A Canadian journalist, Faith Goldy, came to the Holy Land with a set belief regarding the political situation between Israel and her neighbors. Her trip started out as a fact-finding mission but developed into myth-busting when she discovered that what is portrayed by the mainstream media was not the reality she saw on the ground.
Goldy came with a team of three other journalists from The Rebel Media at the beginning of March. Each member of the team recorded their findings on video clips. Goldy admitted that she arrived in the country as a firm supporter of the “two-state solution,” but during her travels she had the opportunity to interview people from the broad political and demographic spectrum on both sides of the geographical border and as a result, her views and perspective changed quite dramatically.
As a Catholic who takes her religion seriously, Goldy did some figurative digging to discover what Israel is really like. After seven days investigating in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, she said that coming with an open mind was really important. She said that while asking the hard questions, she discovered that Israel is a free democracy with full civil rights for women and minorities – even the 20 percent Arab minority.
Having heard and believed that Israel was an apartheid state, she was shocked to find there is nothing of the sort on the Israeli side of the security fence (which she discovered is 95 percent fence and 5 percent wall) and in actuality the apartheid that does happen is on the Palestinian Authority’s side of the border. The journalist was most surprised to find that Bethlehem is almost devoid of Christians and is a Muslim town ruled by Muslims. She said that religious apartheid is alive and well; and the Pact of Umar which dictates restrictive regulations on non-Muslims – especially Christians – is fully enforced.
Her conclusion is that the only solution for the ongoing conflict is a one-state solution under the full authority of Israel which she praised.