The Bedouin in Israel: Myths and Facts

Brtish Shalom Salaam Trust and Israel Social TV (ISTV) have been thrilled by the response to our GlobalGiving fundraising challenge for the Bedouin in Israel. Thanks to our amazing supporters, we raised a significant amount of funding - over £7,100 so far - towards our project, which aims to make a real difference to the very difficult situation. Thank you, each and every one of you, for your crucial support. ISTV is now at work on the films about the Bedouin and we hope to be able to share these with you shortly. 

Sadly, the situation has worsened in recent months, quite dramatically. Not only do the Bedouin continue to face house demolitions, enforced resettlement, and discrimination, but Israel Social TV itself has come under a sustained attack from the Israeli authorities.

Last month, it was reported all over the Israeli news, including the national Channel 2, that two government ministries have announced sanctions on ISTV. The reason is ISTV's coverage of the Women’s boat to Gaza as well as series of video articles in which BDS activists and conscientious objectors (people who refuse to serve in the army) were interviewed.

The sanctions are as follows:

1. A grant (total of 121,000 ILS) that was expected to enter ISTV's account for productions which were broadcast on the community channel (98 cables and satellite) was put on hold, ordered by Shlomo Filber (the CEO of Israeli Ministry of Communication). It is important to emphasize that using the community channel ISTV reaches almost every home in Israel. With four regular weekly magazines, we are exposing through the community channel our content to audiences in the periphery, especially those who are not watching us through the Internet.
2. All four National Civil Service positions for ISTV will be cancelled as a result of a decision of Israeli Minister Uri Ariel, who is in charge of the National Civil Service.

It is important to emphasize that the CEO of the Ministry of Communications has no authority to legally stop approved budgets and that the Minister has no authority to cancel the National Civil Service positions which ISTV is entitled to. This is part and attempts to silence critical voices and significant violation of freedom of expression by senior politicians. ISTV intends to fight these severe sanctions, as they will make it extremely hard for a free press to function in Israel.

You can see how freedom of the press is being weakened in the following video, made by ISTV: http://tv.social.org.il/en/exhausting-the-community-broadcasting 

If you wish to continue to support ISTV, the Bedouin in Israel, and the idea of the free press in Israel, please consider sharing our project pages or making another donation. Our project here is still receiving donations.

Links:

• The Jerusalem Post on the sanctions against ISTV
• Israel HaYom on the attack on National Civil Service slots
• +972 on the Israeli government's attacks on the media