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British journalist slammed for ‘racist’ interview with Palestinian politician

Hartley-Brewer repeatedly speaks over Barghouti and raises her voice. (X/Sourced)
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Updated 07 January 2024
Arab News
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British journalist slammed for ‘racist’ interview with Palestinian politician

  • Talk TV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer was interviewing Mustafa Barghouti in the aftermath of the assassination of Hamas chief Saleh Al-Arouri
Updated 07 January 2024
Arab News

LONDON: A British journalist’s interview with a Palestinian politician has sparked anger on social media, with viewers around the world describing the presenter’s conduct as “racist” and “unprofessional,” and demanding an apology.

Talk TV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer was interviewing Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Mustafa Barghouti on Wednesday, the day after Israel assassinated deputy Hamas chief Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut.

In video footage of the interview, which went viral on social media in the days that followed, Hartley-Brewer repeatedly interrupts her guest and shouts at him as he talks about the rule of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Do you think Israel is a democratic country? Netanyahu is destroying democracy,” Barghouti says.

Speaking over him, Hartley-Brewer says: “They have elections.”

Barghouti continues: “This man now has three, four courts against him because of four cases of corruption. This man knows if the war stops, he will go to jail.”

After further exchanges, Hartley-Brewer expresses impatience and says: “You talked about how you do not want Israel… you are saying Israel, Oct. 7 happened, you are placing that in a historical context, I understand that, please do not say that again. We do not have time for it. You have made that point five times already.”

Barghouti, who is head of the Palestinian National Initiative, responds: “I do not know what you have time for.”

Hartley-Brewer raises her voice to say: “Oh my God. For the love of God, let me finish a sentence, man. Maybe you are not used to women talking, I do not know, but I would like to finish a sentence.”

While Barghouti remains calm and composed, the broadcaster, in a still-raised voice, gives him 10 seconds to outline what he believes would have been “an acceptable reaction” to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

“To end occupation and allow peace to prevail for both people,” Barghouti says.

“Brilliant,” Hartley-Brewer says, then slaps her desk and concludes by saying: “Sorry to have been a woman speaking to you.”

Shocked viewers took to social media to express their anger, describing Hartley-Brewer as “bigoted,” “racist” and “unprofessional,” and demanding an apology from Talk TV.

British newsreader India Willoughby said in a message posted on social media network X that Hartley-Brewer “is very lucky that she lives in a time period where bullies are indulged,” and noted that Barghouti had “seemed very calm.”

Philip Proudfoot, a politics researcher, tweeted: “The level of disrespect shown to Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti here is beyond shocking, including an anti-Arab trope framing his struggle to explain even basic context to Julia Hartley-Brewer as driven by … misogyny.”

British-Lebanese journalist Hala Jaber shared Talk TV’s clip and described the presenter as “rude, bigoted, narrow-minded, arrogant and absolutely unprofessional.”

Addressing Hartley-Brewer directly, she added: “Your performance was a disgrace to your profession.”

Reem Kelani, who described herself as a “proud Arab woman,” urged Talk TV and Hartley-Brewer to apologize.

“Her interview with Dr. Barghouti, a man of great integrity, was a disgrace,” she wrote on X. “Hartley-Brewer also made false accusations about Dr. Barghouti’s stance towards women.”

Stewart Mills, who is based in Sydney according to his X profile, wrote: “Appalling racism by Julia Hartley-Brewer.”

Demanding an apology, he said the journalist’s conduct showed “complete disrespect for a beautiful and decent man who has devoted his life to community and public health.”

Columnist Reem Al-Harmi said Hartley-Brewer’s language was “condescending, patronizing, and next-level gaslighting.”

Topics: Palestine Julia Hartley-Brewer Mustafa Barghouti

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Google launches Gemini Advanced & Gemini mobile app in Arabic

Updated 31 May 2024
Zaira Lakhpatwala
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Google launches Gemini Advanced & Gemini mobile app in Arabic

  • Android users can download a dedicated Gemini app while iOS users can access it through the Google app
  • ‘We’re excited to see how people will utilize generative AI to enhance their productivity and creativity,’ says Google’s regional marketing chief
Updated 31 May 2024
Zaira Lakhpatwala

DUBAI: Google has added Arabic support to the mobile app for Gemini, its multimodal artificial intelligence model. Users worldwide can access it for free through a dedicated app for Android devices, or from within the Google app on iOS.

