David Bedein

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David Bedein (born August 31, 1950) is an MSW, a community organizer by profession, a writer, and an investigative journalist. [1] In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency, [2] with offices at the Beit Agron Int'l Press Center in Jerusalem. He serves as Director of The Center for Near East Policy Research.

Contents

Bedein has also reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, The Philadelphia Inquirer , The Jerusalem Post , and the Jewish World Review . [3] For four years, Bedein was the Middle East correspondent for The Bulletin , writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. [4] Bedein has covered attempts at Middle East negotiations centering Israel—in many major cities of the world. Bedein lives in Efrat with his family. One of his inspirations was the community organizer and activist Saul Alinsky.

Work

Bedein was active in the Israeli peace movement for over for 17 years. [5]

In the 1980s, Bedein went to Ethiopia as part of a delegation to investigate the impact of the famine on the Ethiopian Jewish community. [6]

The UNRWA Reform Initiative (U.R.I.) [7] was launched by The Center for Near East Policy Research, which has been conducting news investigations and producing films since 1987. Their current project focuses on policy change at UNRWA, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. [8]

Research and media presence

Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin,[ dubious discuss ] the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Adalah, the New Israel Fund, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). [9]

Under the direction of David Bedein, the Center for Near East Policy Research and Israel Behind The News have produced a number of investigative video productions. In July 2013, they released a film titled "Camp Jihad" allegedly showing activities and interviews in which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in its 'summer camps'. This was not the first time he dealt with this topic.[ citation needed ] UNRWA released an official rejection of these claims, [10] claiming the summer camp shown, and the people involved are not affiliated with UNRWA. In a November 2013 meeting between US Secretary of State, John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, parts of this film were shown. [11]

Bedein has been involved in the UNRWA Reform Initiative, [12] which involves requests of donor nations to make reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein's legal counsel articulated these requested reforms in a letter to the British government's Department for International Development (DFID), which assists UNRWA.[ citation needed ] In March 2014, Bedein participated in an informal panel at the British House of Commons with experts on UNRWA education. [13]

Since the publication of his book, Bedein has discovered several new alleged findings concerning UNRWA, which were published by the two organisations he has founded, under the titles Islamic groups that fund UNRWA, [14] Palestinian Authority Allegation: "Jews killed Christ" in the Palestinian Authority Christian Education Textbooks Used in UNRWA Schools in the West Bank, Jerusalem & Gaza, [15] and The U.N.'s Child Death Cult Education. [16]

Bedein presented his latest research to members of the Swedish Parliament on November 18, 2016. [17] He appeared on a local program entitled "Follow the Money: with Swedish journalist Tobias Petterson" [18] Following these revelations, Tobias Petterson took to the Israel National News site, Arutz 7, to express his shock over the official Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education textbooks and curriculum.[ citation needed ]

ABC Lawsuit

In 1988, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) filed a lawsuit in Israel for $1 million [19] against Bedein's company, Israel Resources, after Bedein showed "taped copies of the network's evening news coverage of the Arab uprising" [20] (First Intifada) at one or more events where Bedein charged a fee for entry. ABC charged that Bedein violated the copyright to the footage by showing the clips.

The New York Times provided more context in an article just following the filing of the lawsuit:

Newscasts drawn from American, Canadian and European television were shown throughout the winter months to demonstrate the disparity between foreign and Israeli coverage of the Palestinian uprising. Showing the tapes to Jerusalem audiences helped lead to outraged charges from many Israelis that the international press was being unfair to their country.Before the foreign television tapes were shown here, Israelis had seen only their own television coverage, which failed to show many of the worst cases of violence. That coverage helped many in this country form their personal impression of what was happening in the occupied territories. When they saw the foreign television coverage, many were shocked, and they accused the foreign news organizations of being biased against Israel. [20] [21]

ABC ultimately lost the case in 1992 on a technicality for not being able to prove a corporate link between ABC Inc. and ABC News in a move The Jerusalem Post called "a pity" [22] in an editorial.

Films produced by the Center for Near East Policy Research

The Center for Near East Policy Research has been investigating UNRWA for 27 years and has produced documentary films for over a decade, showing activities going on in schools and camps, with interviews from students and staff. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNRWA</span> United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba, the 1948 Palestine War, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.

Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.

