SMC in Media Outreach
Generating Awareness Across the World:
SMC’s press conferences and media services for Sderot have assisted hundreds of international media correspondents including The New York Times, BBC, and EuroNews: most recently during Operation Cast Lead. SMC articles, investigative reports and videos reach the Israeli and global media.
Press Conferences
Sderot Media Center has conducted countless press conferences and issued dozens of press releases on the Sderot security situation. SMC functions regularly during rocket escalations, serving as a central information source for local and international media. Click on the titles below to read of SMC press conferences and their media impact.
Noam Bedein speaks to the press in Norway
Two-state illusion: In early September, I was invited to take part in a press conference in Oslo, along with the Israeli ambassador to Norway, members of the Norwegian media and members of the Norwegian parliament. The title of the press conference was “Iran: At Sderots Back Door.”
SMC organizes press conference for Italian Members of Parliament visiting Sderot
Italian MPs Show Solidarity in Sderot: In a unique show of solidarity, a delegation of 70 Italians, including 24 members of the Italian Parliament visited Sderot this past Monday, December 8. The Italian delegation brought with them a copy of a letter, written by members of the Italian Parliament, addressed to Gilad Schalit, the IDF solider captured two years ago.
SMC press briefing following Barak Obama’s visit to a Sderot family
Sderot Resident Remembers US President’s Barack Obama’s Words: When President Barak Obama visited Sderot this past July, he left a lasting impression on Sderot resident, Pinchas Amar. “He was friendly and charismatic and showed genuine concern about the rocket situation,” said Pinchas Amar. Amar’s home was partially destroyed when a Palestinian rocket exploded over his kitchen in December 2007.
Read: LA Times coverage following SMC’s Obama press conference
Jerusalem Post coverage on SMC’s Obama press conference
SMC’s security briefing on the 2008 ceasefire, with international and local press in attendance–AP, Reuters, Jerusalem Post Israel Channel 10, Reshet Bet Radio, and Kol Yisrael:
Sderot Media Center Press Conference on Ceasefire: A day before the Hamas-Israel ceasefire officially ended, Sderot Media Center facilitated a press conference with a panel of Sderot officials who provided brief updates of the security situation and the impact of the ceasefire on the area residents to Israeli and international press.
SMC holds pre-election debate for MKs on rocket threat to southern Israel
This past Sunday evening, February 1, Sderot Media Center held a pre-election event for the English-speaking Jerusalem public on the issue of Sderot and the western Negev at the Israel Center. Political candidates from nine political parties of the 34 parties running for general election on February 10, gathered together to discuss how their respective parties would handle the continued Palestinian rocket fire terrorizing Sderot and the western Negev.
SMC conducts press conference for Bangkok journalists via the Israeli Embassy during Operation Cast Lead
Thank you letter from the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok: Read more
Media Services
Sderot Media Center conducts and initiates tours for foreign media personnel, diplomats, government officials, tourists, and local visitors, showing them first-hand the damage wreaked by the kassam attacks. More than 70 foreign groups have visited Sderot, viewing homes destroyed by Qassams, meeting with professional services personnel and visiting terror victims’ families, while also viewing the cultural center and events for youth in the city. Read more
International Media
Sderot Media Center has assisted hundreds of foreign correspondents from leading international television channels, radio, newspapers and magazines, who have contacted the media center for information or have visited Sderot with SMC. Sderot Media’s information and services have helped produce hundreds of articles, news reports, TV documentaries, and radio segments on Sderot–which have been carried across the world.
Scroll below to read examples of TV and radio segments, news reports, and publications on Sderot produced thanks to SMC media services.
International news sources which SMC has assisted include The New York Times, BBC, EuroNews, UK’s Sunday Times, and America’s NPR. Click here to read the Israel Government Press Office’s Director, Danny Seaman’s recommendation letter for the SMC.
Newspapers, Magazines and Online Websites
At Gaza’s Edge, Israeli Fear Rockets’ Whine
By Stephen Erlanger- January 9, 2008
Close to the Edge
By Phillip Jacobson
September 2, 2007
The Boston Globe:
The Loudest Memories
By Steven A. Rosenberg – July 25, 2007
Shabat pena dari Gaza
By Faisal Assegaf
July 10, 2008
Jakarta, Indonesia
Singapore’s World Weekend Today:
When Civilians Pay the Price
April 4, 2009
By Ansley Ng
Television Networks
SMC has assisted leading international film producers and news channels with the production of segments and news documentaries on Sderot. The following news segments and documentaries have reached hundreds of millions of people across the globe. SMC also produces its own films and documentaries on the Sderot situation which have reached hundreds of thousands of people through YouTube, SMC , and hundreds of others news sites and blogs.
EuroNews : A leading international news channel covering world news from a European perspective, Euronews produced a segment on Sderot in 2007 with SMC’s Noam Bedein, which was broadcasted worldwide in 8 languages to 200 million viewers.
Worldfocus : An international news program that airs on America’s Public Broadcasting Station (PBS), WorldFocus produced a segment on Sderot with the assistance of Sderot Media Center on January 5, 2009.
