Officials: Israel, IDF outsource monitoring of Palestinian media to right-wing organizations

[azurnoir]

The government, meanwhile, is getting most of its information on anti-Israel incitement from two private organizations, the sources said: the Middle East Media Research Institute, which is based in Washington, D.C., and the Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch.

Palestinian Media Watch provides mostly professional material on Palestinian incitement in the media and textbooks, but is associated with the right wing. It is directed by Itamar Marcus, who until recently served as the vice president of the Central Fund of Israel, a New York-based right-wing nonprofit association that donates to Israeli right-wing groups like Im Tirtzu and helps fund various activities in West Bank settlements.

The Prime Minister's Bureau confirmed that it is one of several government offices to subscribe to the Palestinian Media Watch e-mail list.

In the last few weeks alone, Netanyahu has cited information that appears in the organization's media roundups. Members of his bureau said that whenever the government wants to cite information, the source of the material and its credibility is carefully checked.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/officials-israel-idf-outsource-monitoring-of-palestinian-media-to-right-wing-organizations-1.410082

[Violet_Crumble]

1. That's the problem with hardline right-wing governments and their supporters...

Tossing work the way of their right-wing bretheren is seen by them as a good thing. Though to be fair to the long-running right-wing government we had here, at least they didn't try to tinker with the monitoring of digital and traditional media by different departments and left the partisan political bias to their advisors...

Interesting article. I just went to check out the connection between PMW and the Central Fund of Israel, and saw it straight away...

http://palwatch.org/pages/donate1.aspx

And here's some info on the clearing houses used in the US to funnel funds into settlements in the West Bank, of which the Central Fund of Israel is one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/world/middleeast/06settle.html?pagewanted=all