DAVE GORDON
The anti-Israel bias in news reporting is not new (although it has become increasingly worse over the past ten months). Back in 2010 Amotz Ayal founded an Israel-based organization, Tazpit Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL). The goal was to provide accurate facts to the media and to fill the gap where the mainstream reportage misses the mark. In the beginning, Eyal simply gave cameras to people, asking them to film what was going on, in order to capture the other side. At the time, he worked as a pizza delivery man, and used his tips to buy more cameras.
Now Eyal manages 420 citizen volunteers across Israel and ten staff members. Eyal and his team are the official news source for all Israel related content in many countries around the world. TPS-IL now reaches over 10 million people worldwide and distributes over 5,000 articles per year, and is Israel’s only newswire agency.
Eyal is also a lecturer at Reichman University in Herzliya and for the past five years has taught the Communications in Conflict Zones course. He also serves as a reserve commander in an elite unit in the Israel Defense Forces tasked with special anti-terror operations in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.
“TPS-IL is a change in perception,” said Eyal. “TPS-IL aims to uncover the truth and teach the next generation of the media.”
That means subscribers and the public have “quick access to reliable and high-quality materials, with deep knowledge of the area.”
Community Magazine reached out to Mr. Eyal for an exclusive interview.
CM: What’s your own background, what was your field of study prior to TPS-IL?
I was 23 years of age and working in security after my army service. I saw during my army service how manipulated videos affected the way events were covered. Instead of complaining, I decided to counter the problem by giving cameras to people on the Israeli side. I started with five cameras.
CM: What was the inspiration for TPS-IL’s creation?
As I began learning how the media works, I was stunned to discover that most information reported internationally comes from a small, small number of news agencies. News about Israel is dominated by three wire services, AP, Reuters, and AFP (Agence France-Presse, headquartered in Paris), and also by nine Palestinian news agencies that cooperate with international newspapers and networks.
I had three options. One was to complain and expose them. The second was to convince people that their news is manipulated. And the third option was to provide a better, faster news source as an alternative for the international news outlets. I chose the third option.
CM: How did you bring together your team to report and photograph stories? Was it difficult to do, and how did you find your team members?
We started as a volunteer organization. All of our volunteers were tired of the skewed coverage and wanted to change this reality. At the same time, I started recruiting experienced professional editors and journalists who could write full stories at the highest standards expected by our partners.
CM: Tell me about the team and their backgrounds.
We’re a growing organization. We have more than 400 volunteers all across the country led by a team of experienced editors, reporters, and investigative journalists. Thanks to our volunteer photographers, we’ve earned a reputation for getting photos out first. We’ve managed to harness the power of citizen journalism while maintaining a high standard of professional reporting.
It’s a diverse group and we’re punching above our weight. But our goal for the next two years is to find the funds to double the size of our staff. We’re looking for regional coordinators for different parts of the country, and more editors and reporters to make sure we can cover news 24/7 and more.
CM: What was a big breaking story you’re proud of?
I’ll share two recent examples from the war.
We were able to expose the fact that a UN organization was echoing Hamas propaganda on a near-daily basis, including inflated casualty figures, claims of atrocities, genocide, and all kinds of human rights violations. After publishing our report, the UN admitted its casualty figures were based on Hamas [false reports] and cut its official death count by nearly half. Our investigation was widely republished internationally.
Our volunteer photographers are also in Gaza. One of them was inside an UNRWA school and was amazed to find wooden training rifles used by kids. His photos helped expose another example of how UNRWA is part of the problem, not the solution.
CM: What are examples of countries that carry your stories?
India, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Italy, Norway, Philippines, 22 countries in Latin America, and many more. Our goal is to be the source of news for any country that never got the accurate story from Israel. And we’re on the way. We’re currently in talks with many more national news agencies in other countries.
CM: What has been the biggest challenge?
Manpower. I started this organization with no budget, nobody to back me up. I raised the organization bit by bit into an international influencer. But to get to the next level, I need to be able to supply news 24/7. That’s the demand. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge isn’t finding partners and customers, but rather supplying the demand they need. And that’s an issue of manpower. Once I have the manpower, more partnerships will fall into place.
CM: Cite some examples of biased reporting you’ve found – some simple or sloppy, some egregious?
The most obvious example is the explosion at Gaza’s Al Ahli Hospital at the beginning of the war. The initial news reports parroted unverified Palestinian claims blaming Israel. They said as many as 500 people were killed and injured. Israel released intercepted Hamas communications confirming the blast was caused by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket, and assessments significantly lowered the casualty figures too. That should have served as a warning to the international press about relying on Hamas’s casualty figures. That’s been an issue for the whole war.
The solution to this is to supply the truth first, rather than playing catch-up after the lies are spread around the world.
CM: You attended the Azerbaijani media conference last summer – what materialized from that?
These conferences are a great place to meet colleagues, develop new partnerships, and explore mutually beneficial possibilities for collaboration. One unexpected thing that came out of the Azerbaijani conference was a partnership with a Pakistani news agency.
Through our partnerships, we get invited to lots of industry conferences, and each one helps us build relationships that lead to professional cooperation. I see journalism as a bridge between cultures, and if funds are available, we will organize a conference of our own in Jerusalem after the war.
CM: Has the mainstream media had to correct something because of TPS-IL’s reporting?
A few times. But our goal is to cover the news correctly from the beginning. I’ll give you an example where being first made a big difference. In 2019, Israel was blamed for killing a toddler and his pregnant mother in an airstrike. But we were the first to confirm that they were killed by a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket. Palestinian journalists were aware of this all along but blamed Israel anyway. Fortunately, we were the first to get the story out, and this set the tone for more accurate international coverage.
CM: Where do you hope TPS-IL will be a year or two from now?
I see us at full manpower and becoming the must-go-to source for media outlets about Israeli news. I want to reach more than one billion people a day through our partners and customers. We hope to restart a program for promising young journalists. Ninety percent of our [Reichman University] students went on to work in the news industry. The idea is to train the next generation of journalists to be more open-minded and professional.