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Palestinian TV Airs Geneva Accord Ad Campaign
Haaretz
December 22, 2004
By Arnon Regular
On the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Geneva Accord, an advertising campaign is being aired on Palestinian television, featuring Israeli and Palestinian statesmen voicing their support for the venture.
Qalqilyah Television is airing what is called a "mirror campaign" made up of clusters of broadcasts that are shown several times a day.
Six short films, one minute each in length, of Avraham Burg, Yahad chairman Dr. Yossi Beilin, Labor MKs Amram Mitzna and Yuli Tamir, Brigadier General (res.) Giora Inbar and Colonel (res.) Shaul Arieli are broadcast by local television stations in the territories, and the speakers stress their support for the idea of two states for two peoples. At the same time, in films shown on Internet portals and in cinemas, former Palestinian minister of information Yasser Abed Rabbo and Minister without Portfolio Kadoura Fares, who were among the original signatories to the Geneva Accord, as well as new supporters in the persons of Yasser Arafat's former national security advisor Jibril Rajoub, Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat, Minister of Women's Issues Zahira Kamal and Feisal Husseini's son Abed al Kader al Husseini, address the Israeli audience.
"Half a year ago they asked us to broadcast the campaign, but this was a very big problem for us because the public response after similar broadcasts had been harsh," said Tariq Jabara, director of the Qalqilyah Channel. "Now the reactions are not as harsh as they were in the past. There are those who express reservations and those who protest, but this does not go beyond the bounds of ordinary debate."
Jabara relates with sympathy to the television stations in the territories that tried to show the broadcasts only a few months ago. A television station in Ramallah was sabotaged by gunmen, and had to cease broadcasting for several days after it announced it intended to broadcast the campaign.
Arafat's death changed the way the wind was blowing. Jabara's station and five other stations began to broadcast the campaign last week.