Cannons and Muses: Wartime Media Conference in Memory of Prof. Moshe Negbi

On 21 February 2024, Zulat held its annual media conference in memory of journalist and jurist, the late Prof. Moshe Negbi, to mark the sixth anniversary of his passing. Titled “Cannons and Muses: The Media in Wartime, the conference was held in collaboration with the website Walla! and broadcast live.

Zulat President Zehava Galon and Negbi’s widow Dr. Irit Negbi delivered the opening remarks, followed by an interview with retired Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia conducted by Walla! journalist Tal Shalev, and a panel moderated by Zman Israel political diplomatic correspondent Tal Schneider, with the participation of Zehava Galon, former IDF Spokesman and IDF Radio Commander Brigadier General (Res.) Avi Benayahu, Haaretz journalist Jackie Khoury, and Israel Democracy Institute Senior Fellow Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer.

Zehava Galon: “Even in wartime, with the hostages still held captive by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues his efforts to harm the free media, lashing out at journalists, seeking to impose draconian restrictions on its status, calling for the prosecution of journalists citing leaks from cabinet discussions, and trying to prevent any criticism of the government‘s functioning.

Dr. Irit Negbi: “It’s been six years since Moshe’s passing. People loved him because he was kind, smart, modest, and a great scholar who shared his knowledge with anyone who asked. He stood like a solid rock against anti-democratic trends and expressed the aspiration for an Israel with an egalitarian democratic society and with freedom and human rights.”

Ayala Procaccia: “The balance between security and human rights changes according to circumstances. In times of war, security needs receive greater emphasis, but the ultimate balance must always be preserved. In this respect, dangers are evident in two senses. One is the erosion and imbalance of human rights, and situations pertaining to demonstrations, freedom of the press, and academic freedom. The effort to impeach Hadash MK Ofer Cassif went beyond the proper balance point, as did the call to impose the death penalty on terrorists. We have seen no such things in peacetime, and some of them are unnecessary in wartime. The second danger lies in the excessive invocation of freedom of expression by state leaders to make statements bordering on incitement to racism, violence, and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians, and their use of parliamentary immunity to evade responsibility.”

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer: “What stands out about Negbi’s absence is the lack of a clear voice against the incitement to racism and genocide in the media, which has passed without comments or opposition. He would have raised a hue and cry from one end to the other end of the land.”

Jackie Khoury: “Israel’s Jewish public is exposed to little information about the situation in Gaza and the Arab world. In contrast, the Arab public is exposed to both the Israeli media and to the satellite channels.”

Avi Benayahu: “I didn’t like all the comings and goings in the Gaza Strip, to the point that even Likud activist Rami BenYehuda made his way in. I was the IDF Spokesman during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008-2009, and I allowed no access to the area other than to military and foreign correspondents.

Watch (Hebrew, no subtitles):

 

 

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Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

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Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

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Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

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Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.