — all Arab citizens of Israel.

The two-hour morning show is the main offering, with the rest of the airtime filled with cartoons, imported soap operas and movies. An evening talk show, on the air during the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan, will be back bi-weekly in September.

The talk shows offer lifestyle tips, songs and banter, along with discussions about weightier issues. A recent morning show dealt with sexual harassment in Arab society and hosted a priest who called for religious tolerance.

Hot-button issues like gender roles and identity conflicts are raised spontaneously by guests, said Fadi Zgairy, the evening show’s host.

During one segment, he hosted an Arab filmmaker who interviewed Sephardi Jews complaining about discrimination by fellow Israelis with European roots and argued the issue wasn’t being dealt with openly in Israel.

Broadcasters say Palestine 48 fills a gap in local media.

Another satellite channel, Hala TV, also serves Israeli Arabs, but is commercial, they say. Israel’s three main TV channels only set aside a few hours per week for Arabic-language shows.

Israel seems to fear Palestine 48 is part of an attempt by Abbas to influence Israel’s largest minority. In shutting down the production site last month, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said he won’t allow “Israel’s sovereignty to be harmed” and for the Palestinian Authority to gain a “foothold.”

Israeli officials said the channel had not tried to obtain an operating permit.

Yossi Kuperwasser, a former Israeli official involved in monitoring Arabic media, alleged that the channel is a “propaganda tool” for Abbas. “We don’t need foreign intervention,” he said.

Hassan, the Palestinian broadcasting chief, said the channel covers concerns of Israeli Arabs “without incitement, racism or calls to violence.”

PBC officials would not say how much money is being spent on the channel, for now without advertising.

They also said they don’t know how many people are watching, though the talk show hosts said fans have begun approaching them in the streets.

Israel’s Arabs are part of the world’s estimated 12 million Palestinians. After the split of 1948, they were reunited — to an extent — with families in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem when Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war.

Half the world’s Palestinians still live in historic Palestine — the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River — while the rest are scattered, most descendants of refugees living in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

For Arabs in Israel, the question of destiny was settled when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization began peace talks two decades ago, under a framework that made clear they would remain part of Israel.

Identity is a different matter.

Arabs in Israel are caught in the push and pull of fitting into a Jewish-dominated society and protecting Palestinian roots, a struggle at times overshadowed by what many say is continuing prejudice. Some have risen to top positions in Israel’s Western-type society, but income and education gaps remain between Jewish and Arab communities.

Relations between Arabs in Israel and their relatives across the Green Line, the invisible pre-1967 frontier, have been disrupted by repeated rounds of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Yet ties were never completely severed.

Abbas views Israel’s Arabs as key to generating support for a two-state solution. He was involved in efforts earlier this year to merge smaller Arab parties in Israel into a single slate to increase their political clout.

Former peace negotiator Uri Savir said Abbas should focus his peace lobbying on Israeli Jews, though he and others say Israel’s clampdown on the channel was misguided.

“If Israel worries about hearts and minds of Arab citizens, it needs to change the reality of alienation and discrimination,” Israeli Arab analyst Mohammed Darawshe said. “It needs to hug its Arab citizens, instead of standing between us and our Palestinian brothers in the West Bank and Gaza.”

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza 

On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

By California Black Media

“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.

The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.

“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.

The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.

Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.

“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.

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Bay Area

Nigerian Bank Chief Killed in Helicopter Crash on Way to Superbowl XVIII

According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept., the crash occurred near Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The poor weather conditions — rain, wind and snow showers—may have contributed to the accident, although the investigation is not complete. All six aboard were killed. Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Herbert Wigwe with his wife, Chizoba Wigwe, left, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, right. ENigeria Newspaper image.

By Post Staff

The co-founder of one of Nigeria’s largest banks died with his wife, son and three others when the helicopter transporting them from Palm Springs, Ca., to Boulder City, Nev. to attend the fifty-eighth SuperBowl at the stadium outside Las Vegas crashed on Feb. 9.

Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.

More recently, Wigwe was planning to open a banking service in Asia this year after making successful expansions to other parts of Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described Wigwe’s death as an ‘overwhelming tragedy.”

Oakland resident and Nigerian immigrant Kayode Gbadebo agrees with Tinubu. He met Wigwe in Nigeria but crossed paths with him in London in 2006. Wigwe, he said, “took risks.”

He was young and people thought he couldn’t do what he intended, which was not so much about money but community.

“He was more like Jesus in washing the feet of the poor– Wigwe was culturizing community,” Gbadebo said.

“There will never be another like him. This is a deep, deep loss” and he hopes everyone will eventually “be comforted.”

