Professionalism vs. patriotism
HEADLINES FROM the Middle East regularly challenge the hopes for peace. Events of recent months have been especially grim.
Some blame the current impasse on a Hamas government in the Palestinian territories that refuses to recognize Israel. Others say the crisis stems from restrictions imposed on Palestinian travel and commerce, the cutoff of international aid, and the dire living conditions for the Palestinian people that result. Others point to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian extremists, the kidnapping of two other Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, followed by cross-border attacks and repeated Hezbollah rocket salvos on northern Israel and Israel's subsequent military actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which resulted in the bombing of Lebanese areas that were strongholds for Hezbollah fighters and supplies.
Behind the headlines lie interpretations of facts. Israeli, Arab, and international media sources offer divergent perspectives on key events, such as Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year or the Hamas sweep in the Palestinian elections. Reporters covering conflict are the eyes, ears, and voice from one side of the divide to the other.
Recently, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation convened, in Boston, journalists from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza City, Beirut, Dubai, and, to add another seemingly intractable conflict, Belfast. While divided by national origin and geography, these reporters soon discovered that they shared a mutual commitment to work through the difficulties of reporting on the conflict in which most of them have grown up -- the conflict in which some have lost family members, others have spent time in prison, and all have seen lives shattered.
The conference demonstrated that despite -- or maybe because of -- the deep chasms that define the debate, Palestinian and Israeli journalists alike strive for professional reporting standards, experience similar challenges in situations where their national identity may conflict with their professional responsibilities, and want to discuss how to perform their jobs with integrity.
Discussion was marked by candor and self-criticism. Debate focused on fact, illustrated by example and specific experience. In a typical exchange, an Israeli participant recounted how he had made a decision in early August to stop broadcasting the two-hour speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. In reply to a suggestion that he must have come under political pressure, he said the decision was his own, but it was a mistake because his station's ratings declined.
A Palestinian participant said he had wrongly predicted that Gaza would flower like Singapore after the 2005 Israeli withdrawal, and that he had also been wrong in reporting that the Israeli occupation was the source of all Palestinian problems.
Participants stressed how important it is to hone professional standards of reporting in order to avoid being manipulated by politicians. One journalist observed that since politicians make self-serving statements, the reporter becomes a tool if these statements are reported without analysis. But it's challenging for reporters to ask tough questions when leaders are announcing a cease-fire. Maintaining professional objectivity can be difficult for journalists caught in the midst of conflict, because they also want peace. And yet, the media should be a watchdog, not a lapdog, and should hold decision-makers accountable.
At the end of the conference, no new plan was unveiled or declaration announced. Instead, leading Palestinian and Israeli journalists who communicate to their own peoples and to the rest of the world asked for help in continuing to communicate with each other. They decided to set up a private intranet blog. Although Palestinians and Israelis often live no farther apart than Dorchester is from the North End, the challenge of transiting their embattled societies means that communicating in cyberspace is far more achievable than finding common physical space where they live.
A one-time reporter who wrestled as president with international conflict, John F. Kennedy spoke candidly about the struggle for peace: ``I speak of a practical peace based not on a sudden revolution in human nature, but on a gradual evolution of human institutions -- on a series of concrete actions and agreements." By agreeing to continue their communication, the Israeli and Palestinian journalists took the kind of concrete and practical action to which President Kennedy referred.
John Shattuck, former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor and author of ``Freedom on Fire," is CEO of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Mara Rudman is former deputy national security adviser to President Clinton and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. 