A heated internal argument broke out in the Channel 12 news WhatsApp group after commentator Mohammad Majadele attacked the way Israeli media covers the Arab sector. The exchange, which drew in multiple newsroom staff, ended only when CEO Avi Weiss stepped in and wrote: "Thank you. We're done."
According to journalist Ran Boker, who published the exchange, Majadele opened with a long message asking that the voice of Israel's Arab citizens be heard. "Friends and colleagues, without preaching or handing out grades to anyone, I feel it necessary to give voice here to the 20% of Israel's citizens who are Arab, whom we often marginalise, whether intentionally or not," the commentator wrote.
Majadele went on to warn of "a very thin line between the need to protect the integrity of the elections, which matters to all of us, and being dragged into the campaigns and briefings of racist elements whose entire goal is to push the Arab public outside the boundaries of legitimacy in the state." He added: "Our job, in every report and every commentary, is to emphasise precisely the importance of every minority in a proper state exercising its right to go out and vote."
