The Media in Israel is the biggest collaborator with the Occupation

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This week MAP attended a CAABU organised meeting with Ha’aretz journalist and editor Gideon Levy in London.

Mr Levy spoke of the “ongoing process of dehumanization and demonizing” of the Palestinians in the Israeli media, which despite being “professional and free” chooses to turn a blind eye to the occupation.

This is particularly true when it comes to reporting on the situation in Gaza. Israeli journalists have been banned from entering Gaza since November 2006. Mr Levy described how during Operation : Cast Lead the deaths of two Israeli dogs received front page coverage whilst news of hundreds of Palestinian casualties was confined to the back pages.

He described Israel as “an Apartheid state by any criteria” and spoke of how the chances of change coming from within Israeli society “are zero’ as people are ‘in a coma’ towards the Occupation. He went on to say that as change “cannot come from within it will have to come from Washington”.

In response to the news of upcoming peace talks, Mr Levy described them as an “ongoing masquerade” as “the absence of leadership in Israel means that people are happy to negotiate forever, the danger is that the failure of the talks might initiate a more violent phase”.