The Federation of Arab Journalists issued a statement Wednesday denying that any of the Arab writers that visited Israel this week are members of their union.
In a press release, the Federation said that they had reviewed all their member organizations and determined that none of the visitors were considered journalists or members of their national journalist associations.
It appears that at least some of the Arab visitors were bloggers, so it is entirely possible that they are online journalists who do not belong to any syndicate. The FAJ said that they might be Arabs who now live outside the Arab world.
Then comes the obligatory statement that shows how little the words "journalism" and "Arab journalism" intersect.
The Federation reaffirmed its adherence to the rules of the Federation's statutes to stand against all forms of normalization with the Zionist enemy until the liberation of all Arab soil and the establishment of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.In other words, Arab journalists have no choice but to swear not to do any work in Israel. As this press release shows, if any of them would try to report from Israel they would be expelled from their union.
Meaning, there is not even the hint that Arab journalists can possibly report things objectively even if they would want to.
When Arab reporters only write anti-Israel propaganda, then hundreds of millions of Arabs read nothing but propaganda.
Many Arab newspapers appear very professional. Their journalists are treated like any other in the West, and their reports are used by Western reporters, without informing the readers that the source material is by definition biased.
(See also this report, the facts are contradictory but the message is the same.)