He was also disappointed that a replacement has already been named even before Wigwe is buried. “It is not reasonable. You don’t want a vacuum, but it’s” not fair to the family, Gbadebo observed.

Wigwe had also been working to solve the migration issues from African countries, believing that “investing in higher education was key to controlling mass migration, which “is destabilising countries across the world,” BBC News reported.

“We need to take a holistic approach to address global migration, starting with our traditional framework for international development,” Wigwe wrote.

To that end, according to BBC News, Wigwe was preparing to open Wigwe University in Niger, where he was from.

“The best place to limit migration is not in the middle of the Mediterranean or the English Channel or the Rio Grande. It is in the home countries that so many migrants are so desperate to leave,” he wrote, saying his university was an opportunity for him “to give back to society.”

Besides Wigwe and his wife, Chizoba Nwuba Wigwe, and one son, two crew members and Bimbo Ogunbanjo, former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, were also killed in the crash.

According to Wikipedia, three other children survive Wigwe.

In his statement reported in People magazine, Tinubu described Wigwe as “a distinguished banker, humanitarian, and entrepreneur.”

“I pray for the peaceful repose of the departed and ask God Almighty to comfort the multitude of Nigerians who are grieving and the families of the deceased at this deeply agonizing moment,” the president said.

He added, “Their passing is an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension.”

Besides feeling the tremendous loss, Gbadebo fears the disorder and greed that will follow. “It’s a mess,” he said.

People magazine, BBC News and Wikipedia were the sources for this report.

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Activism

No Valid Reason for Failing to Condemn Hamas’ Act of Terrorism

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes. They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

Published

6 months ago

November 3, 2023

Oakland Post

iStock image.

By Joe W. Bowers Jr.

California Black Media

OPINION

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes.

They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.

The horrific surprise attack deserves universal and unequivocal condemnation. President Joe Biden called what Hamas did “an act of sheer evil” and pledged to defend the lives of Israelis and Jewish Americans.

He said, “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.”

Hamas killed approximately 1,400 people including 32 Americans. Citizens from 40 different countries including the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, and Thailand were killed or reported missing.

Hamas fighters breached Israel’s border defenses on the final day of Sukkot while soldiers were away due to the holiday and launched attacks on 22 towns outside the Gaza Strip. This security lapse has been described as a catastrophic failure of Israel’s intelligence agencies..

Hamas is an extremist Islamist militant organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is recognized as an Iranian-backed terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union and has a long history of violence against Jews and Palestinians, the latter of whom they often use as human shields.

While there have been plenty of groups who have unequivocally condemned the massacres, there are a number who haven’t, including organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Black Alliance for Peace, Red Nation, and independent Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapters (excluding the national Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation).

The DSA San Francisco chapter put out a statement on Oct. 9 that said, “Socialists support the Palestinian people’s, and all people’s, right to resist and fight for their own liberation. This weekend’s events are no different.”

Student organizations at a number of universities and colleges in California signed a solidarity statement titled “Resistance Uprising in Gaza” from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The statement attributes the violence of the Hamas attack to what it refers to as Israeli apartheid and occupation.

The SJP statement written by Bears for Palestine at UC Berkeley says, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.” Essentially, these students are indirectly associating themselves with Hamas’ barbaric acts under the guise of “resistance.”

Signing the statement were 51 student organizations including those from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego, CSU Sacramento, and USC.

A statement signed by 34 Harvard student organizations said, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

Many university leaders, where these students are enrolled, have been guilty of failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas and for inadequately addressing their students’ expressed support for Hamas.

Several Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, condemned Stanford’s administrators’ weak response to acts of terrorism and the expression of pro-Hamas sentiments by students on campus.

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It dismantled 21 Israeli settlements in the territory and handed them over to the Palestinian Authority.

The assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 was not an ordinary clash with Israel. Hamas’ actions resulted in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.

While there are valid reasons for protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and a real reckoning with the Israeli government on its policies is long overdue, nothing justifies Hamas’ attack.

Israelis who were killed largely had nothing to do with the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza. Some of the victims weren’t even Israeli — they were just tourists.

The students blaming Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas have faced criticism. Some groups have withdrawn their endorsements because of the backlash aimed at them. Others have doubled down on their activism. SJP held a “National Day of Resistance” on several campuses.

Several CEOs have asked Harvard to disclose a list of members from the organizations assigning responsibility to Israel to insure they do not hire any of their members. A Berkeley law professor has also urged firms not to hire his students who have publicly blamed Israel for the war.

This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.