Israel National News was there when Hussein Siyam, the Arab mukhtar, or elder of Silwan, briefed journalists on nearby Israeli excavations in Ir David and related Palestinian disturbances:
“A German news company recruits activists here and gives them money to make problems in order to report on them,” he claimed.
A German journalist, also at the Mukhtar’s home, told his colleagues that the claim seemed a bit “Middle Eastern” to him, but he conceded that local Arabs were hired by foreign agencies – conceivably able to get the news fastest because they are involved in producing it.
The report didn’t specify the name of the news service.
