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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Speaking of press rhetoric on the mideast |
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by Ha'aretz, via gehrig
(No verified email address) |
21 May 2002
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Sometimes little things mean a lot -- here is one of those small positive developments. |
Saudi press drops 'shaheed' in coverage of suicide attacks
By Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondent
The Saudi Arabian press is changing the way it reports Palestinian suicide bombings, dropping the use of the term shaheeds.
In reporting the Netanya market attack, Al Watan on Monday called it a suicide bombing, and other papers used the term fidaiyah - meaning sacrifice or suicide. Muslim clerics have in recent years argued that the attacks in Israeli cities were not "suicides" but a form of martyrdom.
The use of terms that do not refer to the suicides as martyrs is an attempt by the Saudi government, through its media controls, to try to calm the pro-Palestinian arena. Asharq al-Awsat, the Saudi-owned international daily that is of the most influential newspapers in the Arab world, has lately been referring to bombings in Israel as "fedayit" and called the Rishon Letzion bombing a suicide attack. The newspaper's outlook generally reflects Saudi foreign policy, and a lead editorial recently called on Palestinians to cease acts of violence against Israel.
In Egypt Al Ahram has resumed using religious terms for the suicide bombers. But last week the pro-government daily Al-Riad explicitly called for an end to "suicide bombings" and suggested the Palestinians look to their "supreme national interests." |
