Last Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a segment entitled "Christians of the Holy Land,"with Bob Simon, shedding light on the struggles of Palestinian Christians living under Israel's occupation. In the segment, Palestinian Christians affirm their commonality with Palestinian Muslims in suffering under and struggling against the same oppression. The segment also includes an interview with Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, which exposes how the Israeli government tried to censor the story.
According to Israeli government figures, tourism is a multi billion dollar business there. Most tourists are Christian. Many of them are American. That's one reason why Israelis are very sensitive about their image in the United States. And that could be why Ambassador Oren phoned Jeff Fager, the head of CBS News and executive producer of 60 Minutes, while we were still reporting the story, long before tonight's broadcast. He said he had information our story was quote: "a hatchet job."
Michael Oren: It seemed to me outrageous. Completely incomprehensible that at a time when these communities, Christian communities throughout the Middle East are being oppressed and massacred, when churches are being burnt, when one of the great stories in history is unfolding? I think it's-- I think it's-- I think you got me a little bit mystified.
Bob Simon: And it was a reason to call the president of-- chairman of CBS News?
Michael Oren: Bob, I'm the ambassador of the State of Israel. I do that very, very infrequently as ambassador. It's just-- that's an extraordinary move for me to complain about something. When I heard that you were going to do a story about Christians in the Holy Land and my assum-- and-- and had, I believe, information about the nature of it, and it's been confirmed by this interview today.
Bob Simon: Nothing's been confirmed by the interview, Mr. Ambassador, because you don't know what's going to be put on air.
Michael Oren: Okay. I don't. True.
Bob Simon: Mr. Ambassador, I've been doing this a long time. And I've received lots of reactions from just about everyone I've done stories about. But I've never gotten a reaction before from a story that hasn't been broadcast yet.
Michael Oren: Well, there's a first time for everything, Bob.
According to the Forward, because of the intervention of Israel's embassy, CBS delayed broadcasting the segment from its originally scheduled date of the Sunday before Christmas until after Easter.
But Ambassador Oren wasn't the only one objecting to the story before it was aired. One Israeli official even characterized the story as "a strategic terror attack." The Jewish Federations encouraged its members to flood CBS' boxes with complaints:
The discourse should focus primarily on the biased portrayal of Israel in the program. "60 Minutes" will likely attempt to demonize Israel and blame it for the very real problems that the Christian community faces within the territories. The fact of the matter remains that their difficult position is not a result of Israeli policy, but rather because of social, political and cultural pressure within the Palestinian society and Palestinian policy toward Israel (ex: terror activities and their refusal to negotiate a peace agreement). Further, the program is being incredibly manipulative in interviewing Christians on camera. ...
We expect that "60 Minutes" will select examples that are not a reflection of Israeli policy towards Christian but rather of security concerns (ex: issues related to the security fence and issues related to demolition orders for projects that were not properly licensed). These examples will attempt to manipulate the viewer to believe that Israel pressures the Palestinian community to flee the region.
...
We hope that CBS will be flooded with responses through their inboxes, facebook, twitter and mail after the program to express discontent if it is as biased as we anticipate.
As always, MJ Rosenberg aptly chronicles the efforts of
many others to quash and spin CBS' coverage of this story to fit GOI's narrative (
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here). While members of the Israel lobby have been encouraging supporters to flood CBS with complaints (and claim that over 20,000 have responded), supporters of Palestinian Human Rights, like Churches for Middle East Peace and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, also have mobilized supporters to contact CBS. Here is such an appeal from Jewish Voice for Peace:
reprinted with permission
Thank you, 60 Minutes. Journalists who tell
the truth about Palestinian life under occupation deserve our thanks, not political attacks.
Dear {Rusty Pipes},
This week, something rare happened: A major U.S. media outlet actually showed the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians.
But the candid reporting by "60 Minutes", America's most respected news program, has unleashed a furious response from major Jewish and right-wing Christian groups. They've generated over 29,000 letters of complaint — many before the episode even aired.
Unless we push back now -- and thank "60 Minutes" -- real journalism like this will become even more rare. Can you sign our petition to thank "60 Minutes"?
Click here: http://www.ThankYou60Minutes.org
I'm sure you'll agree that now they need to hear from you and others who support their courageous and sadly all too accurate report about the Palestinian Christian exodus from cities like Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians have endured decades of unlawful home demolitions, checkpoints, land confiscation, detentions without charges, and much more. That's primarily why Palestinians are leaving, and why Palestinian Christians issued a call to Christians in other lands to help create pressure on the Israeli government through divestment campaigns.
In response to this call, this week the United Methodist Church is considering a historic vote to begin phased divestment from companies that profit from the occupation. The "60 Minutes" segment, which you can watch on our petition page, explains clearly why church divestment is the right thing to do. The occupation dehumanizes Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Please, take a moment to sign the petition and share this link, http://www.ThankYou60Minutes.org, with your friends. Don't let "60 Minutes" back down. We need more fair and truthful reporting, not less.
Thank you,
Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace
As the JVP letter notes, the timing of this 60 Minute segment is actually providential for advocates of BDS. Because of Oren’s intervention, the segment was delayed from airing the Sunday before Christmas -- when many mainline Protestants are too busy baking Christmas cookies, lining the kids up for a Christmas pageant or Nutcracker performance, singing Christmas carols for shut-ins or just getting in some last minute Christmas shopping to find time to watch an hour-long news program. Instead, it aired a few days before the United Methodists would be gathering to discuss divestment from multinational companies that profit from the occupation — providing important context about the occupation not only for those delegates gathering, but for the average Methodists back in their home congregations. United Methodist Kairos Response is already reporting overwhelming interest in learning about divestment issues -- five times as many delegates attended their first educational event at General Conference as had been anticipated.
Bob Simon and the segment producer, Harry Radcliffe, are to be commended for airing this timely segment on 60 Minutes. Several journalists and bloggers are also to be commended for covering this story as it has unfolded, especially Robert Wright of the Atlantic, MJ Rosenberg, Adam Horowitz and Phil Weiss. The reality-based community is in their debt, even if they had to wait a few days to hear it here.