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Wafa

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This article is about Palestinian News Agency. For other uses, see Wafa (disambiguation).
Palestinian News & Information Agency
Template:Lang-ar
AbbreviationWAFA
FormationApril 1972; 52 years ago (1972-04)[1]
TypeNews agency
HeadquartersRamallah, West Bank[2]
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsWire service, News, Photos, Video
Key people
Ahmad Assaf (Chairman),[3] Khuloud Assaf (Editor-in-Chief)[4]
Parent organization
Palestinian National Authority
Staff260[5]
Websiteenglish.wafa.ps

Wafa (Template:Lang-ar, "trust", acronym of Template:Lang-ar Wikalat al-Anba al-Filastinija[6]), meaning 'Palestine News Agency', also known as the Palestine News Agency and the Palestinian News & Info Agency, is the news agency of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA),[7] and was "the P.L.O.'s news agency" in the years before the formation of the PA.[8]

Wafa provides daily news from Palestinian territories, Israel and the Middle East, and is available in English, Arabic, French and Hebrew,[9] making it a major source of information over current events for those regions.[citation needed] Wafa, like PNA's other media outlets, are considered to be aligned with Fatah.[10]

Following a decision at the Palestinian National Council's special session in Cairo in April 1972, the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization announced the establishment of Wafa in Beirut on June 5, 1972. The same year Radio Palestine was also founded.[11] While initially Wafa focused on giving official statements, its work gradually expanded to include different types of news.[1] It began issuing felasteen el-thawra (meaning "Palestinian revolution"), a weekly magazine headed by Ahmed Abdel-Rahman.[1]

During PLO's presence in Lebanon, Wafa was frequently quoted by foreign correspondents and news agencies.[12] According to Kenneth R. Timmerman, writing for Commentary, Wafa was instrumental in shaping the Western narrative of the 1982 Lebanon War:[13]

The information supplied by WAFA on the number of victims and their category - civilian or military - provided the basis for the dispatches leaving West Beirut, in the absence of other sources. The "Lebanese police" so often quoted in this context had ceased to function in West Beirut early in the siege. With deadlines to meet and under the risk of falling bombs, most journalists were content with what they got. This, then, was one source of the wild exaggeration in the figures of civilian dead reported throughout the war and especially during the siege of Beirut. ... First there was the press pass issued by WAFA with the bearer's photograph, a duplicate of which remained in WAFA's offices. Without this pass, no journalist could hope to circulate in West Beirut; caught photographing, or taking notes, he would be immediately arrested if not shot on sight.

Following PLO's ouster from Lebanon, Wafa resumed activities in Cyprus and Tunis in November, 1982.[14]

In 1994, PLO's institutions repatriated to the Palestinian territories as a consequence of the Oslo Accords. Palestine TV, Voice of Palestine, the daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida, and Wafa became the primary media channels for the newly established Palestinian National Authority.[15] Wafa opened offices in Gaza City and Ramallah.

In April 2005, Mahmoud Abbas transferred PNA's media assets that were under the control of the presidency to the Ministry of Information under Nabil Shaath. At the same time, he merged the General Information Commission into Wafa.[16] Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and to preempt Hamas from asserting control of the media assets, Abbas transferred them back to the presidential office.[9]

In October 2005, Wafa re-launched its French service. The French service had previously operated in Tunisia until 1994.[17]

In September 2006, gunmen stormed Wafa's offices in Khan Younis and smashed equipment and beat up one reporter.[18]

In 2009, Wafa launched a Hebrew version of its website; the content of this service would focus on Arab citizens of Israel,[19] many of whom identify as Palestinian.[20] It also started mailing a daily newsletter to Israeli members of the Knesset and Hebrew media outlets.[19]

On December 10, 2018, Israeli soldiers raided Wafa's offices in Ramallah and fired tear gas into the building. The Palestinian Journalists' Union, the Palestinian foreign ministry, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the International Federation of Journalists[21][22][4]

In 2019, Wafa won the Federation of Arab News Agencies's award for best report.[23]

