Khaled Abu Toameh
Encyclopedia
Khaled Abu Toameh is a Israeli Arab journalist
and documentary film
maker. Abu Toameh is the West Bank
and Gaza
correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report, and has been the Palestinian
affairs producer for NBC News
since 1988. His articles have appeared in the World Tribune (http://www.worldnewstribune.com/2011/10/27/report-jordan-seen-approving-move-by-hamas-from-syria/)" Sunday Times
, Daily Express
and many other newspapers. He is a senior adviser for the Hudson Institute
think-tank in New York.
. He received his BA in English Literature from the Hebrew University
and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.
Toameh has referred to himself as an "Israeli-Arab-Muslim-Palestinian", whose vision of an ideal world would be "if there is a Jew who would like to live in Palestine he is welcome, and if there is an Arab who would like to live in Israel he is also welcome. In an ideal situation, peace means that people can live wherever they want."
and a correspondent for Al-Fajr
, which he describes as a mouthpiece for the PLO. He has produced several documentaries on the Palestinians for the BBC
, Channel 4
, Australian, Danish
and Swedish
television, including ones that exposed the connection between Yasser Arafat
and payments to the armed wing of Fatah
, as well as the financial corruption within the Palestinian Authority
. He was the first journalist to report about the sex scandal that rocked the Palestinian Authority in early 2010 and which led to the dismissal of Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
. The scandal was revealed by former Palestinian intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh in an exclusive interview with Abu Toameh in The Jerusalem Post
.
Abu Toameh writes for the Hudson Institute
, and has served as a lecturer with the University of Minnesota
- School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has also lectured at the London School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), as well as the London-based think tank Chatham House
.
Abu Toameh was a keynote speaker at the 2009 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists
in Vancouver
. He has spoken at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by invitation.
At university campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada, he has spoken on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
and prospects for peace in the Middle East
. He was listed as part of the speakers bureau for the Hasbara Fellowships
, who have brought him to more than a dozen talks at various university campuses. A series of his talks have also been sponsored by StandWithUs
, and he spoke at their annual conference in Los Angeles
in 2008.
Abu Toameh has also written against the mistreatment of Palestinians by Arab governments, which he accused of imposing "apartheid" against Palestinians, especially in Lebanon. http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/22/where-is-the-outcry-against-arab-apartheid/
In 2009, Toameh declared that "Israel is a wonderful place to live and we are happy to be there. Israel is a free and open country. If I were given the choice, I would rather live in Israel as a second class citizen than as a first class citizen in Cairo, Gaza, Amman or Ramallah."
In the Durban Review Conference, Toameh criticized Israeli Arab Knesset
members for supporting extremism and calling Israel a "state of apartheid" rather than fighting for the rights of Arab citizens of Israel
:
Ali Kazak, former PLO ambassador to Australia, called Toameh a "traitor."
.
Abu Toameh won Israel's Media Watch 2011 prize.
On May 10, 2011 Khaled Abu Toameh won the Hudson Institute Award for Courage in Journalism.
Canada's Toronto Sun
columnist Salim Mansur praised Abu Toameh for his courage and knowledge of the politics of the Arab world.
Palestinian journalist threatened by Palestinian Authority security forces in West Bank http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=232720
Mohammed Dahlan faces corruption, murder charges http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=230631
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker. Abu Toameh is the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report, and has been the Palestinian
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
affairs producer for NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
since 1988. His articles have appeared in the World Tribune (http://www.worldnewstribune.com/2011/10/27/report-jordan-seen-approving-move-by-hamas-from-syria/)" Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
and many other newspapers. He is a senior adviser for the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
think-tank in New York.
Biography
Khaled Abu Toameh was born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem to an Israeli Arab father and a Palestinian Arab mother. He grew up in the Arab-Israeli town Baqa al-GharbiyyeBaqa al-Gharbiyye
Baqa al-Gharbiyye is a predominantly Arab city in the Haifa District in Israel, located near the Green Line. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2001 the city had a total population of 19,200...
. He received his BA in English Literature from the Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.
Toameh has referred to himself as an "Israeli-Arab-Muslim-Palestinian", whose vision of an ideal world would be "if there is a Jew who would like to live in Palestine he is welcome, and if there is an Arab who would like to live in Israel he is also welcome. In an ideal situation, peace means that people can live wherever they want."
Media career
Khaled Abu Toameh was formerly a senior reporter for The Jerusalem ReportThe Jerusalem Report
The Jerusalem Report is a biweekly print and online newsmagazine that covers political and social issues in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world...
and a correspondent for Al-Fajr
Al-Fajr
Al-Fajr may refer to:*Al-Fajr , the 89th sura of the Qur'an*Fajr, the first of the five salat prayers*Al-Fajr , the now-defunct newspaper of the banned Tunisian Islamist opposition movement Al-Nahda...
