THREAD:
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THREAD:
Selam fediverse friends,
A first in my career: I've co-produced an episode of the Al Jazeera TV show...The Listening Post and it will air tomorrow!
As you all know well, outrage over genocide in Gaza means Israel has lost the streets and the campuses of the western world.
So, Israel appears to have decided to focus its efforts on selling its narrative to....African audiences.
Also...tomorrow's episode will also feature the queen herself...Dr @timnitGebru
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THREAD:
Selam fediverse friends,
A first in my career: I've co-produced an episode of the Al Jazeera TV show...The Listening Post and it will air tomorrow!
As you all know well, outrage over genocide in Gaza means Israel has lost the streets and the campuses of the western world.
So, Israel appears to have decided to focus its efforts on selling its narrative to....African audiences.
Also...tomorrow's episode will also feature the queen herself...Dr @timnitGebru
Since 2024, Israel has been quietly flying out delegations of journalists, influencers, politicians, even religious figures from different African states. The carefully curated trips take African visitors to tourist and religious sites, the Knesset, and Oct 7 attack sites.
Nothing that shines a light on the suffering of pesky Palestinians of course!
There have been trips with delegations from Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and more going so far.
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Since 2024, Israel has been quietly flying out delegations of journalists, influencers, politicians, even religious figures from different African states. The carefully curated trips take African visitors to tourist and religious sites, the Knesset, and Oct 7 attack sites.
Nothing that shines a light on the suffering of pesky Palestinians of course!
There have been trips with delegations from Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and more going so far.
The trips have led to mixed results: in some African countries, strong backlash has occurred, as was the case with Morocco and Kenya. So, Israeli authorities have been selective: it is now selecting journalists from countries run by dictatorships, where there are no press freedoms. i.e Ethiopia.
For Kenya, where there is a strong media culture, there were no journalists willing to go, so Israel recruited influencers and gospel music singers.
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The trips have led to mixed results: in some African countries, strong backlash has occurred, as was the case with Morocco and Kenya. So, Israeli authorities have been selective: it is now selecting journalists from countries run by dictatorships, where there are no press freedoms. i.e Ethiopia.
For Kenya, where there is a strong media culture, there were no journalists willing to go, so Israel recruited influencers and gospel music singers.
I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza.
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I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza.
Israel appears to be studying the results, country by country. For instance, following intense backlash from Moroccan journalists against colleagues who traveled to Israel, this year, Israel could not find journalists from Morocco. It sent a cultural troupe to instead.
All in all, our weakness as Africans? Too many dictatorships. A robust press culture would have us better resist efforts by not only Israel, but China and Russia as well, to sell us questionable narratives that violate humanity.
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I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza.
@ZekuZelalem thank you for your reporting, and for being in the fediverse.
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Israel appears to be studying the results, country by country. For instance, following intense backlash from Moroccan journalists against colleagues who traveled to Israel, this year, Israel could not find journalists from Morocco. It sent a cultural troupe to instead.
All in all, our weakness as Africans? Too many dictatorships. A robust press culture would have us better resist efforts by not only Israel, but China and Russia as well, to sell us questionable narratives that violate humanity.
Tomorrow, we shine a light on Israel's African psy-op, and hold our fellow African journalists, responsible for coverage that dehumanizes Palestinians and downplays their suffering...to account.
Tomorrow, on Al Jazeera's The Listening Post.
Airs at 19h00 GMT. I would appreciate your time!
Cheers,
-ZZ. -
I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza.
@ZekuZelalem This is sort of mind boggling because my understanding is that Black Jews, many if not most with Ethiopian heritage, who live in Israel are treated as second class citizens. Obviously they must be tailoring the journalists' experiences in some way, for them not to notice this, but I guess I would think that the Black people who actually live there would have had something to say by now. The power of brainwashing, Ig
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@ZekuZelalem This is sort of mind boggling because my understanding is that Black Jews, many if not most with Ethiopian heritage, who live in Israel are treated as second class citizens. Obviously they must be tailoring the journalists' experiences in some way, for them not to notice this, but I guess I would think that the Black people who actually live there would have had something to say by now. The power of brainwashing, Ig
@thiswomanswerk as you will see, a lot of the Ethiopian media outlets that were selected are not media known for critical coverage or analysis of any kind. As such, they needed very little brainwashing. In fact, despite the Ethiopian Israeli experience being exactly as you described, many of the media outlets featured as a speaker Tsega Melaku, an Ethiopian born MP of Netanyahu's far right Likud party, whose job has been downplaying complaints by her community & largely cozying up to the right.
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@ZekuZelalem thank you for your reporting, and for being in the fediverse.
@GRA3432 I'll never leave. Thank you for your time!
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