Correspondents Report - Images of Palestine
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Correspondents Report - Images of Palestine
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2004/s1118768.htm]

Correspondents Report - Sunday, 30 May , 2004
Reporter: Jane Hutcheon

EDMOND ROY: Last week as Israel's military offensive in southern Gaza wound up, Correspondents Report looked at how Israel handled its public image. The Jewish state attracted international condemnation for its actions, which resulted in the loss of more than 50 Palestinian lives, including at least ten civilians.

This week, a view from the other side.

Middle East Correspondent Jane Hutcheon went to Ramallah to speak with Ohio-born Palestinian businessman and activist, Sam Bahour. She began by asking him whether Palestinians have been successful at articulating their cause in the international media.

SAM BAHOUR: Personally, I think it's our own fault, as Palestinians. This is not something we can blame on the Israelis.
To be able to put together a proper, public relations/media/campaign, requires an internal commitment to do so, commitment and more than just words. It requires funds, it requires equipment, it requires professional staff, professional training. And it also requires tapping the Palestinian diaspora.
Unfortunately, the investment going from the Palestinian side into properly articulating their case, is an investment that's more oriented towards the 1970s and not the year 2000.

JANE HUTCHEON: Sam Bahour came to Ramallah in 1995 to set up a telecommunications firm. Since then he's been responsible for constructing the West Bank's first mall, which opened last year.

Now, this MBA graduate runs an information consultancy. He's a passionate advocate of how Palestinians could better express themselves, and the goal of the current Intifada or uprising – freedom from occupation.

I asked him whether he thought the Palestinian cause was largely understood by the world.

SAM BAHOUR: I think more so than 20 years ago. Things are improving, especially with a new generation of Palestinians coming to the scene, people such as myself, second generation Palestinians who have seen the tools of the media abroad, have been brought up in different communities, were bringing, I think, a resource to our community here in Palestine that maybe wasn't here before.
Having said that, I do think people are fully aware, with this Intifada, that the Israeli military occupation has to come to an end and I think that realization in itself is a major achievement.

JANE HUTCHEON: When you see scenes of checkpoints and occupation, and you contrast that with something like a suicide bombing on an Israeli bus, the two in a sense don't compare.

Do you feel that that does the Palestinian cause some damage?

SAM BAHOUR: It does a lot of damage. I think it's the result of not only the oppression that the occupation puts upon our people and turns youth to view life under occupation as death.
But I think equally it is the lack of a pro-active Palestinian leadership to give everyone a role in the resistance, a lack of that proper leadership, has had a lot of people turning to fundamentalism, a lot of people turning to suicide bombings.

JANE HUTCHEON: I asked Mr Bahour whether either side, Israeli or Palestinian, could win the image war in the current conflict.

SAM BAHOUR: From the Palestinian point of view at least, we need to view our articulating the public relations issues in a way not to win this battle of this week's conflict, but rather to put our efforts into a strategic path that will bring decision makers, whoever they may be, whether it's the President of the United States, the United Nations, the quartet, or our own leadership, to bring those decision makers into a path that will lead them to ending the occupation.
So I can't really care less if I won this week's image building with Israel or not, but I care a lot if I move the world one step closer to bringing about the end of occupation.

JANE HUTCHEON: Businessman and activist, Sam Bahour.
And this is Jane Hutcheon in Ramallah, for Correspondents Report.
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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