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.

The new media revolution of recent years enables such direct appeals to the Arab public in its own language and the marketing of original content produced by a team of Jewish and Arab Israelis from a bureau on Rothschild Boulevard, in the heart of Tel Aviv. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Meir spoke about the project and the vision of promoting a shift in Arab public opinion about Israel.