An Arabic version of its latest conversational AI model, Gemini Advanced, is also now available through the app to subscribers with a Google One AI Premium plan.

“Businesses now have access to our latest Gemini model (Gemini Advanced) in Arabic to help increase their efficiency in complex and collaborative tasks,” Najeeb Jarrar, Google’s regional marketing director for the Middle East and North Africa region, told Arab News.

“With access to Gemini on mobile, we’re excited to see how people will utilize generative AI to enhance their productivity and creativity.”

The app also provides access to Gemini 1.0 Pro, a different AI model, for free, and to Gemini 1.5 Pro with a Google One AI Premium plan. The 1.5 Pro model is more capable at complex tasks such as coding, logical reasoning, following detailed and specific instructions, and collaborating on creative projects, Google said.

Users can access other Google apps and services from within the Gemini app through the use of extensions launched this year. The services provided by these extensions include access to real-time flight and hotel booking information, location-based information from Google Maps, and summaries of content from Google Docs or Gmail.

The Arabic version of Gemini, then called Bard, was launched in July last year. Google described Bard as an “AI experiment,” not a chatbot, and Jarrar said it would allow the company to explore a “new paradigm in computing.”

He told Arab News at the time: “We’re learning together how large language models can be helpful, and how to minimize poor experiences.”

Now, the Arabic capabilities have been added to the Gemini mobile app and Gemini Advanced. The AI is able to understand questions in more than 16 Arabic dialects and provide responses in modern, standard Arabic.

Google announced several new developments in its AI projects during its developer conference Google I/O 2024 this month. Arabic support for these new features is expected to be added soon.

“As we’re seeing more interest from the region, we’re committed to bringing more features in Arabic later this year,” Jarrar added.

Topics: Google google gemini #ai chatbot

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Saudi tech startup in ‘augmented reality’ deal with Google

Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News
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Saudi tech startup in ‘augmented reality’ deal with Google

  • Magic Leap working on ‘immersive experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds’
Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News

JEDDAH: A Saudi-owned tech startup has gone into partnership with Google, prompting speculation that the aim is to launch a new augmented reality device to rival those by Meta and Apple.

The startup, Magic Leap, is based in Florida and has expertise in optics and device manufacturing. It is working with Google on “building immersive experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds,” it said.

“We’ve shipped a couple of different versions of augmented reality devices so far, so we’re out there delivering things, and Google has a long history of platforms thinking,” Magic Leap’s chief technology officer Julie Larson-Green said. “So we’re thinking, putting our expertise and their expertise together, there’s lots of things we could end up doing.”

Google is an investor in Magic Leap, which is majority owned by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The startup was an early innovator in augmented reality, but struggled to find a consumer niche and more recently started exploring arrangements to licence its technology or produce components for others.

If Google were to jump back into making an augmented reality device, it would be yet another dramatic twist in the company’s on-again, off-again relationship with the technology. It was also an early mover more than a decade ago, when it introduced its Google Glass smart glasses in 2012.

However, consumers recoiled at the product’s clunky design and privacy concerns, and Google retreated from the consumer market in 2015 and later abandoned the enterprise market as well.
 

Topics: Magic Leap Google Saudi PIF

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Labour Party dumps UK election candidate over 10-year-old tweets about Israel and Islamophobia

Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News
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Labour Party dumps UK election candidate over 10-year-old tweets about Israel and Islamophobia

  • Faiza Shaheen blocked from standing for the party at the General Election on July 4 because of a handful of interactions on social media platform X over the past decade
  • The tweets include one about her experience of Islamophobia in the party, and a clip from The Daily Show in which host Jon Stewart discussed Israel’s actions in Gaza in 2014
Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Labour Party bosses have blocked a candidate from standing at the upcoming UK General Election because of a handful of interactions on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, over the past 10 years.

