As many of you know, I spent 6 weeks in the West Bank of Palestine this year, volunteering for an independent media organization, the International Middle East Media Center (www.imemc.org), in Beit Sahour. The IMEMC provides crucial, on-the-ground, and independent reporting from Palestine which you won't find anywhere else. In addition to posting daily articles on their website, they also produce a daily and weekly radio program, called "This Week in Palestine" (you can always download these reports from the website as well).
The IMEMC runs on a shoe-string budget, which includes money to rent an office, employ at least 5 Palestinian staff members, and keep their equipment updated. Unfortunately, like a lot of grassroots Palestinian organizations, they are in a funding crunch right now, and will be forced to shut down by the fall if a lot of fundraising doesn't come through.
I was in Palestine in May 2008 for the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (or Palestinian "catastrophe"), when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were violently forced off their lands by the creation of the state of Israel. To this day, 60 years later, each and every one of those refugees, including their descendants, have been barred from returning to their homes by Israeli apartheid laws.
While much of the international media was focusing on the lavish 60th anniversary celebrations in Israel, or occasionally writing a tap-on-the-wrist article about the occupation, we at the IMEMC were busy putting together Radio Free Palestine. Radio Free Palestine was an international radio broadcast, spanning 3 continents and at least 10 radio stations, where for 18 hours, we went in-depth about issues surrounding the Nakba. It took us into the refugee camps, the edge of the apartheid wall, '48 Palestine (or "Israel-proper"), and throughout the Palestinian diaspora. We recorded heart-wrenching stories of artists working under bombs, loss of homes and family members, and most importantly, resistance against all odds. I don't think a lot of these stories would have resurfaced with Radio Free Palestine had it not been for the fine work of the IMEMC, and its sister-stations around the world.
So please consider donating however much you can to keep the IMEMC alive. I'm sure $5, $15, $50, or more would be a great help to them.
***You can donate online, via credit card, by following this link:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=17066
-OR- via paypal (better for donations of less than $50) at:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=V1LIrqCdZzAj6...
for a free media, and a free palestine,
Aaron Lakoff
About the IMEMC, www.imemc.org
IMEMC is a media center developed in collaboration between
Palestinian and International journalists to provide independent
media coverage of Israel-Palestine.
IMEMC was founded by the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People in 2003. (www.pcr.ps )
Being a joint Palestinian-International effort, IMEMC combines Palestinian journalists' deep understanding of the context, history, and the socio-political environment with International journalists' skills in non-partisan reporting.
IMEMC provides fair and comprehensive coverage of events and developments in Israel-Palestine.
Recently, IMEMC Started to provide Spanish Language coverage as an attempt to outreach a wider readership. The Spanish edition of IMEMC is completly run by volunteers, from Barcelona, Palestine and other places.
IMEMC started to provide News in Arabic through the Palestine News Network (PNN) website, Click arabic.pnn.ps .
The cooperation between IMEMC & PNN, provides a more comprehensive coverage of the Palestine-Israel conflict..
IMEMC is a founding member of the network of United Radio and TV Stations (NUR Media) english.nurmedia.org
IMEMC provides coverage of news, political developments and daily incidents combined with feature stories, political analysis, interviews and selected opinion pieces.
IMEMC provides a daily news cast in English and Italian languages, which provides nearly five minutes featuring main incidents of the day.
In addition IMEMC produces a weekly audio summary of socio-political developments in Israel-Palestine to keep you updated.
IMEMC also provides field reports on main issues of interest to its targeted audience.