The Arabic Channels puncture cultural isolation: Aljazeera, a major source of news

Palestinian Arabs that live in Israel are not different from other Arab societies in their interest in watching TV in large numbers.They do differ in the type and manner of their TV consumption, which reveal the complicated realities and constraints that this society confronts it after the expulsion of its cultural elite in 1948. 

The Israeli authority blockaded the Palestinian people, isolating the villages not for twenty years. During this time, military authorities engaged in intensive censorship, directly controlling media produced using language codes and media codes. After the end of martial law, Israel continued to place indirect controls on Arab cultural productions, isolating them from their neighbors in the Arab region and enforcing coding appropriate with her coding. 

Research commissioned by the I’lam Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel and headed by Dr. Amal Jamal explores the types of media consumption of the Palestinians in Israel, clarifying how they puncture geographic and psychological borders and isolation and how they manage to accommodate different and contradictory cultures that help them in their daily life and sense of national belonging. 

After the end of the military authority in 1968, Palestinians in Israel tried to acclimatize with the accruing situation by holding on to their Palestinian Arab cultural identity. They still connected with neighbors Arab countries by consumption of Arab radio and TV channels coming from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan.

The world technology revolution changed these types of consumption by creating new digital channels that can bypass the control of national authorities.

The research conducted indicates that the Aljazeera news channel gets the relative majority of Palestinian viewer ship in Israel with 50.9%, while MBC channel was the second with 28.3%. The Israeli station, Channel One was the third choice and the Lebanese station LBC took the fourth position with 14.4% percent. The results clearly prove that Palestinians in Israel place more confidence in the information broadcast on the Arab channels, more so than the Israeli channels. 

Arabic channels, especially Aljazeera, get the first position as a basic source of political news that the Palestinians in Israel depend on, but particularly for news related to the Arab-Israeli conflict (65.4%) and the issue of the occupation of Iraq (80.7%). They tend not to believe information related to the Arab-Israeli conflict that is broadcast by the Israeli channels with only 19.5% choosing such channels for news on domestic politics and economic and internal politics related to daily life.

The results proved that Israeli culture failed to attract the Palestinian minority and failed in isolating them from their national culture. Digital technology developments that allowed for Arabic satellite channels have attracted the majority of viewers in this minority. Such channels have succeeded in being more independent and in bypassing control by national authorities. 

According to the research, only 3.6% of Palestinians in Israel watch Israeli entertainment and social cultural programming, while 67.5% watch such programming on Arabic satellite channels. This indicates that Palestinians in Israel feel a greater sense of belonging to Arab culture, as opposed to Israeli culture, which has created a cultural gap between this minority community and the Israeli nation while attempting to isolate the nation from the regional culture surrounding it.

By the research 39.5% percent think that Arab stations influence on their personality, and they help them to understand their political and social environment, 29.5% didn’t succeed to determine this influence, 33.8% think that these stations don’t represent them.

40.7% from the Arab think that the Arabic stations straight the feeling of ‘national belonging” to the Arab world.57.3% see that “ Arabic stations influence on their combining range to the Arab world problems”, This results clearly show that the Arabic stations straight of the combining feelings to problems and issues of the Arabic world, mostly of them think that their cultural reference is to the Arab world.

39.5% accepted that the Arabic stations straight their confident feeling, 25% don’t accept with this fact, 32% see that this influence is immediate and little, 43% accept that the Arabic stations influence on the Arabs watching to the Israeli stations, 47.5% indicate that this stations reduce their watching to culture programs.

The research show that the Palestinian young in Israel interesting and prefer to watch this stations (Rotana, Future, LBC, MBC1,MBC2) they also interesting to watch the funny programs and the series but in the other side older people and immediate people prefer to watch news programs from “Aljazeera” and “Alarabia” stations, and the Israeli station, Channel One , also they watch religious programs from the Islamic station “Iqraa”, The research indicate that women interesting to watch the stations (LBC,MBC1,MBC2,Rotana, Future) and a big percent from him interesting to watch “Iqraa”, most of them is a housekeepers that spend most of their space time in watching T.V.

The research check how the Palestinian minority adjusting with the media and it examine the support of the visual media to the minorities and it examine if it help the Palestinian to keep their national identity cultural language, It’s demonstrate that the “national belonging” is an influencing factor on the consumption type and determine it’s sources, clearly we see that this minority improving special consumption types and meanings that related to the majority media.

Firstly they interest in political issues specially in the Arabic issues, but their local news they prefer to see them by the Israeli channels, this fact help them to develop multiplied ability consumption Tow different cultural channels.

They succeed to still living in their land and adjusting with the Israeli environment without losing their national and cultural identity.

I show a part of the research that I wish to dealing in the next time.