CBS 2 News
Al Jazeera : SMC’s Anav Silverman speaks about Sderot on an Al-Jazeera program with Israeli and Arab university students.
Radio
Sderot Media Center staff have spoken on countless radio stations in North America, Israel, Europe, and Australia about the Sderot rocket situation. Click to reach the links to radio appearances.
Operation Cast Lead Overview
During the past three weeks of Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008–January 18, 2009), Sderot Media Center reached its apex of media production-in working to provide the international media with on-the-ground updates on Hamas rocket fire against Sderot residents.
With over 796 Hamas rockets fired at Israel during the war, SMC continued to operate full time, with its six staffers and four interns, even under intense rocket fire. SMC staff worked around the clock, updating the SMC website on a regular basis with videos, articles and photo stills of rocket attacks and the personal stories of Sderot residents. Close to 40 articles were published and more than 20 video clips uploaded on the rocket situation. Read more
SMC Investigative Reports
Back in March 2007, SMC produced five investigative articles on the lack of the protection for schools and bomb shelters which were not suitable for the residents in Sderot and the Western Negev.
SMC generated a media campaign before the opening of the 2007 school year, inviting journalists from Israel and from all over the world, along with foreign diplomats from nine countries to visit unprotected schools – holding impromptu press conferences at all of these schools.
The SMC press pressure worked: After a few months- 90% of the bomb shelters in Sderot were repaired. Millions of dollars were allocated and spent to reinforce schools and kindergartens in Sderot and the Western Negev.
The non profit organization, “Operation Life Shield” which constructed private bomb shelters throughout the Western Negev, acknowledges the vital role that SMC played in exposing the human effects of the missile reality with our videos, articles, blogs and interviews in English. Thanks to SMC exposure of the situation, Operation Life Shield were able to raise funds for these bomb shelters.
See thank you letter to SMC from Operation Life Shield President, Josh Adler: http://www.sderotmedia.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=81&q=4
In addition, SMC also facilitated investigative reports about the lack of staff and budget in the Sderot Mental Health Center, revealing that 4.5 million dollars that were allocated by the Jewish philanthropies from abroad never arrived at the mental center. After this SMC expose, some of the allocation was eventually allocated directly to the Sderot Mental Health Center.
Yet the most comprehensive investigative reports produced by the SMC concerned the dysfunctional and corruption-ridden Israel Tax Authority, which is supposed to provide immediate compensation to any Israeli citizen who has suffered property loss and/or mental damage as a result of enemy attacks on civilian targets.
Sderot Media Center and Yediot Sapir conducted an investigative report on the Israel Tax Authority’s treatment of Sderot residents in assessing home and property damages caused by Gaza rocket attacks. The report resulted with Sderot Media Center organizing a Sderot delegation visit to the Knesset, following with an initiative to establish a political lobby for Sderot residents.
SMC’s Exclusive Report on Sderot residents’ visit to Knesset
- Establishing a Lobby in Sderot
- Progress in the Struggle of Sderot Residents with Israel Tax Authority
Israeli and Global Media that publish SMC articles
SMC staff have written for numerous Israeli and international news sources on the rocket impact in Sderot and southern Israel. Below are a few examples.
BBC
Have Your Say: Sderot and Gaza Letter Exchange
SMC’s Anav Silverman and Mona Youssef in Gaza exchange letters on BBC news on-line:
First Letters
Second Letters
Third Letters
Front Page Magazine
Terror and the UNRWA
April 2, 2009
By Anav Silverman
The Jerusalem Post
T wo-State Illusion
By Noam Bedein
January 5, 2009
Shell-Shocked at DePaul
April 4, 2009
By Jacob Shrybman
Aish.com
Ignoring Sderot
March 11, 2007
By Noam Bedein
IsraelInsider
4 0 years after Jerusalem’s liberation, when will Sderot be free?
May 16, 2007
By Noam Bedein
YNet News
D efining War Crimes
January 21, 2009
By Anav Silverman
Be Wary of Tehran
March 3, 2009
By Anav Silverman
Israel National News
We Cease, They Fire
April 25, 2008
By Noam Bedein
Israel News 1 (Hebrew)
Sderot Community Treatment Theater
By Livnat Shaubi
Israel’s Short Portal (Hebrew)
Routine
October 10, 2008
By Livnat Shaubi
Mynet (Hebrew)
The Key to Association
April 5, 2009
By Livnat Shaubi
The Bangor Daily News
In Israel, Effects of Terror Shatter Glass, Peace of Mind
By Anav Silverman
March 30, 2009
Israeli civilian expectations low when ceasefire ends
By Anav Silverman: December 1, 2008
SMC Videos
Israeli embassies in the UK, Italy, Bangkok, Turkey, Guatemala, and France, are now using an SMC video clip documenting Hamas’s missile threat against Sderot and southern Israelis, in Israel-advocacy campaigns. The same video clip, which portrays Sderot’s protected playgrounds, received over 91,000 hits on YouTube during Operation Cast Lead.
IDC Herzliya Conference
Sderot kids want rockets to stop!
Click to see more SMC Videos.
