Dear Concordia Journalism…

by Jill

It was 6 a.m. when the Israeli police invaded al-Araqib. Still half-asleep, I stood alongside Israeli and international activists and village residents, trying in vain to stop the impending home demolitions. In the end, all we could do was watch as the bulldozers easily ripped apart every structure until absolutely nothing was left standing.

Al-Araqib is a Palestinian Bedouin village located in the Israeli Negev desert that has been razed to the ground a total of five times in the past two months. Its destruction, for the purposes of creating a forest over village lands, has been commissioned by the Jewish National Fund, a Zionist organization founded in 1901 with the responsibility of acquiring land for the Jewish leadership in Palestine.

The JNF claims that by forcibly evicting Israeli citizens from their homes and replacing them with trees, it is preventing desertification and improving the ecosystem in the Negev. In reality, its policies and actions reek of gross human rights violations, discrimination, and ethnic cleansing.

As a graduate of Concordia University’s Journalism program, I have been producing video and print stories from around Israel/Palestine since last June, and have made over a dozen trips to al-Araqib to speak with the courageous and inspiring residents there. Each time, I have used the journalistic and problem-solving skills Concordia helped me develop.

I remember that one of the first things we were told upon entering Concordia’s journalism program was that if we want to be newsmakers, we must fiercely consume news. If this statement was more than just empty words, how then could Concordia Journalism invite Yaakov Katz, who is promoted by the JNF’s Speakers Bureau, to give a talk at the CJ building on October 5, knowing full-well what the JNF is directly responsible for in the Negev?

“[The] Jewish National Fund is pleased to offer our distinct speaker services for your next event — whether it is a small learning group or a large conference,” boasts the JNF website. How could Concordia allow this so-called journalist – with clear and open affiliations to the JNF and its criminal policies – freely address and influence young journalists, without so much as a reference to this affiliation?

Unfotunately, Katz’ questionable journalistic credibility does not end there. As the Jerusalem Post’s military and “defense” expert, Katz reported from occupied Gaza during the Israeli disengagement of 2005 (yet has failed to criticize the ongoing Israeli blockade since) and was embedded with the Israeli army during its attacks on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, which left 1,300 Lebanese civilians dead and displaced over one million.

Katz is also promoted as a guest speaker on the Hasbara Fellowship webpage – a fellowship designed to train North American students to defend Israeli policy, no questions asked, on their school campuses. Lastly, Katz has consistently and recklessly pounded the drumbeat for an Israeli military confrontation with Iran, disregarding the destabilizing and dangerous impact this would have on the Middle East and the world as a whole.

By inviting this so-called journalist to address first-year students, Concordia Journalism is failing in its responsibility to lead the journalists of tomorrow. What type of journalism is Concordia promoting when it invites someone who has never questioned the Israeli government’s at best hawkish and at worst criminal policies? What type of journalism is Concordia saying students should aspire to when it invites someone who has consistently failed to hold the Israeli state accountable for its grave violations of international law and human rights?

Israeli journalist Amira Hass said, “What journalism is really about [is] to monitor power and the centers of power.” By inviting Yaakov Katz to speak at Concordia, the journalism department and the university as a whole has demonstrated its willingness to employ morally bankrupt double standards while placing the status quo above the authentic and fair reporting that journalism is meant to embody. It is ignoring what journalism is really about.