Rabat, March 21, 2023
The managing director of Bayt Mal Al Quds Asharif Agency, