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ARAB WOMEN IN MEDIA - REGIONAL MEDIA CONFERENCES

Journalist Training Course Closing Address

HE Eng.Nidal al-hadid , Mayor of Amman , attended a graduation ceremoney for a number of media professionals, this Thursday,the27th of March.the Arab woman media center in collaboration with arab internews network , organized a one week basic media skills training prgramme, for a number of media professionals from jordan, saudi arabia , and palestine . participants from the occupied territories , unfortunately, could not attend the training , because the israeli authorities prevented them from doing so.

The training introdused anumber of important topics for arab professionals in the held media a number of prominent figures gave lectures, in topics that varied from the art of communicating with the masses to the media ethics.

The arab woman media center, which is a research and media counseling center, is the first local and regional NGO of its kind.

It was established in 1999, with the support of her royal highness priness basma, and after the continuous efforts and aspiration of ms . mahasen al- Emam , the center  continues to give traning programmes to arab media professionals and aims towards creating a socitey in which social equity , and intellectul freedom are upheld.

The center is locted in jabel al weibdeh on a street that was named after it.

It reaches its members , who exceed 160 from 13 arabic countries.

Please find the press release that Internews sent out in
Washington

Arab Women’s Media Center, Amman – Jordan, Al Abdalli, Al Ellamiatt al Arabiatt Street. Code 11947  POB 199, Telfax +962-6-4648889, GSM 077307477, Email awmc@accessme.com.jo

Web site www.ayamm.org

Israeli censor bans Palestinian film on Jenin assault. 11/12/2002. ABC News Online

Israeli censor bans Palestinian film on Jenin assault

The Israeli censorship board banned on Tuesday a screening of the Palestinian documentary Jenin, Jenin on the grounds it distorted the facts of an April assault on the city's refugee camp, Israel army radio reported.

The film, produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohammed Bakri, includes testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army's Defensive Wall operation, during which the city and camp were the scenes of fierce fighting.

The operation ended with the refugee camp flattened, 52 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and the Palestinians accusing Israel of a massacre.

On Tuesday, the radio quoted censors as saying: "In the disguise of democratic truth, a propaganda film has been made which presents the Palestinian position in a one-sided way."

Mr Bakri will appeal the decision to Israel's High Court, the report said.

Jordanian Woman Journalist Receives International Press Award

Mahassen Al-Emam is the first Arab journalist to be recognized

By Ghada Elnajjar Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Mahassen Al-Emam, journalist and Founder of the Arab Women Media Center (AWMC) in Jordan received the Knight International Press Fellowship Award in Washington on October 8. The Award honors individuals who demonstrate journalistic integrity and independence under difficult circumstances, and who have made remarkable contributions to the media in their region.

Al-Emam received her award at the 5th Annual Excellence in Journalism Dinner, organized by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), which was held in Washington, DC. The ICFJ works with journalists from around the world to build a strong, independent press that keeps government honest, holds authority accountable, makes business transparent, and provides news that is accurate.

In an interview with the Washington File on October 8, Al-Emam, who is the first Arab journalist to receive this award, said that it is a great honor for her to be recognized. "I was very happy that this honor was bestowed upon me by an international entity, and that I am recognized outside my country," she said.

A pioneer in her field, Al-Emam became the first female editor-in-chief in 1994 of Al-Bilad, a weekly Jordanian newspaper. As a member of the Jordanian Press Association since 1979, she also had served as the first elected female member of the association's High Committee.

"This is an accomplishment that I am very proud of," said Al-Emam, who tries to use her position to open doors to other female journalists.

"Through the press association, I established a women's committee for the purpose of supporting women journalists in Jordan to be more effective in the media and to also be in continuous contact with women journalists throughout the Arab world," she said.

Al-Emam said that during the 27 years she worked in the Jordanian press, she tried to push the press to change from a commercial identity to a more political one.

"Through Al-Bilad, I tried to change the tradition of the Jordanian press, to have a more political identity, and to adopt a specific political agenda, either with or against. However I felt that commercialization was what really characterized the weekly publications," said Al-Emam.

As the first woman editor-in-chief, Al-Emam faced many other difficulties. She explained that some of her male colleagues refused to accept that a woman journalist was in charge.

"One way I tackled this, I used my skills as a mother, and tried to convince them that we are a part of one family in the newspaper. I made the effort to be their friend first and their boss second. This took a lot of time, until they trusted me and felt that I was their friend. Only then did they become more productive and more motivated," she said.

Unable to establish a political identity for the paper, and failing to institutionalize a permanent women's committee in the Jordanian Press Association, Al-Emam resigned from Al-Bilad and later from the press association.

In 1999, she established the AWMC to support female journalists. The Center serves as a training facility to women journalists, finds employment opportunities for them, and recruits members who cannot join the Jordanian Press Association. The membership of the AWMC, which reached 200, is not limited to print journalism, as is the case for the press association, but it also includes radio and television.

The Center also researches issues that pertain to women in general, such as human rights, women's rights and countering discrimination against women in the Arab world, while the member journalists focus on these issues in their work.

"The Center's accomplishments in this area are many," said Al-Emam. "We were able to change the thinking of many in regards to women. I am still working with volunteer legal advisers on changing some of Jordan's laws that are biased against women in the areas of retirement, salaries, and positions," she said.

The Center also serves as a "refuge" to women journalists, said Al-Emam. It houses three legal advisers who work on issues and problems facing women journalists, another service that the press association does not offer. "The fear factor is no longer there. The Center serves as a protective umbrella with attorneys ready to defend," she explained.

Viewed as a competitor, Al-Emam and the AWMC were faced with hostility from the beginning. "In Jordan, I paid the price as a result of this center. Many opposed it. It was a new idea. It made the Jordanian Press Association realize its incompetence and its inability to offer the proper services and training for women journalists," she said.

Al-Emam even established her own weekly newspaper with an opposition agenda. She explained, "we opposed war and we opposed the practices of many ministers and officials." The paper, which did not attract advertising revenue, was distributed for free "so that people can read," she said. Al-Emam said that her project was a total financial loss, but that it accomplished its goal of reaching a wide audience.

"I used all my savings to start this paper, and of course I did not receive a single advertisement because it was an opposition paper. Regardless, we had excellent circulation," she said.

"The purpose of my paper was not to make profit, but to spread thought," she added. "I helped create an opposition movement although it was at a very small scale. This led to the demise of the paper when the government shut it down."

Asked if female journalists today face the same problems she faced 20 years ago, Al-Emam said that, "although the times are different and the problems are different, a single important problem remains, and that is the lack of freedom and democracy; the inability to do and write about anything you want."

A related problem, she pointed out, is limited assignments for women journalists whose story coverage is limited to specified areas. For example, she explained, "women are not sent to cover wars."

Al-Emam also extended her criticism to Arab satellite television. According to Al-Emam, "they capitalize on women -- on their physical appearance, which is unacceptable. It humiliates women in exchange for token fees."

Al-Emam expressed the wish that women would be accorded more respect in Arab satellite television. But, she said, "One needs to look at some of the stations to see that it is only getting worse."

She said the content of Arab satellite television is not "what we aspire to." She said that the programs consist of commercial and vulgar shows that humiliate women and that are repetitive and unimaginative.

Al-Emam currently writes only for Paris or London-based Arab publications, because she says they give her the opportunity to express her views more freely.

"I am more comfortable writing for expatriate publications. Arab publications in the Diaspora are increasing because there is a lack of freedom in the Arab world. Arab journalists try to find leeway of freedom outside their countries. Arab governments should allow media to be produced inside and not outside the Arab world, to prevent the increase of more expatriates," Al-Emam said.

Al-Emam said that through her writing and work at the AWMC, she will continue to spread her ideas and bring together Arab women in the media and exposure to their issues of concern.

On October 24, the AWMC will hold its second annual conference for women in the Arab media. "This is the most significant accomplishment for the AWMC; that it continues to serve as a gathering center for the region's women in the media to exchange their views, discuss their problems and find solutions together."

"The Knight International Press Fellowship Award grants me more exposure, but my goals will be achieved through continuous work in the Center," concluded Al-Emam.

The Amnesty International report on killing children during the intifada, which was released Monday, immediately drew fire from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with each accusing the report of unfairness

The IDF responded Tuesday to the Amnesty International report, which says that 250 Palestinian children and 72 Israeli children were killed since the intifada started, by saying that terror organizations were using children to carry out attacks, thus endangering them.

According to the report, the majority of Palestinian children were killed in the territories "when the IDF responded to demonstrations and stone throwing incidents with unlawful and excessive use of lethal force."

The IDF on Tuesday said that its soldiers were acting in line with international and humanitarian law, and in accordance with legal and moral norms. The IDF blamed armed organizations for the death of Palestinian children, saying that civilians were not hurt intentionally, but rather when combating those involved in terror activities.

The IDF rejected Amnesty's comparison between the killing of Palestinian children by the IDF and the killing of Israeli children in terror attacks. The army accused Amnesty of imbalance, saying that the terror attacks were intended to hurt civilians, while IDF activities were intended to harm terrorists.

The IDF also rejected Amnesty's claim that the army did not investigate incidents in which children were hurt, and said that more than 200 military police investigations were launched following a military operation which took place after Operation Defensive Shield, some of which dealt with events in which Palestinian children were hurt.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of

Global Dialogue & Democracy

Impressionistic Report

By MIFTAH

August 04, 2002

 The United Nation Secretary General's report on events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities delivered a devastating blow to the UN's credibility. The report fails to concisely consider the violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli forces and as a result places the blame equally on Israelis and Palestinians. Doomed from the beginning, the shortcomings of this report come as no surprise. Originally a commission of inquiry was established to investigate, but Israel objected and the inquiry was reduced to a fact-finding mission that meets the approval of Israel. However, even this did not meet with Israel's blessings and that is how we arrived at this report, which was produced using "available resources and information." In essence, the UN was not allowed to send field workers to gather primary information, but, rather, had to rely on available information from interested parties such as the EU and the PA. Israel staunchly refused to co-operate and did not contribute to the report!

This report seems to ignore that it was the Palestinians who where attacked on lands illegally occupied by Israel. The placing of blame on Palestinians who defied the Israeli army seems to be depriving Palestinians of a right to self-defense, as guaranteed through the Declaration of Principals. Furthermore, the report seems to conclude that all Palestinians who take up an armed struggle against an Israeli attack on Palestinian land are 'terrorists'. Even though the report refers to Israel's unlawful killings, the use of human shields, disproportional use of force, arbitrary arrests, torture and denial of medical treatment, it stops short of condemning these acts as war crimes in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The fact that it was Palestinian civilian areas that got attacked during the month long Israeli operation was hardly stressed enough. Between March 29 and April 17, the Israeli forces claimed the lives of 491 Palestinians and wounded a further 1,447, 80% of whom were civilians. Israeli forces destroyed 2,800 refugee housing-units and 878 Palestinian homes, leaving 17,000 people homeless. 7000 Palestinians were arrested simply for being between the ages of 15 to 45 and they were callously treated, as they were deprived of lavatories, food, blankets and any contact with their families for long periods of time.

While perhaps there was no massacre in Jenin alone, the culmination of those killed throughout the West Bank easily justifies the use of the word massacre and in fact even merits the term 'genocide'. The controversy surrounding the term 'massacre' seems to have diverted attention away from the fact that hundreds of Palestinians through out the West Bank were killed during Operation Defensive Shield. Sadly, the fact that only 52 Palestinians were killed in Jenin has allowed the report to substantiate Israel's proclaimed innocence and disguise Israel's innumerable international law violations.

URGENT APEAL TO UN

By; Tahir A.M.Alwan

Amnesty international member

MS MAHASEN AL EMAM

Greetings,

In these days we hear new drums pumpkins sounds readiness to a new war between Iraq and USA.

I hope we imagine numbers of the innocent victims that may be died in such bloody conflict especially between children.

More than 1 million Iraqi child has been died since the second gulf war –1991- till now, so that we may ask; is there intention for more?

As an activist in human rights and the rights of childhood I appeals you all and appeal all organizations concerned by human and civilian rights and international peace for fast movement to prevent anew disaster may happen and more victims between children and civilians.

Yes we all do believe dictatorship regime is one of the worst policies systems in the world and is danger on the international peace.

But it is not persuasive and not acceptable to kill may be thousands of children as proof to oust the dictator.

We urge the United Nations and the international society to solve this crisis peacefully and to find the suitable way to save Iraqi innocent childhood.

I beg you the fast movement and saying your word in this difficult time.

Sincerely yours

Sharon’s dirty war against the refugee camps is immoral and racist

 By: Bassam Abu Sharif

Israel has begun its defensive attack against the European Union in order to force the Europeans to be silent regarding the immoral and inhumane actions that Israel’s regular troops are carrying out in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

This defensive attack started with Sharon’s comments, who accused France of adopting an anti-Semitic position, as is the norm when someone criticizes Israel for its criminal and racist practices against unarmed Palestinians. Israeli President Katsav followed up the offensive by launching an attack on the European countries, accusing them of encouraging terrorism by offering some support to Yasser Arafat. 

The consecutive Israeli governments, Labour and Likud alike, have always taken a negative stand regarding Europe’s participation in the efforts aimed at finding a political solution for the Middle East based on international legitimacy resolutions, and Sharon’s government is still taking the same stand. 

Despite this the European countries were careful to use overly polite diplomacy with regard to the Israeli government’s criminal actions, in order to keep the channels open for a European role in the Middle East because of Europe’s major strategic interests in the region (energy resources and markets). Now, things have gone too far, and the European governments, faced with the public’s realization of the enormity of the crimes against humanity that are taking place in Palestine, can do nothing but adopt a position, albeit a timid one, critical of the barbaric practices of the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

It is for this reason that Israel has begun its defensive attack, in order to silence the European voices that have begun, only recently, to criticize Israel. 

As for Israel’s timing and the increased rate of European interest, they are undoubtedly connected to the occupation army’s attack against Palestinian refugee camps – camps crowded with unarmed Palestinians living in huts built for them by the UNRWA fifty years ago, after being displaced from their Palestinian homes, villages and towns by Zionist gangs. These huts do not protect them from the cold and the heat, so how can they protect them from shells and bullets? 

It is an attack that aims at preventing the Europeans from exposing and revealing the mass crimes being committed by the Israeli occupation forces. 

Few really know what refugee camps are, how many there are and the number of inhabitants. For those who do not know, and prior to talking about Sharon’s war against the Palestinian camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, we list the following information. 

These refugee camps were established by the United Nations for the refugees who were evicted from their towns and villages by Zionist gangs in 1948, in the areas that became the state of Israel. It should be noted that some Palestinian families who were evicted did not live in these camps because they were relatively well off, and so lived in the towns of the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside the inhabitants of these towns and villages. 

The discussion here does not include the camps located in neighboring Arab countries, it is confined to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As time passed and the population increased, the Palestinians added on another room or more to the room built by the United Nations to cope with the growth rate. 

Th distribution of these camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is as follows: 

The camps in the West Bank; twenty-five camps, which are: 

Gaza Camps:

These are the camps Sharon is waging his war against. It is an immoral and unethical war in every sense.

First: It is a war being waged using fighter planes, assault helicopters, tanks and special Israeli units trained for combat (the Golani brigade) against unarmed people living in camps, overcrowded and full of children, women and the elderly, because most of the young men of these camps leave in pursuit of earning a livelihood elsewhere. 

Second: The population of these camps is a combination of those who survived the massacres that Sharon and those like him committed at Deir Yaseen, Kufur Qasem and Qibya, and those who survived the forceful eviction from their homes and lands in 1948. These live alongside their children and grandchildren who inherited their displacement, loss and miserable life, and turned into mere numbers on the Refugee Relief agency’s identification cards, which provide them with meager food supplies and provide them with only basic elementary and preparatory education. 

