Israeli and Palestinian Archaeology



Al Jazeera News (I still can't believe I've become a fan, but it is truly one of the best all around TV newscasts in the world) did this special on yesterday's news. The clip took up most of the newscast, which is impressive in itself. When was the last time on American news that an in depth segment was done for a majority of the news cast on a field of study like archaeology?

In any event, this bit is like a mini-documentary on the issues involved with archaeology within the Holy Land, particularly between Palestinians and Israelis. The bit is pretty objective, but is slightly tilted towards the Palestinian perspective. That's the one Achilles' heel of Al Jazeera news that rears its head from time to time. This is apparently the full clip, of which only about 25 minutes of it was shown in the English Version newscast. I noticed the bias in full clip is more pronounced, which is a bit unfortunate because the actual news cast itself was pretty objective in its editing.

The only point I would seriously quibble with (at least from what was aired) is the bit at the end of the clip that asserts that Palestinians are not using archaeology for political ends like the Israelis are. I had to scoff at that because that is just not true. Otherwise, I think this is one of the best journalistic looks at the issues of Archaeology in the State of Israel that I have run across, and I am a subscriber to several international Archaeology publications.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on the 'Connecticut 6'

My board gaming journey, pt. I

The History of the Football helmet