, which he describes as a mouthpiece for the PLO. He has produced several documentaries on the Palestinians for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Australian, Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
television, including ones that exposed the connection between Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
and payments to the armed wing of Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
, as well as the financial corruption within the Palestinian Authority
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
. He was the first journalist to report about the sex scandal that rocked the Palestinian Authority in early 2010 and which led to the dismissal of Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
. The scandal was revealed by former Palestinian intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh in an exclusive interview with Abu Toameh in The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
.
Abu Toameh writes for the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
, and has served as a lecturer with the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
- School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has also lectured at the London School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
(SOAS), as well as the London-based think tank Chatham House
Chatham House
Chatham House, formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading...
.
Abu Toameh was a keynote speaker at the 2009 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists
Canadian Association of Journalists
The Canadian Association of Journalists or L'Association Canadienne des Journalistes in French is one of several Canadian organizations of journalists. It was created to promote excellence in journalism and encourage investigative journalism...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. He has spoken at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by invitation.
At university campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada, he has spoken on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
and prospects for peace in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. He was listed as part of the speakers bureau for the Hasbara Fellowships
Hasbara Fellowships
Hasbara Fellowships is an organization that brings students to Israel and trains them to be effective pro-Israel activists on college campuses. Based in New York, it was started in 2001 by Aish HaTorah in conjunction with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs...
, who have brought him to more than a dozen talks at various university campuses. A series of his talks have also been sponsored by StandWithUs
StandWithUs
StandWithUs is a non-profit pro-Israel education and advocacy organization based in Los Angeles. As of 2009, it has branches in Los Angeles, New York, Denver, Michigan, Chicago, Seattle, Orange County, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, the UK, Australia, and Israel....
, and he spoke at their annual conference in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2008.
Views and opinions
In an article published in November 2011, Khaled Abu Toameh criticized the current leadership of Israel's Arab citizens for damaging relations between Jews and Arabs inside the Jewish state. http://www.hudson-ny.org/2590/israeli-arab-representativesAbu Toameh has also written against the mistreatment of Palestinians by Arab governments, which he accused of imposing "apartheid" against Palestinians, especially in Lebanon. http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/22/where-is-the-outcry-against-arab-apartheid/
In 2009, Toameh declared that "Israel is a wonderful place to live and we are happy to be there. Israel is a free and open country. If I were given the choice, I would rather live in Israel as a second class citizen than as a first class citizen in Cairo, Gaza, Amman or Ramallah."
In the Durban Review Conference, Toameh criticized Israeli Arab Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
members for supporting extremism and calling Israel a "state of apartheid" rather than fighting for the rights of Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
:
And then they come here to tell us that Israel is a state of apartheid?
Excuse me. What kind of hypocrisy is this? What then are you doing in the Knesset? If you are living in an apartheid system, why were you allowed, as an Arab, to run in the election? What are you talking about?
We do have problems as Arabs with the establishment here. But to come and say that Israel is an apartheid state is a big exaggeration. I am not here to defend Israel, but I think that Knesset members like this gentleman are doing huge damage to the cause of Israeli Arabs. I want to see the Knesset member sitting in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, and fighting for the rights of Arabs over there.
Ali Kazak, former PLO ambassador to Australia, called Toameh a "traitor."
Recognition and awards
Abu Toameh shared Israel Media Watch's 2010 award for media criticism with the satirical Israeli website LatmaLatma
Latma is an Israeli media criticism website that also produces a weekly satirical news show.The website was created in 2008 by a group of journalists claiming that "the only way to improve the Public discourse is exposing the true face of the news and journalism in whole"...
.
Abu Toameh won Israel's Media Watch 2011 prize.
On May 10, 2011 Khaled Abu Toameh won the Hudson Institute Award for Courage in Journalism.
Canada's Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
columnist Salim Mansur praised Abu Toameh for his courage and knowledge of the politics of the Arab world.
Published works
- Analysis on prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel http://www.hudson-ny.org/2513/hamas-wins
- What do wealthy Arabs care about? http://www.hudson-ny.org/2303/wealthy-arabs
- Abu Toameh on controversy over Palestinian satirical show http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=233148
- News story on Hamas violations against media http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=214092
- Article in Jpost on freedom of media: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=232720
Palestinian journalist threatened by Palestinian Authority security forces in West Bank http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=232720
Mohammed Dahlan faces corruption, murder charges http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=230631