This immoral war of Sharon’s is once again sowing in the hearts of the children and grandchildren the same seed that Sharon planted in the minds and hearts of the grandparents fifty years ago. Sharon is once again sowing rancor, resentment and hatred. 

Imagine what effect a heavily armed Israeli soldier storming a one-room mud hut in which six children and their mother were hiding would have. Those of you who have children, put yourselves and your children in their place. What effect could a tank shell exploding in that room have on the minds of the children – those children, of course, who miraculously escaped death??? 

Let us read together what an Israeli officer of the Golani Brigade (the most important professional combat brigade in the Israeli army) said, so we may know how contemptible and hideous Sharon’s war against the camps is. Officer Shai of the Golani Brigade made the following comments, after he had stormed the Jenin camp based on the orders issued to him, (according to Israeli television and Yediot Ahranot newspaper). Officer Shai of the Golani Brigade who entered the Jenin camp mocked the repeated official Israeli claim that they (i.e. the officers and soldiers of the Golani Brigade) asked permission before entering any house in the camp. 

He said that it was futile to bother with etiquette (meaning asking permission) while you are storming a refugee camp with tanks, knocking down walls, demolishing houses and killing young people aged 12 and 16 and old people over sixty.

Israeli television said that the rate of criticism among commentators and political analysts for the Israeli army’s operation in the Balata and Jenin camps has increased. Israeli television quoted Nahom Barnee, a political analyst for the Yediot Ahranot newspaper, as saying that the responsibility for the latest escalation falls on the Israeli government for ignoring the positive Palestinian step of arresting those accused of killing the extremist Israeli Minister Rehavam Zeevi, and the continued siege on President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, which came in response to the wishes of the extreme right. 

Third: Sharon’s immoral and barbaric war against unarmed refugees has another side that will reflect back on Israel. He is pushing his soldiers and officers into a foul battle in which any military professional would feel that his military honor and the accepted rules of war that he learnt had been ground into the dust and trampled by Sharon, and that Sharon dumped them in the open sewers of those camps. This is Sharon’s war, against the camps and against the children and grandchildren of those he evicted from their homes and villages fifty years ago.

Faced with this war that Sharon is waging against the refugee camps in thee Wet Bank and Gaza Strip, just as he had waged it once before against the refugee camps in Lebanon (Rashidia, Al-Bas, Burj Al-Shamali, Ein Al-Helwa and Sabra and Shatilla), what does the world expect the Palestinians to do? Does the civilized and democratic world accept that the Palestinian be killed while smiling at his executioner??? 

No, the Palestinian will defend himself; this is his right and duty. Sharon and the officers of his occupation army have lost all standards of morals and humanity. They have shelled houses inhabited by civilians, shelled ambulances and killed all the wounded and medical teams inside them (Monday 4/3/2002, 13:00). 

The anxiety and tension among the ranks of the Israeli army as a result of the Palestinians’ steadfastness has undoubtedly led, and will continue to lead, to a complex psychological state that has led and will lead to more innocent blood being shed, as was the case in Al-Amari camp on Monday 4/3/2002 at two in the afternoon. Israel shelled a car that was believed to contain a Hamas activist. This led to the death of his wife Mrs. Bushra Abu Quake,  Mohammad Abu Quake aged 8, Aziza Abu Quake aged 16, Baraa’ Abu Quake aged 14, Arafat Imad Al-Masri aged 16 and Shaimaa’ Imad Al-Masri aged 14. 

The madness of this unjust power will lead only to more innocent blood being shed. Revenge for these crimes will undoubtedly follow, and so the cycle continues. He is once again treading his terrorist path, the path of mass crimes and the killing of civilians. He is the Sharon of Qibya, the Sharon of Sabra and Shatilla, and now the Sharon of Balata, Jenin and Ramallah. 

But he will fail as he has always failed. The cause of the people always prevails against the arrogance of an unjust power, assault and racism. Review history so you may recall that all tyrants were finished forever but the people remained.