‘Jerusalem 24’ is the only Palestinian radio that offers news in those languages at the moment, and is only two months old.
“It is six in the afternoon and we are going with the information of the day,” says Rima Mustafa, presenter of a new radio station in Ramallah, in Hebrew. Occupied west bank, which tries to make known to the Israelis the day-to-day life of the Palestinians.
In a bright studio equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the “Jerusalem 24” team does not broadcast in Arabic for Palestinians, but in Hebrew and English for Israelis.
The goal: to give a voice to a Palestinian youth to present their own vision of today to the Israelis.
“The Israeli public hears the media speaking to them, but they do not hear the other voice,” says Rima Mustafa, a journalist from Haifa, in the north.
He has been working for this radio station for three months. It has been on the air since September and puts the accent on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences in society.
In recent weeks, the channel and its website in English They have dedicated much of their programming to the six Palestinian NGOs designated as “terrorist groups” by Israel, to the Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, but also to plays and concerts of Arab music.
A great cultural and political distance
“We want to fill the gap on what is happening in Jerusalem and in marginalized areas,” explains Mai Abu Assab, editor-in-chief with short blonde hair. In Jerusalem, “there are expulsions (of Palestinians) but the world ignores it.”
Jerusalem 24 It is the only Palestinian radio that broadcasts today in Hebrew, But it was not the only one. In the mid-1930s, when Palestine was under British rule, Huna al-Quds radio broadcast in three languages: English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
In Tel Aviv, an Israeli city 65 km from Ramallah, David Haliva, a physical trainer for security guards, started listening to this new radio.
“Israelis do not know Palestinian society (…) There is a great distance between what we think we know and reality ”, he acknowledges.
“There are things we have in common, there is a shortage (…) of housing and construction permits,” he told AFP.
But, although he is impressed by the “professionalism” of the news and the open rejection of violence, he is skeptical of certain expressions such as the term “occupation” to describe the reality of East Jerusalem.
The Hebrew state has occupied this Palestinian part of the Holy City since 1967, which was later annexed and which the Palestinians want to make the capital of the state to which they aspire.
At the end of 2017, the United States of Donald Trump recognized the whole of the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, producing the anger of the Palestinians to the point of severing ties with Washington, before a rapprochement under Joe Biden.
And Jerusalem 24 does not hesitate to criticize the policy of the Israeli government, nor does he forgive the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which wields limited power over the occupied West Bank.
Arabic music to unite
“We criticize the Palestinian Authority and Israel, but we do it professionally”, Assures Mohammed Hamayel, one of the radio presenters. He is not satisfied with the Israeli media landscape where, according to him, the Palestinian point of view is often lacking.
The idea of the station began to take shape in 2015, when The Holy City was the scene of a wave of stab attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, and shots, sometimes fatal, by Israeli security forces against real or suspected attackers, says Mai Abu Assab.
To carry out the project, the team approached foreign donors, including the Danish NGO Church Aid, which now funds a program to raise awareness of young voices.
But with a small team of six journalists, Jerusalem 24 depends on long musical spaces to fill the airwaves and try to attract new listeners.
David Haliva drives through Tel Aviv and with his fingers on the wheel, sets the rhythm of a song by Britain’s Dua Lipa.
“I like the musical diversity” of this radio, he says. Another detail he likes: the absence of advertising. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