Public service media

According to an UNESCO study, the Palestinian publicly-owned media has privileged access to information from the government and sometimes exclusive access to events. This perceived favoring means that private media often has to rely on reporting from Wafa or broadcasts on Palestine TV. The study therefore recommends that the PNA's media assets; Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (Voice of Palestine and Palestine TV), Wafa, and Al-Hayat al-Jadida should be transformed into independent, public service media.[15]

Affiliations

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Abdelal, W. (2016). Hamas and the Media: Politics and strategy. Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Democratization and Government. Taylor & Francis. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-317-26715-7. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  2. ^ "Our Address". WAFA Agency. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  3. ^ Kuttab, Daoud (January 14, 2016). "The year of Palestinian leadership change has begun - Middle East". Al Jazeera. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Palestine : IFJ condemns Israeli raid on WAFA news agency / FIJ". IFJ. December 11, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  5. ^ Line, Media (August 18, 2015). "In first, PA appoints woman head of official Palestinian news agency". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "Arafat minion as professor". The Washington Times. July 8, 2004. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  7. ^ http://english.wafa.ps/
  8. ^ Rashid Khalidi, Under Siege: P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War, 1986, p. 7
  9. ^ a b Amira Halperin (7 November 2018). The Use of New Media by the Palestinian Diaspora in the United Kingdom. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 151,206. ISBN 978-1-5275-2111-7.
  10. ^ "Critical language analysis of Palestinian and Israeli online newspapers and news websites during the 2014 Gaza War". Lancaster EPrints. January 25, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  11. ^ Barrie Gunter, Roger Dickinson (ed.). News Media in the Arab World: A Study of 10 Arab and Muslim Countries. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 71.
  12. ^ Midstream. Theodor Herzl Foundation. 1983. p. 10.
  13. ^ Timmerman, Kenneth R. (January 1, 1983). "How the PLO Terrorized Journalists in Beirut". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  14. ^ Taylor & Francis Group (30 October 2003). The Middle East and North Africa 2004. Psychology Press. p. 934. ISBN 978-1-85743-184-1.
  15. ^ a b UNESCO Office Ramallah (24 November 2014). Assessment of media development in Palestine: based on UNESCO's media development indicators. UNESCO. pp. 49-. ISBN 978-92-3-100021-8.
  16. ^ "Shake-up of Palestinian media". BBC NEWS. May 4, 2005. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  17. ^ "Research - Local Research on Media - West Bank and Gaza Media Guide - June 2006". MPRC. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  18. ^ "Gunmen attack Palestinian news agency in Gaza - English". B92.net. September 19, 2006. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  19. ^ a b "Palestinian news agency launches Hebrew website". Reuters.
  20. ^ Sherry Lowrance (2006). "Identity, Grievances, and Political Action: Recent Evidence from the Palestinian Community in Israel". International Political Science Review. 27, 2: 167–190. There are a number of self-identification labels currently in use among Palestinian Israelis. Seven of the most commonly used were included in the 2001 survey. They range from "Israeli" and "Israeli Arab", indicating some degree of identification with Israel to "Palestinian," which rejects Israeli identification and wholeheartedly identifies with the Palestinian people. […]
    According to the author's survey, approximately 66 percent of the sample of Palestinian Israelis identified themselves in whole or in part as Palestinian. The modal identity is "Palestinian in Israel", which rejects "Israeli" as a psychological identification, but accepts it as a descriptive label of geographical location. […]
    The establishment-favoured "Israeli Arab" is the second-most popular response in the survey, reflecting its dominance in Israeli social discourse. About 37 percent of respondents identified themselves in some way as "Israeli", double-counting the "Israeli Palestinian" category as both "Israeli" and "Palestinian". Although much smaller than the percentage identifying themselves as Palestinian a nevertheless considerable number include "Israeli" as part of their identity, despite the hardships placed upon them by the Israeli state.
  21. ^ "OIC slams Israeli raid on Palestine news agency office". Middle East Monitor. December 11, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  22. ^ "Israeli army raids Palestinian news agency in West Bank". Middle East Eye. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  23. ^ "ONA elected president of FANA; SPA, KUNA as vice-presidents, SPA wins best Picture Award 2019 The official Saudi Press Agency". Saudi Press Agency. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
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