Head of Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says organization to set up editing groups to ensure Palestinian view is presented online. ‘Next regional war will be media war,’ he says
After a rightist group opened the first-ever Zionist editing group aimed at defending Israel on Wikipedia, a Palestinian organization plans to create its own Wikipedia editing program.
Palestinian Journalists Syndicate head Abdul Nasser An-Najar told the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency that his organization plans to set up editing groups to counter attempts to present Israel’s view on Wikipedia. He urged the Palestinian Authority to take part in the initiative.
An-Najar warned that the next regional war would be a “media war,” adding that online information on the Israeli-Arab conflict shapes world opinion.
Last week the Yesha Council and the Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) organization opened a course to address the problem of what it referred to as pro-Arab bias on Wikipedia. In a one-day seminar, lecturers taught dozens of participants how to ensure that Israel’s view is presented on the online encyclopedia.
“We don’t want to change Wikipedia or turn it into a propaganda arm,” Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council, was quoted by the Guardian as saying. “We just want to show the other side. People think that Israelis are mean, evil people who only want to hurt Arabs all day.”
Ayelet Shaked of Yisrael Sheli told the British newspaper the problem is that online, pro-Israeli activists are vastly outnumbered by pro-Palestinian voices. “We don’t want to give this arena to the other side,” she said. “But we are so few and they are so many. People in the US and Europe never hear about Israel’s side, with all the correct arguments and explanations.”
Shaked said the Israeli government is “not doing a very good job” of explaining Israel to the world.
Desertpeace 
Arab/Israeli conflict moves to the net · Tessonome said,
August 28, 2010 at 19:19
[…] After a rightist group opened the first-ever Zionist editing group aimed at defending Israel on Wikipedia, a Palestinian organization plans to create its own Wikipedia editing program. […]
Llyn said,
August 28, 2010 at 21:03
Ayelet Shaked, Your leaders should have stopped to think about “we are so few and they are so many before they started a war in 1967 that has put Israel in the position it is in today.
Your leaders should have thought about what you said when they decided to take this from a an Palestinian-Israeli problem to an Arab-Palestinian problem and then deliberately Your Leaders decided to take it even further to an Islamic – Jewish and then upped it to involving the rest of the Western World. Now deal with it.
Amerikagulag said,
August 29, 2010 at 02:53
Good on them! GOOOOooo Palestine!
Counting the cost | BBC News said,
August 29, 2010 at 08:21
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