Palestinian news agency woos Hebrew audience
WAFA launched website in Hebrew with aim of 'speaking directly to Israeli public opinion'; its first headline referred to Netanyahu's vision of peace as being 'with the extreme right'
The state-run Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) launched a Hebrew news website on Monday amid skepticism that the effort will succeed in reaching the Israeli public.
The Hebrew news service will include daily news, interviews with Palestinian leaders and features on art, culture, business and women's issues.
"Our intention is to speak directly to Israeli public opinion," Riyad al-Hassan, WAFA's director, told The Media Line. "We hope to reach hundreds of thousands within one year. The moment we started we received lots of unexpected hits."
In an explicit effort to affect Israeli policy, WAFA plans to distribute a summary of the site to influential Israeli leaders. "We will make a mailing list for Knesset members, cabinet ministers and all other figures in the circle of decision making in Israel," he said, referring to the Israeli parliament.
WAFA, which already provides news in Arabic, English and French, has been critical of Israel's media censorship policies and claims the new Hebrew site will give Israelis unfiltered access to Palestinian news.
"We stick to the values of objective writing and understanding, Hassan said. "There is no incitement."
Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University, said the impetus behind the project was likely political. "There are many efforts in the Arab world to tell the Israelis that we are interested in peace, for example the Arab peace plan was published in Hebrew in the Israeli press," he said.
"Palestinians want to close the gap of Israelis that say 'we didn't know.' Palestinians struggle with that kind of ignorance; we don't want to leave any avenue for Israelis to say we didn't know. I think that's what's behind it: at least we set the record straight."
The launching of the site one day after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set a series of conditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state was seen by many analysts as intentional.
The Hebrew site’s first headline referred to Netanyahu's vision of peace as being "with the extreme right".
"The interpretation on Israeli channels was that (Netanyahu's) speech was good—one even described it as 'excellent' as Netanyahu once mentioned a demilitarized Palestinian state," read an editorial by Faiz Abbas published in Hebrew.
"A demilitarized state, the continuation of the settlements and a racist state is the political vision of the prime minister... Netanyahu's speech provided material for the extreme right, the fanatic settlers and also to the enemies of peace, which is most of the Jewish state."
Israel's initial response to the site was varied. "It is in the interest of any government to try and reach specific target audiences," Aviv Shir-On, The Israeli Foreign Ministry's Deputy Director General for Media and Public Affairs, told The Media Line. "This is legitimate and something that we and many governments around the world also do in different ways."
"It's always good to know what someone says about him or herself," Shir-On continued, "but I don't think there is a market for it."
"The Palestinians need to remember that people know where this information comes from and will treat it as such. It would be naive for Palestinians to think that for Israeli decision makers this would be the main source of information on what's going."
'We have a margin of independence'
WAFA is not the first Palestinian news agency to try reach out to Israeli policy makers. Launched in 2005 in Arabic, Hebrew and English by independent Palestinian journalists, the Ma'an News Agency is a wire service based in Bethlehem and Gaza and claims to receive over three million visits per month.
Ra'ad Othman, Ma'an's General Director told The Media Line that the agency's experience launching a Palestinian news site in Hebrew may be telling.
"I don't believe there is a market for it," Othman said of the new WAFA Hebrew site. "We launched in 2005 and staffed our Hebrew section with five journalists. The staff is now down to two out of 50 total employees."
"We discovered that the normal Israeli public gets their information from Israeli sources—they don't trust us," he continued. "Our audience is Israeli journalists seeking Palestinian reaction. They just take it from the Arabic or English sites."
"From a business point of view, we spent a lot of money, about $10,000 a month, and it just was not cost effective so we reduced the service to four to five articles a day on Israeli issues such as security, settlements, Gilad Shalit and the war in Gaza."
Media analyst Kuttab agreed. "The decision makers can obviously get someone to translate the Arabic for them and I don't think reaching the Israeli public at large is possible in this way," Kuttab told The Media Line. "The vast majority of people around the world trust their own media. If you really want to reach the Israelis, get yourself on Israeli media."
WAFA defended the potential of the initiative. "The Hebrew version of WAFA is not a translated copy of the Arabic version," Hassan pointed out. "It's purely Israeli and meant to deal with the issues of mutual interest to both Israelis and Palestinians."
While Hassan acknowledged WAFA's new Hebrew site has "a very small budget" with only five staff, he hopes to expand the department in the future.
Launched in 1972 in Lebanon, WAFA spent its first years covering the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The agency relocated with the exiled Palestinian leadership to Tunis, Tunisia in 1982. WAFA relocated to the West Bank in 1994 and became the official news agency of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
WAFA is headquartered in Ramallah and Gaza, and the agency maintains bureaus in Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem, Rafah, Khan Yunis and within Israel.
An Italian funded project by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has sought to strengthen WAFA's production capacity since 1999. In 2005 the agency relocated to new offices in Ramallah with grants from the UN group.
In 2006, WAFA's Khan Yunis office was stormed by gunmen who assaulted a journalist and destroyed the agency's equipment during clashes between Fatah and Hamas which, like Israel, sees WAFA as a mouthpiece for the administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas.
"In the past WAFA has been seen as a tool of the Palestinian authority," Israel's Shir-On stated. "A news agency should report the news objectively, and if they are trying to disseminate political positions in Hebrew against the policies of the Israeli government then of course this is something we don't welcome."
"It's a government entity," Hassan acknowledged, "but we have a margin of independence."
"We have our own ideas and our own opinion and the objectivity and credibility of WAFA has been preserved for over ten years. No one can push us to be involved in incitement or something outside the values of journalism."
