Journalists are once again being invited on a week-long junket to Judea and Samaria next month — totally gratis, thanks to unwitting European taxpayers who are clearly viewed as nothing less than a bottomless pit of cash by their elected representatives.
The Office of the European Representative in Jerusalem issued the invitation, which is part of a series of visits aimed at showing media outlets how the European Union and its member states give “assistance to the Palestinian people.”
But if there were any illusions about how fair and balanced this trip will be, one needs to look no further than the written invite itself, which vets prospective attendees to ensure any subsequently published articles do not stray from the intended purpose of the trip.
In addition to the regular formalities like sending a CV and details of the organization they work for, journalists hoping to snag a place are also told they must submit a “one pager explaining why [they] want to participate and how [they] expect to use [their] press visit for publication purposes.”
HonestReporting has previously highlighted the existence of these pro-Palestinian propaganda tours, including one last year in which a group of 11 journalists was taken to the offices of Qatari-owned Al Jazeera to discuss “challenges” faced by the press, as well as a visit to Palestinian NGO Al-Haq’s Ramallah HQ.
We specifically questioned the appropriateness of the agenda given how Al Jazeera has repeatedly printed anti-Israel libels, as well as the fact that Al-Haq has documented links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group that has been designated by the European Union itself.