International aid has been provided to Palestinians since at least the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Palestinians view the aid as keeping the Israeli–Palestinian peace process going, while Israelis and other foreign policy authorities have raised concerns that it is used to fund terrorism and removes the imperative for Palestinians to negotiate a settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As a provision of the Oslo Accords, international aid was to be provided to the Palestinians to ensure economic solvency for the Palestinian National Authority (PA). In 2004, it was reported that the PA, within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, receives one of the highest levels of aid in the world. In 2006, economic sanctions and other measures were taken by several countries against the PA, including suspension of international aid following Hamas' victory at the Palestinian Legislative Council election. Aid to the PA resumed in 2008 following the Annapolis Conference, where Hamas was not invited. Aid has been provided to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (PNGOs) as well as Palestinian political factions by various foreign governments, international organizations, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and charities, besides other sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yitzhar</span> Israeli settlement in the West Bank

Yitzhar is an Israeli settlement located in the West Bank, south of the city of Nablus, just off Route 60, north of the Tapuach Junction. The predominantly Orthodox Jewish community falls under the jurisdiction of Shomron Regional Council. In 2022, it had a population of 2,093.

Textbooks in Israel and the Palestinian territories have been an issue within the larger Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hafrada</span> Israeli separation policy

Hafrada is the policy of the government of Israel to separate the Israeli population from the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories, in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

<i>Deception: Betraying the Peace Process</i> 2011 book by Itamar Marcus

Deception: Betraying the Peace Process is a book published in 2011 by the Israel-based media watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch. Deception analyses a year of cultural, educational and general media sources in the Palestinian Authority (PA), beginning from May 2010, the month that indirect Israeli–Palestinian talks were initiated by the US. The book concludes that the PA systematically fomented anti-Israel sentiment and promoted violence to undermine the peace process and a two-state solution. It reports hundreds of examples of the "PA's policy of" glorifying terrorism and demonizing Israelis and Jews, in print, websites, videos, and school texts. It states that the Palestinian leadership is deceiving the international community, presenting itself in English as pursuing peace, while propagating hate speech and support for violence in Arabic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bassem Eid</span> Palestinian human rights activist and political analyst (born 1958)

Bassem Eid is a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem who comments on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for Israeli TV and radio. During his early career, he reported on the IDF's alleged use of force against Palestinian civilians. His research currently focusses on human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian armed forces. He founded the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996, although it ceased operations in 2011. He now works as a political analyst for Israeli TV and radio and speaks on university campuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Quds University</span> University in Palestine

Al-Quds University is a Palestinian public university in the Jerusalem Governorate, Palestine. It is the largest Palestinian university in the city of Jerusalem. The main campus is located in Abu Dis town of Jerusalem, with three more such campus in Jerusalem and other campuses in Ramallah and Hebron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015–2016 wave of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict</span> Notable increase of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

An increase of violence occurred in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict starting in the autumn of 2015 and lasting into the first half of 2016. It was called the "Intifada of the Individuals" by Israeli sources, the Knife Intifada, Stabbing Intifada or Jerusalem Intifada by international sources because of the many stabbings in Jerusalem, or Habba by Palestinian sources. 38 Israelis and 235 Palestinians were killed in the violence. 558 Israelis and thousands of Palestinians were injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Jerusalem truck attack</span> Vehicle-ramming attack in Jerusalem

A vehicle-ramming attack occurred in Jerusalem on 8 January 2017. A truck driven by an Arab citizen of Israel plowed into a group of uniformed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers disembarking from a bus on the Armon Hanatziv Esplanade in East Jerusalem's East Talpiot neighborhood, close to the Trotner park and UNTSO headquarters, killing four and injuring 15.

The Sons of Zouari are a militant group in Gaza, responsible for launching incendiary kites and balloons into Israel causing damage to fields and land, during the 2018 Gaza border protests. The group's incendiary balloons are usually attached with Molotov cocktails, grenades, and other flammable materials, and inflated with helium. The wind from the Mediterranean sea allows the kites and balloons to float into Israeli territory and cause damage to farmland, forests, and wildlife. The group is named after Hamas’s chief drone expert and engineer Mohamed Zouari, inspired by his method of "invasion by air" as he supervised an unmanned aircraft during the 2014 Gaza War. In June 2018, the Israeli Air Force targeted the car of one of the group's leaders, though the car was empty at the time. The group targets both houses and land. Damage by kites has caused damage to thousands of acres of Israeli farmland near Gaza during the 2018 Gaza border protests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Jerusalem shooting</span> Shooting in Jerusalem

On 21 November 2021, a shooting took place in the Old City of Jerusalem. Fadi Abu Shkhaydem, a 42-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem killed a 26 year old Israeli, who had made aliyah from South Africa in 2019. He injured four others before being shot dead by police.

The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Al-Aqsa clashes</span> Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

On 15 April 2022, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli Security Forces on the Al-Aqsa compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the clashes began when Palestinians threw stones, firecrackers, and other heavy objects at Israeli police officers. The policemen used tear gas shells, stun grenades and police batons against the Palestinians. Some Palestinians afterwards barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque and proceeded to throw stones at the officers. In response, police raided the mosque, arresting those who had barricaded themselves inside. In addition, some damage was done to the mosque's structure.

Events in the year 2022 in the Palestinian territories.

Events in 2024 in the Palestinian territories.

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