Khaled Abu Toameh

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Khaled Abu Toameh
Born 1963
Tulkarem, West Bank
Residence Israel
Ethnicity Palestinian Arab
Citizenship Israeli

Khaled Abu Toameh (Arabic: خالد أبو طعمة‎, born 1963) is a Israeli Arab journalist and documentary filmmaker. 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 Wall Street Journal (http://spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=1998), 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.[1][2]

Abu Toameh also writes for the New York-based think-tank Stonegate Institute [1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Khaled Abu Toameh was born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem to an Israeli Arab father and a Palestinian Arab mother.[3] He grew up in the Arab-Israeli town Baqa al-Gharbiyye.[4] He received his BA in English Literature from the Hebrew University and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.[5] 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."[6]

[edit] Media career

Khaled Abu Toameh was formerly a senior reporter for The Jerusalem Report and a correspondent for Al-Fajr, which he describes as a mouthpiece for the PLO.[5] 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.[5] 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.[7]

Abu Toameh writes for the Hudson Institute,[1] and has served as a lecturer with the University of Minnesota - School of Journalism and Mass Communication.[8] He has also lectured at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),[9] as well as the London-based think tank Chatham House.[10]

Abu Toameh was a keynote speaker at the 2009 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists in Vancouver.[11] He has spoken at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by invitation.[12]

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.[6][13] 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.[14][15] A series of his talks have also been sponsored by StandWithUs,[16][17] and he spoke at their annual conference in Los Angeles in 2008.[18]

In August 2011 Abu Toameh was invited to speak at a seminar organized by The Australian Human Rights Center on human rights challenges in the Palestinian territories. http://www.ahrcentre.org/images/Khaled%20Abu%20Toameh_invite.pdf

He has also been invited to speak at the prestigious Sydney Institute in Australia on the challenge of Palestinian state-building. http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/speaker/khaled-abu-toameh/

[edit] 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-representatives

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 December 2011 Abu Toameh met in Jerusalem with Georgia State Elected Officials and briefed them on the current developments in the Middle East and the peace process. http://projectinterchange.org/?p=6277

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."[19][20]

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:

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.[19]

Ali Kazak, former PLO ambassador to Australia, called Toameh a "traitor."[20][21]

[edit] Recognition and awards

Abu Toameh shared Israel Media Watch's 2010 award for media criticism with the satirical Israeli website Latma.[22] Abu Toameh won Israel's Media Watch 2011 prize.[22] On May 10, 2011 Khaled Abu Toameh won the Hudson Institute Award for Courage in Journalism.[23]

Canada's Toronto Sun columnist Salim Mansur praised Abu Toameh for his courage and knowledge of the politics of the Arab world. [24]

[edit] Published works

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Columnists". Hudson New York. http://www.hudson-ny.org/columnists/. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  2. ^ "NY Senior Editors and Senior Advisors". Hudson New York. http://www.hudson-ny.org/ny-senior-editors/. Retrieved February 16, 2011. 
  3. ^ Astor, Maggie (February 2, 2008). "Journalist Takes Even Handed Approach to Arab-Israeli Conflict". Columbia Daily Spectator. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2008/02/20/journalist-takes-even-handed-approach-arab-israeli-conflict. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  4. ^ 1Khaled Abu Toameh and the Israeli-Palestinian Dilemma
  5. ^ a b c Abu Toameh, Khaled (April 27, 2004). "Telling the Truth about the Palestinians". Middle East Forum. http://www.meforum.org/article/604. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  6. ^ a b Amalia Biro (March 2010). "Arab-Israeli conflict incites heated debate at Laurier". Laurier University News. Wilfrid Laurier University. http://www.thecord.ca/articles/28246. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  7. ^ Abu Toameh, Khaled (January 29, 2010). "'Corruption will let Hamas take W. Bank'". Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1263147996987. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  8. ^ "Jerusalem Post Correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh to speak on campus". Murphy Weekly. University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication. 2009. http://sjmc.umn.edu/news/weekly.php. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  9. ^ Gavin Gross (2008). "Anti-Israeli Activity at the School of Oriental and African Studies: How Jewish Students Started to Fight Back". From Manfred Gerstenfeld ( ed.) Academics against Israel and the Jews. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=381&PID=470&IID=2628. Retrieved 2010-04-29. 
  10. ^ "Meeting: An Israel Arab`s Perspective On Gaza, The New Palestinian Authority, Hamas And The Elections". Member Event, transcript included. Chatham House. April 2006. http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/events/view/-/id/420/. Retrieved 2010-04-29. 
  11. ^ "Khaled Abu Toameh, Keynote". Annual Conference and Awards Gala 2009. Canadian Association of Journalists. 2009. http://www.eagle.ca/caj/events/conf-2009/index.html. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  12. ^ "HJS Event Israel-Palestinian Relations". Transcript of remarks made at the House of Commons. Henry Jackson Society. December 2009. http://www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories.asp?id=1328. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  13. ^ Morgan Chalfant (April 2010). "Palestinian Journalist Speaks at BC". The Observer. Boston College. http://www.thebcobserver.com/2010/04/15/palestinian-journalist-speaks-with-students/. Retrieved 2010-04-28. 
  14. ^ "ICC: Israel on Campus Coalition-Subsidized Speakers List" (PDF). Israel on Campus Coalition. http://www.israelcc.org/NR/rdonlyres/5DCDE322-608E-4BCD-AADF-42CFFAE4D5A1/0/speakerslist.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-10. 
  15. ^ Abu Toameh, Khaled (March 25, 2009). "udson New York: On Campus: The Pro-Palestinian's Real Agenda". Israel on Campus Coalition. http://www.israelcc.org/about/updates/Hudson_Abu_Toameh_On_Campus.htm. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  16. ^ Rothstein, Roz (September 2008). StandWithUs "StandWithUs: A Grassroots Advocacy Organization Also On Campus". Institute for Global Jewish Affairs. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=624&PID=0&IID=2630&TTL=StandWithUs:_A_Grassroots_Advocacy_Organization_Also_On_Campus StandWithUs. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  17. ^ "Standwithus Announces Campus Tour Dates For Khalid Abu Toameh, Itamar Marcus, Neil Lazarus and Mitchell Bard". Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. October 28, 2007. http://spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=3070. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  18. ^ Greenberg, Brad A. (February 14, 2008). "L.A.‘s defenders of Israel". JewishJournal.com. http://www.jewishjournal.com/israel/article/las_defenders_of_israel_20080215/. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  19. ^ a b Islam Today, by Khaled Abu Toameh, May 18, 2009
  20. ^ a b Journalist says only truth will set Palestine free, Rebecca Weisser, The Australian. May 15, 2010
  21. ^ Glick, Caroline (June 15, 2010). "Our World: Hamas rises in the West". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=178470. 
  22. ^ a b Hartman, Ben (January 3, 2011). "‘Post’ reporter, Latma site win award for media criticism". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=201959. Retrieved December 8, 2010. 
  23. ^ Post's Khaled Abu Toameh gets Hudson award - JPost - Headlines
  24. ^ Arab Spring a mask for ruthless men

[edit] External links

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