Friends of Sabeel will host a conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here in Seattle February 19-20th at St. Mark’s Cathedral. Among the speakers will be Neve Gordon, professor at Ben Gurion University, whose Los Angeles Times op ed supporting the BDS movement was hailed and derided around the world, leading to denunciation by his own university president and an attempt to sack him.
I’ve organized the following media panel on Saturday, February 20th at 3:15 PM:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Media
Richard Silverstein, author of Tikun Olam, Israeli-Palestinian peace blog
Bruce Ramsey, Seattle Times editorial writer
Larry Johnson former foreign editor, Seattle Post Intelligencer and author, Looking for Trouble, foreign affairs blog
The panel will examine the nature and quality of reporting on the conflict in both the U.S.:
- Getting more & better coverage into the media
- Making coverage more accessible to the average American
- the collapse of print media: how does it alter the landscape for coverage
- Where do people get their coverage of the conflict?
- Critique of media coverage of I-P conflict: why is so much, so bad?
- Political issues that should be covered and aren’t?
- Improving communications between Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. media and peace activists
- Role of digital media, social networking in expanding access to news about the conflict
If you live in or near Seattle, I hope you can make it.
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This INFO is for the readers of this blogsite who live in Chicago area.
Monday, February 22, 2010 Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Israel : Barriers and Opportunities, Neve Gordon
http://www.cjpip.org/NeveGordonFlyer.pdf
The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) is having its annual conference on 28 April, 2010 in Washington, DC. Its theme is “One Year After Cairo,” focusing on the year following Obama’s Cairo speech. One of the noteworthy speakers will be Tariq Ramadan, Swiss Muslim intellectual who has recently been removed from Homeland Security’s Bad Person List (several years after having made a small donation to a charity believed to give money to Hamas).
Richard, please keep us posted on the Seattle conference, especially as it concerns the news media and how to compel them to provide fair coverage of the Occupation of Palestine. You mention several persons taking part in the conference, but I am not seeing any Muslim or Palestinian support groups among the attendees. Let us know if you find out more. Thanks.
Sabeel was founded by Bethlehem Episcopal Canon Naim Ateek and is essentially a Palestinian organization with a North American support group. I invited Omar Barghouti to participate in the conference and got into a knock down drag out fight w. him. He’s apparently resentful of Neve Gordon because the latter is writing a book about BDS and invited a diff. Palestinian to partner w. him in writing it. I thought it would be great to have an Israel & Palestinian do a joint program about BDS. Alas, personality & politics got in the way.
A clash of egos. Occasionally the imperfect humans forget who they are supposed to be helping.
Thanks for the information. I had known about Sabeel but assumed they were based in the US. They arrange excellent tours throughout the West Bank for groups wishing to understand more about Palestine and the occupation. They are an excellent organization. The US affiliate can be found by googling “Friends of Sabeel.”
Rev. Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, Jerusalem is not from Bethlehem. He is originally from the Palestinian town Beisan from which he was evicted in 1948 and forced to move to Nazareth where he was brought up and educated. The city is known now in Israel as Beitshaan. He was the parish priest of the Anglican St. George’s church in Jerusalem when he founded Sabeel
Thanks for the corrections.
Hi Mary,
Richard hasn’t shown up yet here so I found the flier for the event for you
http://www.fosna.org/content/seattle-conference-february-19-20-2010
Woops! Actually he gave the link to the flier up above. My oversight. Apologies.
Thanks, Robin. I tried to provide something from the CSID website but for some weird reason, there’s nothing there. I got an email on it but when I tried to find info on the website, it wasn’t helpful at all. Senator John Kerry has been invited to speak also, but I would love to go just to welcome Tariq Ramadan.