Yonatan Mendel
A year ago I applied for the job of Occupied Territories correspondent at Ma’ariv, an Israeli newspaper. I speak Arabic and have taught in Palestinian schools and taken part in many joint Jewish-Palestinian projects. At my interview the boss asked how I could possibly be objective. I had spent too much time with Palestinians; I was bound to be biased in their favour. I didn’t get the job. My next interview was with Walla, Israel’s most popular website. This time I did get the job and I became Walla’s Middle East correspondent. I soon understood what Tamar Liebes, the director of the Smart Institute of Communication at the Hebrew University, meant when she said: ‘Journalists and publishers see themselves as actors within the Zionist movement, not as critical outsiders.’


Ya All*h! If you go and work for "Jewish-Palestinian" projects, even the most secular left wing Israelis will be highly suspicious of your motives. If you talk about "Palestinians" you are also inviting scrutiny from some of the more extreme.

What people don't seem to understand is that your average Israeli journalist is an Israeli! Not a Jew and not some ones third party national "assimilate."

Do not expect anyone who has grown up in Israel to be objective, detached or neutral. What is more some of the most extreme anti-Zionists I know, live in Israel. On a lesser scale, friends of my wife go and risk physical harm from extremists by monitoring IDF check points. Being neutral is seen as cowardice. Pick a side. Any side. You may be hated, but you will be respected.

I very much doubt Yonatan Mendel is as objective, detached or neutral as he might like to believe. I certainly am not. I don't pretend to be. Even though I live here, I am constantly and quite aggressively scrutinised, by Israelis, as to my motivation.

...and if you can't see the irony, I can't explain it to you!