In once case, economist and academic Faiza Shaheen “liked” a video of a TV comedy sketch about Israel by acclaimed American comedian Jon Stewart, host of satirical news program The Daily Show. In another she wrote about her own experiences with Islamophobia within the Labour party.

Shaheen said she was informed on Wednesday night that she could not stand for the party at the election, after she was called to a meeting to discuss accusations of antisemitism and other misconduct. She told the BBC’s Newsnight program on Wednesday of her shock upon receiving the email confirming her candidacy had been blocked.

“Fourteen tweets since 2014 — 10 years,” she said. “Three of those were about the Green Party, me liking my friends’ tweets before I joined the Labour Party, and one of them was about my experiences of Islamophobia in the party.

“How am I not allowed to talk about my experiences of Islamophobia and the double standards that I’ve seen.”

Shaheen, an academic who specializes in the study of inequality, had been presented with a list of tweets earlier in the day, including one that included a clip from The Daily Show broadcast in July 2014. In it, host Stewart, who is of Jewish heritage, starts to discuss an Israeli ground offensive during the 2014 Gaza War. He is immediately surrounded and rebuked by four of the Comedy Central show’s correspondents who, as part of the show’s satirical commentary on the issue, accuse him of being a “self-hating Jew” for questioning the actions of Israel.

Shaheen’s interaction with video on social media prompted a complaint from the Jewish Labour Movement, which is affiliated with the Labour Party.

“It was the middle of the night, if you look at the time. I was probably with the baby, breastfeeding. I don’t even remember liking that tweet,” she said during her appearance on Newsnight.

She later accused the Labour Party of waging “a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying” and alleged that the party, led by Keir Starmer, has “a problem with black and brown people.”

Adding that she will challenge the party’s decision in the courts, she said: “This campaign of prejudice, bullying and spiteful behavior has finally been rewarded by Labour’s NEC (National Executive Committee) and my name has been added to the list of those not welcome in the candidate club. And it is no surprise that many of those excluded are people of color.”

Stewart reacted to the Labour Party’s action against Shaheen with a message on Twitter in which he wrote: “This is the dumbest thing the UK has done since electing Boris Johnson.”

The decision by Labour bosses to prevent Shaheen from standing in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency in North East London comes as the party campaigns for the General Election on July 4, which many experts predict will result in a landslide victory for the party.

However, under Starmer, who became leader in 2020, the party has faced criticism on a number of issues, including its stance on the war in Gaza and its handling of internal matters.

In 2020, watchdogs ruled that the party was responsible for “unlawful” acts of antisemitic harassment and discrimination during the four-and-a-half years when Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, was party leader.

Topics: UK Labour Party

Arab News columnist Baria Alamuddin receives lifetime achievement honor at May Chidiac Foundation Media Awards

Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News
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Arab News columnist Baria Alamuddin receives lifetime achievement honor at May Chidiac Foundation Media Awards

  • The MCF Awards ceremony was held on in Dubai, UAE, for the second year
  • Mamdouh Al-Muhaini, general manager of Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, received the Excellence in the Media Industry Award
Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News

DUBAI: Acclaimed international journalist and broadcaster Baria Alamuddin was celebrated at the May Chidiac Foundation Media Awards for her valuable contributions to the Arab world’s media industry.

Alamuddin, an Arab News columnist, editor of the Media Services Syndicate and former foreign editor of Al-Hayat newspaper, accepted the Antoine Choueiri Special Tribute for Lifetime Achievement during Tuesday’s ceremony.

Presenting the accolade were Pierre Choueiri, CEO and chairman of the leading media representation group in the Middle East, Choueiri Group, and Lebanon’s ambassador to the UAE, Fouad Chehab Dandan.

The annual MCF Awards, hosted by Dubai for the second year in a row, recognized the contributions of several other prominent figures in the Arab media industry.

Awards were presented by MCF President May Chidiac and other notable media personalities, including Lebanese journalist and writer Samir Atallah, CEO of International Media Investments and former CNN Commercial Worldwide president Rani Raad, and Beirut Institute founder and executive chairman Raghida Dergham.

