Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A7 Media Analysis:Ynet Report Leaves Out Right-Wing Participants

Hillel Fendel

A report by the popular Hebrew news site Ynet omits any mention of right-wing participants at a Knesset committee session on outposts in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). Ynet is owned by Israel's largest daily, Yediot Acharonot. The Ynet report on the Knesset session quoted only three participants at the session. Two of them are clearly identified with the left-wing, anti-Yesha end of the spectrum: Cabinet Minister Chaim Ramon and former senior State Prosecution Attorney Talia Sasson. The third figure cited was a neutral party, the head of the Civil Administration.

The report carried extensive excerpts by Sasson, whose report in 2005 against the fledgling Jewish neighborhoods continues to serve as the government's basis for its plans to destroy them. It also quotes at length Minister Ramon, whose position can be summed up in this quote: "I would be happy if we could come to an agreement without having to resort to violence, but in the end, the government will have to fulfill its obligation [to destroy many of the neighborhoods]."

Committee Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev of the NRP was neither quoted nor mentioned, despite the fact that he proposed, and passed, a Committee resolution not to ask the State Comptroller to investigate the outposts issue.

Nor were other pro-outpost members of the committee cited. This, despite a news-making call by MK Nissan Slomiansky (National Religious Party) for the establishment of a governmental authority to regulate and approve Jewish communities in Yesha, rather than destroy them.

Ynet had one other report on the session: A news flash reporting that left-wing MK Avshalom Vilan was protesting Chairman Orlev's decision to vote on the proposal not to ask for State Comptroller intervention.

In comparison, Arutz-7's Hebrew news site featured several excerpts from Ramon's remarks, in addition to quoting Vilan, Slomiansky (in a video), Orlev, and the Defense Ministry's Eitan Baroshi.

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