Kan 11, the public broadcaster, launched a series of reports this week by Eran Singer and Roy Ettinger titled “Palestinians Blue-and-White.” The first item set out to examine “the growing extremism in Arab society in Israel” and asked, “What went wrong?” What went wrong, that the Arabs now drink espresso? That the Balad party received 45 percent of the vote in Abu Ghosh, a town west of Jerusalem that the Jews love to love? What does this say about the spectrum of affiliation between Palestinian and Israeli? Maybe to build more roads?
The problem with reports like this isn’t only the patronizing and the old Orientalism – as if 150 years haven’t gone by since the first Jewish settlers became acquainted with the food of the Middle East – but also that they don’t try to challenge the viewer. Instead, they try to challenge the Palestinian interviewee and make him feel that in the best case he’s mistaken and in the worst, a traitor.
One of the interviewees was the head of the Abu Ghosh council, a member of the Likud Central Committee who personally loves Benjamin Netanyahu. This was presented as a benefit for his town, so there will be institutions, roads and schools. Not that he’s trying to entice Bibi voters to eat hummus precisely there, heaven forbid. He truly esteems the man,
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Hanin Majadli | Jan 19, 2023
