During the last Israeli national elections, the media and election polls related to the Arab political parties as one entity rather than recognizing the diverse views of the Arab population (20% of the general population) and the political parties that represent them. There was a need to change this.

Tal Schnieder a Jewish participant in the course “Creating Change Agents: Palestinian and Israeli Professionals in Dialogue and Action” for women journalists developed a project to raise awareness of the press to the differences in Arab political parties and Arab population’s varying views. Hebrew language news reporting listed each ‘Jewish’ political party reporting on their platforms while the Arab political parties were ‘lumped together’ as one, with most reporting not identifying any of the “Arab” parties by name.

As part of Tal’s participation in Neve Shalom-Wahat al Salam School for Peace Change Agents Course for women journalists, she took upon herself to raise more issues in the press with respect to Arab population exclusion from Israeli society in daily news reporting. During the 2013 campaign a severe discrimination was brought to her attention in the way public political polls were portrayed on different Israeli news shows. Most channels did not call an “Arab” party by name (either Chadash, Balad or Raam-Taal), but just threw them under a separate column mentioning “Arab Parties”.

Tal Schneider decided that polls that do not bear an Arab party by name, shall not be included in her poll tracking Blog’s. Tal Schneider’s decision stirred a debate on social networks raising awareness to the difference amongst the various party and views in the Arab community.

In addition, through her meetings with several Arab reporters during the course Tal realized the importance of having an Arab view expressed in the press. She was able to make a case to her editors at Maariv & Globes that there was a need to hire Arab reporters. As a result Maariv hired an Arab economic writer for their business section.

Other journalists reported on Tal Schneider success in her campaign during the elections.

Creating Change Agents: Israelis and Palestinians Women Journalists in Dialogue and Action” was made possible with the generous support of USAID and the American People in cooperation with the School for Peace at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam and Tawasul.