A recent article in the Guardian stated that ‘Israel has a 20% Arab minority who are citizens and can vote, although they are frequently discriminated against and are described by some as a "demographic threat".’ The political beliefs of this blog are neither here nor there, but what we really opposed was last phrase (5 words) of this paragraph.
I believe that these ‘some’ do exist. Some people think the Arabs give a valuable boost to the economy whilst some believe that they are a demographic threat. The problem that I have is to directly quote, using quotation marks, an unnamed source - a mystery ‘some’. It strikes me as extremely lazy journalism to quote a general belief as if it is a stated opinion. I’d have expected better from The Guardian.
The middle east is one of the most sensitive situations or regions to write about.
Every word is scrutinised by the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Very few people really understand this fully.
Even "20% Arab minority" is lazy. Many Arabs are Druze, which in and around Haifa are intensely loyal Israeli citizens, in the Golan they are not and then there is the Bedouin who are mostly give their allegiance to the Israeli state. And there are differences between Arab Christians and Muslims.
Complex?
It requires brilliant insightful journalists to really understand the region. Not Robert Fisk Guardian "journalist" who is one of the biased commentators on the region and one that makes basic frequent errors on facts - look at Wikipedia and many others sites
Posted by: Rob Artisan | December 06, 2007 at 01:22 PM