A new website called The Second Draft says it provides the raw material of TV footage which shows how mainstream broadcasters distort news about Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. The founders write:

‘Because those of us working on the opening dossier at this site are primarily American, French and Israeli Jews, that constitutes the initial core inspired to put up this website and to manage the material that comes in about Pallywood. But because we feel that the Israelis are not alone in suffering from this particular debacle, we hope that Palestinians and other Arabs, as well as fair-minded and sincerely concerned outsiders will join us in trying to sort out the widespread damage these continuing media errors cause to all involved. And because we feel the loneliness of trying to draw the larger public’s attention to media malfeasance, we hope to draw other groups with similar problems to consider our website a place to air their concerns as well.

We believe in the dignity of difference, and that we therefore need to listen carefully to others. We do not think people should ignore what we have to say because we are Jewish or Israeli or defending Israel or Zionism. Everyone should listen, critically, to each others’ narratives, and judge the evidence not on the basis of some prejudice (whichever side one may sympathize with), but on the basis of fair and impartial assessment of the evidence.’

If people can see for themselves how ‘events’ in this conflict have been staged – an industry dubbed ‘Pallywood’ by the site’s founders – this could provide an important antidote to the poison that is being disseminated.

Posted by melanie at September 17, 2005