A veteran Jerusalem-based correspondent for a respected international wire service confided this week that her superiors had told her that they are not the least bit interested in stories about Israel’s upcoming November 1 election.
This can, of course, be understood. After all, this will be Israel’s fifth election in just over three and a half years. The main players have not changed, the issues are not particularly global in nature and the personality-driven politics that are characterizing the race are aimed at the average Israeli voter, not observers abroad.
But the very fact that Israel keeps holding elections is not something that can be underestimated in the Middle East, where dictatorships are prevalent. And the fact that Israel’s turnout has hovered around 70% in each general election despite their frequency is something to be envied, especially in the United States, where the average turnout over the past four elections has been 56.9%.
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Where the international media can and should take an active interest is in the contrast between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) when it comes to the respective states of their governments. The foreign press likes comparing Israel to the Palestinians on other issues, like the strength of their security forces, COVID-19 vaccination rates and average income.
Yet the fundamental issue of democratic governance in Jerusalem and Ramallah is a seeming nonstarter.
So why not write that presidential elections were last held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on January 9, 2005? Maybe a piece about how legislative elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council last took place on January 25, 2006 is in order. People wanting to learn more about the Palestinian people would be interested to know that Fatah candidate Mahmoud Abbas was elected to a four-year term. He is currently in his 18th year of that term.
Nor are prominent media outlets interested in reminding their readers that the international community has actively discouraged the Palestinians from holding elections, because polls indicate that they would be won by Hamas, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the US and European Union.
But now there are new developments in the Palestinian Authority that the international media should be covering in depth that have gone unreported.
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Abbas has been implementing measures that could turn the PA into a dictatorship, according to a new report published this week by the Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch and written by attorney Maurice Hirsch, the head of legal strategies for the organization and a former head of the military prosecution in Judea and Samaria.
The report found that Abbas dismantled the Palestinian parliament, abandoned the PA’s constitution and made structural changes in the Palestine Liberation Organization that gave him increased control. Last year, Abbas canceled the Palestinian election, and just five months ago, he restructured the PA’s institutions.
“All international proposals that champion the creation of a Palestinian state emphasize that it needs to be democratic, but there’s nothing left of Palestinian democracy,” Hirsch told Israel’s top circulation newspaper Israel Hayom. “The term ‘Palestinian democracy’ has always been an oxymoron, but it’s gotten worse recently.”
Hirsch said the changes made by Abbas matter, because funding to the PA is intended to help the Palestinian people, not sustain his rule over them.
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No major foreign media outlet has followed up on Hirsch’s alarming report, even though the PA receives funding from the US, EU, UN, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Russia, Norway, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, and Tunisia.
And while the media seemingly have feet of clay, changes have been noticed on the Palestinian street. Hundreds of Palestinian lawyers protested Monday against Abbas ruling by decree and without a parliament to check his power. The protesters were prevented by riot police from getting anywhere near Palestinian government offices.
Should the protests expand and become more serious, the worldwide media may finally start to take Abbas’ chronic corruption more seriously.
But change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Demonstrations that are barely reported do not accomplish much.
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Neither is the suffering of the Palestinians from corruption by Fatah being covered by their own media, due to Abbas’ crackdown on journalists in the PA. His General Intelligence Service arrested journalist Thaer Fakhoury last Thursday, just the latest example of what has become all too commonplace: the trampling on press freedom.
Panning out beyond the Palestinian Territories, and letting Abbas get away with corruption does not advance the interest of making peace in the Middle East.
As such, now is the time for media around the world to report about the state of democracy in the PA, highlight its corruption, and yes, compare it to what is happening next door in the State of Israel.
There is corruption in the Jewish state, too. One former prime minister recently served jail time. Another is on trial now for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The charges against both men were revealed by the robust Israeli media that is unhindered by the government that it covers relentlessly.
The Palestinians deserve no less. They are counting on the foreign press to let the world know what is truly happening in the PA.
Will the media answer the call?
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