Abstract
Headlines From the Holy Land is a readable and interesting examination of news coverage of what is now known as “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” from the last days of British mandate up to and including the challenge posed by the Twitter wars that popped up along the edges of the 2014 Gaza war. The author’s sources range from historical research, to his personal and professional experiences on the ground as a correspondent, to connections he developed among the diplomatic or correspondent corps during his time in the field, to parallel types of sources he developed for the purpose of research for the book.
The book is enhanced by Rodgers’s writing and research skills and by the high caliber professional connections he can draw on and draw out for illustrative anecdotes, but the added value lies in the exceptional insights he offers scattered throughout the work. The caliber of the writing and reporting make this a good read for anyone interested in foreign correspondents at war, and Rodgers’s insights make it worth reading for anyone interested in the crisis.
On July 22, 1946, the Irgun bombers who disguised themselves as Arab traders to sneak milk cans full of explosive into kitchens under Jerusalem’s King David Hotel knew exactly what they were doing. The hotel was the center of British administrative control of the Palestinian Mandate. It was also the location of the Western news offices and the residence of many of the diplomats, businessmen, government functionaries, and journalists drawn to the seat of the Mandate. The day’s explosions changed life in Palestine forever.
No story could have been as large, as the Irgun knew, not because of the number of the casualties but because it made clear to the world how inept the British administration of the Mandate was, which came to an end with the UN vote to recognize Israel. The power vacuum left by the British exit was filled by the United States. American journalists witnessed the King David bombing, and British journalists covered the continuing search for a settlement between the Arabs and the Israelis. Enduring British and U.S. interests in the region were reflected in their journalism and distinguish it from the journalism of other countries; this volume focuses on the Anglo-American press coverage of the struggle between the would-be Zionist colonist settlers and the Palestinian residents of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Rodgers suggests that journalists are drawn to Jerusalem and the struggle between the warring parties because they see it as a natural step in the development of their careers. Diplomats, he suggests, seek the assignment because they hope to arrange a peace where their predecessors have failed.
Rodgers uses historical tools to produce an overview of the coverage of the King David bombing as well as the coverage of the Six-Day War and the Arab Israeli War of 1973. While he draws on journalistic remembrance, diaries, and anecdotes throughout, the balance shifts for the second half of the book’s exploration of “Roadmap, Reporting and Religion.” The coverage of the “Roadmap,” floats among some of the most serious issues to do with journalism or other types of research in and among Israel and the Palestinians. Such questions include the following: What sets apart a journalist worth her salt from the lazy one? How should one write a story about the crisis and provide enough context without going back to the Bible? What is the relationship between the journalist and the diplomat—who depends on whom, or should there be no relationship at all? And, how might a reporter make the most of the valuable play by play information made available by Twitter without becoming a target for the predictable onslaught of propaganda and political manipulation?
On every page, the author’s knowledge and firsthand experience produces a nuanced analysis and explanation that allows him to know which of his own and other’s anecdotes are important. One of those observations, which might not occur to anyone who has not visited Israel and the West Bank lately, is the realization that travelers, particularly journalists, have access across boundaries that others do not. They can go where Israelis cannot, where Palestinians cannot, and even where diplomats cannot.
From the King David explosion on, correspondents have complained about the attempts of officials to constrain their coverage. Today, their problems are compounded by lobbies in the diaspora who care more about a story’s details than any reader would notice, and complain about the same issues repetitively.
A senior lecturer at City University London, Rodgers is head of the university’s international journalism master’s program. Prior to joining the university, he had a 20-year journalism career—five years with Reuters Television and fifteen with the BBC. For the BBC, he covered Russia, Brussels, and Gaza. He was the only Western journalist permanently assigned to Gaza between 2002 and 2004, which gives him intimate knowledge of the landscape of the flashpoint of the of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. His earlier books are No Road Home: Fighting for Land and Faith in Gaza (2013) and Reporting Conflict (2012).