AJC Conveys to CBS News Flaws in 60 Minutes Program on Palestinian Christians

April 27, 2012 -- New York -- AJC has expressed directly to the president of CBS News deep concerns about the 60 Miniutes segment on Christians of the Holy Land.

“The most significant shortcoming of the segment, in our minds, is that it left the impression that Christians in the West Bank and Jerusalem are suffering because of religious reasons,” AJC Executive Director David Harris wrote in a letter to CBS News President David Rhodes.

“In fact, their situation, just like that of the Jews and the Muslims living in the same areas, is greatly, and tragically, affected by the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is essentially a political conflict between two peoples with competing national goals, not a religious one,” Harris added.


Harris also emphasized that Christians do not suffer because of the “Israeli occupation.” “They suffer because of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which the Palestinian leadership, with a long record of rejecting any reasonable compromise, helps perpetuate,” he said.

The full text of the AJC letter to CBS News follows:

April 27, 2012

Mr. David Rhodes

President

CBS News

51 West 52nd Street

New York, New York 10019

Dear Mr. Rhodes: 

I write to express AJC’s concern about the 60 Minutes segment of April 22 on Christians of the Holy Land.

Our concern goes beyond the question of demographic accuracy: while a basic premise of the report is that the Christian population in Israel and the West Bank is declining, in fact it has grown since 1967. 

It is equally untrue that Christians suffer because of the “Israeli occupation.” They suffer because of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which the Palestinian leadership, with a long record of rejecting any reasonable compromise, helps perpetuate. The choice of Palestinian interviewees known for their longstanding hostility toward Israel, without balancing their statements with views of more moderate religious leaders, struck us as one-sided.

At the outset of the segment, the narrator, Bob Simon, said: “In Iraq and Egypt, scores of churches have been attacked, hundreds murdered. In Syria, revolution seriously threatens Christian communities. The one place Christians are not suffering from violence is the Holy Land.” The key difference, as we believe the segment should have emphasized, is the protection of religious minorities in Israel and Israeli-administered areas – to a degree unique in the Middle East.

But perhaps the most significant shortcoming of the segment, in our minds, is that it left the impression that Christians in the West Bank and Jerusalem are suffering because of religious reasons. In fact, their situation, just like that of the Jews and the Muslims living in the same areas, is greatly, and tragically, affected by the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is essentially a political conflict between two peoples with competing national goals, not a religious one. Any attempt to portray it as a religious conflict is bound to make efforts to achieve peace all the more difficult.

It is our hope that future 60 Minutes coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will more fairly reflect the complex realities confronting both peoples.

I look forward to the prospect of discussing these matters in greater detail with you or your colleagues.

Sincerely,

David Harris