Some 800 international journalists and students came together in Istanbul, Turkey to take part in the first day of a media training and awareness programme to create awareness of the Palestinian cause in the news.
Palestine forum: We must fight normalisation with Israel
19 Nov 2018 - 12:15
Some 800 international journalists and students came together in Istanbul, Turkey to take part in the first day of a media training and awareness programme to create awareness of the Palestinian cause in the news.
Participants, who came from across the world, took part in workshops, discussions and panel talks as part of the Palestine International Forum’s Tawasol 3 programme entitled “Palestine addressing the world“.
Workshops covered a number of topics including “What mechanisms can help develop the media discourse on Palestine?”, “Strategies to confront the discriminatory discourse of Israel” and “Addressing normalisation in the Arab world”.
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was honoured at the event on a panel in which he was due to take part on the topic of “Developing the global media discourse on Palestine”. Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October, senior Saudi officials are thought to be behind the premeditated attack.
Speaking on the panel, Chief Editor of the Anadolu Agency Metin Mutanoglu encouraged attendees that the Palestinian cause was now getting in to the news. “The Palestinian cause, as a humanitarian cause, has excelled in getting global attention.”
Researcher in Media Issues Omar Abu Arqoub said Israel’s efforts to increase normalisation across the Arab world is an effort to separate the Palestinians from their brothers in the Middle East to isolate the cause. It also makes people doubt the narratives they hear and question if perhaps the Israeli story is the real one.
In covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Abu Arqoub continued, journalists should be specific and clear to say “Israeli occupation soldier kills Palestinian” and not simply report that “Palestinian killed” to ensure the audience is kept aware of who atrocities are committed by.
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