Around the desk of Shimrit Meir, editor of Al-Masdar (The Source) website, daily discussions are held on terminology for describing events from the chronicles of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For example, it was decided to use “amalya,” the Arabic word for “act,” in reporting on and describing terrorist actions against Jews, because “terror attack” would offend a great number of Palestinian readers. After deliberations, Meir had decided on a neutral term, which was used to describe the murderous synagogue attack in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood on Nov. 18, so Palestinian readers would not abandon the site.
Meir, a 35-year-old resident of Tel Aviv and former Arab affairs correspondent for Israel Army Radio, heads a web-based journalism initiative that targets the large audience of Arabic speakers. The goal is to bring reporting and voices from Israel into the Arab world without censorship and to become a source of credible, up-to-the-minute and direct information about the complex and stormy reality of Israel. Al-Masdar is part of the Israel Project, a pro-Israel public diplomacy organization founded in the United States at the height of the second intifada.