Mamdouh Al-Muhaini, general manager of Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, accepted the Excellence in the Media Industry Award.

The Excellence in Media Award went to Nadim Koteich, general manager of Sky News Arabia, International Media Investments, to recognize his commitment to excellence and his impact on the media landscape over the past two decades.

Palestinian journalist Heba Akila, best known for her coverage of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, was recognized for her Courage in Journalism.

Anas Bukhash, entrepreneur and podcast presenter of ABTalks, accepted the Content Development Award from award-winning international journalist Hadley Gamble and Bahraini business pioneer Akram Miknas, who heads Promoseven Holdings.

Award-winning investigative journalist and television host at France 2, Elise Lucet, received the Engaged Journalist Award, presented by Nobel laureate Ouidad Bouchamaoui and Lebanese Member of Parliament Ghassan Hasbani.

The Outstanding Media Performance Award was presented to American journalist and war reporter Ben Wedeman, CNN’s Beirut-based senior international correspondent.

Founded by journalist and former Lebanese Minister for Administrative Development May Chidiac, the foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to research and development in the fields of media, international affairs, women’s rights, democracy and social welfare, among others, with the aim of establishing Lebanon as a proactive player in the Middle East and global economy.

Topics: May Chidiac Foundation Arab journalism journalism awards

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Meta removes over 500 Israeli social media accounts misleading public on Gaza war

Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News
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Meta removes over 500 Israeli social media accounts misleading public on Gaza war

  • Tech giant bans STOIC, which is a Tel Aviv-based political-intelligence firm
  • Human Rights Watch accused Meta in December of censoring Palestinian content
Updated 30 May 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Meta has removed over 500 Facebook and Instagram accounts, operated as a network from Israel, which were seeking to “manipulate” public debate about Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza, the tech giant revealed on Wednesday.

In its latest Adversarial Threat Report, published on May 29, Meta highlighted that the Israeli network — shut down during the first quarter of 2024 — comprised 510 Facebook and 32 Instagram accounts, 11 pages and one group.

Meta’s investigation found these accounts to have violated its policy defined as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal, in which fake accounts are central to the operation.”

The network targeted audiences in the US and Canada but was discovered and stopped early in its audience-building efforts, Meta said. It had about 500 Facebook and 2,000 Instagram followers, and less than 100 group members.

Meta’s investigation found that these fake accounts had cross-internet operations, with activity on X and YouTube.

Portrayed as representing US and Canadian citizens, the accounts featured posts mostly in English about Israel’s war on Gaza. They included praise for the actions of Israel’s military, criticism of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and calls for the release of the Israeli hostages.

The network also operated “distinctly branded websites focused on the Israel-Hamas war and Middle Eastern politics.” And promoted them by posting comments on the Facebook pages of international and local media organizations, as well as those of political and public figures, including US lawmakers.

On Oct. 7, Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, displacing 90 percent of the population, and destroying critical infrastructure, according to UN figures.

Meta began investigating the network’s activity following a review of public reports by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab about inauthentic behavior on X. Meta then found corresponding activity on its own social apps.

But even before the investigation began, Meta’s automated systems had detected and disabled several fake and compromised accounts. However, as these accounts were disabled, the people behind them added others, likely acquired from account farms, it was revealed.

The report found that the backers of the network also purchased inauthentic engagement, including likes and followers, from Vietnam.

The investigation found that there was an attempt to conceal the source of the accounts by leveraging North American proxy infrastructure; and that they were linked to STOIC, a Tel Aviv-based political marketing- and business-intelligence firm.

After banning STOIC on its platforms, Meta sent the firm a letter demanding that they immediately cease activity that violates its policies.

Last week, Meta said it had deactivated the accounts of several Israeli settlers who used Facebook and Instagram to coordinate raids on aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip. The company said these operations violated its Coordinating Harm policy.

But in December last year, Human Rights Watch accused Meta of “broken promises” after finding the company guilty of “systemic censorship of Palestinian content” and failing to “meet its human rights due diligence responsibilities.”

Topics: Gaza war Hamas-Israel war Gaza

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