JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Al Jazeera apologizes

By Uriel Heilman · August 7, 2008

The Arab satellite TV station Al Jazeera issued a rare apology to Israel after airing a July 19 report that glorified Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese terrorist convicted of murdering four Israelis in 1979. Kuntar was released by Israel in last month’s swap with Hezbollah.

Israel protested the report by Al Jazeera, which has reporters stationed in Israel, after the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) highlighted the report.

Al Jazeera conceded the report violated the station’s own ethical standards.

1 Comment | Share This | Israel, Television

Getting fired over treif chicken

By Ami Eden · May 9, 2008

Remember all the hoopla about two Orthodox Jews being on the Apprentice a few years back? Well, recently, BBC reports, one team lost a competition in the British version of the show because it failed in its quest to buy a kosher chicken:

As insults were traded among contestants on the losing team in this week’s Apprentice, Sir Alan Sugar berated the contestants for not knowing what a kosher chicken was.

It had to rank as one of the most peculiar spectacles in the history of the BBC reality game show, The Apprentice - a full-blown barney about what is and isn’t kosher. Contestants in this week’s episode had been flown to Marrakech in Morocco and instructed to bargain for a number of items on a shopping list, including a kosher chicken.

1 Comment | Share This | Culture, Television

Stewart talks Hamas with Jimmy Carter

By Daniel Sieradski · April 29, 2008

5 Comments | Share This | Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Television

The Israeli television invasion

By Ami Eden · March 13, 2008

The Forward’s Rebecca Spence writes about Hollywood’s growing interest in Israeli television shows:

As Hollywood executives roll out the red carpet for television shows imported from overseas, Israel is emerging as an unlikely new starlet.

In the wake of this season’s new HBO drama, “In Treatment” — the Israeli television hit remade for an American audience — a spate of fresh shows from the Jewish state is now making its way across the Atlantic.

“There is a land rush on Israeli properties right now,” said independent producer David Himmelfarb, who has an exclusive deal with ABC Studios, the television production arm of The Walt Disney Company. “It’s almost like a farm team for Hollywood, is what it’s becoming,” he said, referring to the Israeli television industry.

4 Comments | Share This | Culture, Israel, Television

One more incentive for peace: A Rami Kashou studio in Ramallah

By Ami Eden · March 13, 2008

Rami Kashou, the Ramallah-born fashion designer who finished a close second on Season 4 of Bravo’s Project Runway, plays the checkpoint card in a Q & A with Jewcy.

What about [opening a studio] in your home country?

I’d love to open up in more than one country, but with checkpoints in the Middle East, it could be hard. But it would be nice to have my work in different countries, to make it more accessible.

Here’s a Project Runway montage of Kashou…

0 Comments | Share This | Culture, Fashion, Television, video

An old newspaper and a new TV channel explore the Jewish-Rastafarian connection

By Ami Eden · March 13, 2008

The Forward has hooked up with The Jewish Channel to produce three shows: a round table featuring the paper’s staffers, an interview show with J.J. Goldberg and a movie-themed program with arts & culture editor Alana Newhouse.

In one recent segment on Newhouse’s show, she and the TJC crew looked at the Jewish-Rastafarian documentary Awake Zion.

http://tjctv.com/blogs/are-dreadlocks-the-new-peyos/

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I want my Holocaust awareness ad

By Ami Eden · March 13, 2008

MTV has produced two Holocaust awareness ads as part of its ”Think” initiative.

THE FAMILY ROOM

THE SUBWAY

2 Comments | Share This | Culture, Shoah, Television, video