Sources
Four news organisations will be used in this study. The first two may not be as well known as the others so before going any further it is important to clarify the credibility of these sources. The first one is the Jerusalem Post and it was founded in 1932. In their official website it claims that it is Israel’s best-selling English daily and most-read English website.1
The second one is the Haaretz Newspaper in Israel. It is an organisation that “provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East” and everything that occurs within these regions including defence policies, Arab-Israeli conflict and even the peace process.2 The other sources comes from the BBC News and CBC News Canada.
Jerusalem Post
The article from taken from the Jerusalem Post provided the most in-depth discussion of the Palestinian refugees problem. Using this article as the point of comparison, the other three sources will be studied on their treatment of the said subject matter. Going back to the Jerusalem Post it has to be pointed out that the article was written by a guest columnist.
His name is Alon Ben-Meir and it can be presumed safely that he is an Israeli who happens to be a Professor of International Relations at New York University. Ben-Meir identified key elements of the refugee problem such as the idea of resettlement, homeland, and coming home to the State of Israel.
Ben-Meir argued not only on the urgency of the problem but also discussed a possible solution. Ben-Meir clarified the issue even further by saying that this is not just a political problem but also a humanitarian concern because there are at least 4.5 million refugees according to UN records.3
The author also said that it is imperative that the surrounding nations, the UN and the nations all over the world should assist in one way or another in order to resolve this issue once and for all.
Ben-Meir added two crucial statements, he said that refugees cannot afford to wait for the peace talks to be finalized and then he said that the European Union should take the lead.
He cited the economic and political clout possessed by the EU as the main reason why they should initiate the final solution to the problem. He also pointed out the propensity of the Arab States to gravitate towards the EU and not the United States because of the perceived close ties that the Americans have with the Israelis.
Haaretz Newspaper
In the Haaretz Newspaper the article the title contained the terms “concession on rights to return.” First of all there was no discussion with regards to the urgent need to help refugees resettle or return to their homeland.
The issue immediately centred on the fact that there were secret deals that were made to limit the number of refugees that will be allowed to go back to their homelands. In the previous article the number of refugees was estimated to be only 4.5 million but this time around the estimate reached 5 million Palestinian refugees.
BBC News
In the BBC News article, the emphasis was on the culpability of the Israelis for the war of 1948 was the main reason why 700,000 Palestinians were displaced. The Israeli government countered with the statement that “most Palestinian refugees left to avoid a war instigated by neighbouring Arab states though it admits a ‘handful’ of expulsions and unauthorised killings.”4
The article also stated that aside from the 1948 war there was also the 1967 war that displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and that the accurate tally reached up to 6 million refugees. The Israeli government disputes this number.
CBC News Canada
In CBC News Canada’s Special Report, the emphasis was on the reason why the Palestinian refugees left in the first place. It is implied that when the Jews established a Jewish State hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and that the diaspora of 700,000 Palestinians resulted in the 4.7 million refugees that exists today.
The report also focused on the state of the Palestinian refugees that fled to Lebanon, and the author remarked that, “While in countries such as Jordan and Syria, Palestinians can attend local schools, access government services, participate fully in the job market and even acquire citizenship, in Lebanon, they remain marginalized and are considered to be among the poorest in the diaspora.”5
Differences in Reporting
There are significant differences in reporting. The first major issue that these news sites could not agree on is the number of the Palestinian refugees. The Jerusalem Post said that there are 4.5 million while the Haaretz said that there are 5 million refugees.
On the other hand the BBC made the assertion that the total number of refugees numbered 6 million while the CBC Canada had a the second lowest estimate and it is 4.7 million refugees.
There is also differences in focus or the way the reporters frame the events. Others see it as a political problem related to the peace process while other see it as a humanitarian problem and thus puts pressure on authorities to resolve it as quickly as possible because the lives of millions of people are at stake.
Others nitpicked on the kinds of assistance that must be extended to the refugees. There is an argument whether the Palestinians must be absorbed by host nations, if they are supposed to be sent back to their original homes or at least given the chance to go back to their homeland.
Explanation
The differences in the reporting can be understood from the point of view of the reporters and their bias towards a particular subject matter. For example the Jerusalem Post, through their guest columnist emphasized the need for the EU to come in and help.
This can be interpreted as an appeal to the EU to assist Israel because the Jewish State could not carry the burden all by itself. Furthermore, Ben-Meir said that there are only 4.5 million refugees not five million or six million as claimed by other reporters. The low estimate can be interpreted as the reluctance of the Israelis to carry all the blame for the diaspora.
The article from the Haaretz newspaper rounded-off the figure to 5 million presumably to force people to understand the gravity of the problem. It is the impossibility of absorbing these great number of people without risking the stability of the only Jewish State in the planet.
It also gave emphasis to other options which is resettlement. However, there is no mention of compensation. It can be argued that the refugees had the right to be relocated and compensated for what was done to them when they were forced to leave their homes in 1948.
In the case of the CBC News report the spotlight was focused on the suffering that the refugees suffered under the Israelis as well as the callousness of the Lebanon government when it comes to integrating the refugees into the local population. This can be interpreted as an attempt to force Israel and Lebanon to accept responsibility for their actions.
If one will use the article from Jerusalem Post as a guide one can argue that there are so many facets to the refugee problem and yet international leaders, the Israeli government and Arab States focuses only on the areas that will benefit them. It is time to look at the problem from a humanitarian point of view.
These refugees must not be seen as pawns in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab leaders must accept the fact that 4 to 6 million refugees cannot be realistically brought back within the borders of Jerusalem or even relocated into the Gaza strip.
The BBC News and CBC News failed to explain another major root cause of the refugee problem. The Arab nations surrounding Israel did not agree to what was then known as the British Mandate of Palestine.6 This is crucial because the BBC and the CBC seem to paint the Israeli government in a negative light that this refugee problem was all their fault.
The Palestinian refugees are more than 4 million in number, this is no longer a problem that should be tackled only by Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It has become an international problem and requires the assistance of everyone.
Bibliography
Asser, Martin. “Obstacles to Arab-Israeli peace: Palestinian refugees.” BBC News. Web.
Ben-Meir, Alon. “Guest Column: Taking responsibility for Palestinian refugees.” Jerusalem Post. Web.
CBC News. “Special Report: Palestinian Refugees.” CBC News Canada. Web.
Haaretz Service. “Hamas urges Palestinian refugees to protest over concessions on right of return.” Haaretz.com. Web.
Footnotes
1 Ben-Meir, Alon. “Guest Column: Taking responsibility for Palestinian refugees.” Jerusalem Post.
2 Haaretz Service. “Hamas urges Palestinian refugees to protest over concessions on right of return.” Haaretz.com.
3 Ben-Meir.
4 Martin Asser. “Obstacles to Arab-Israeli peace: Palestinian refugees.” BBC News.
5 CBC News. “Special Report: Palestinian Refugees.” CBC News Canada.
6 CBC News.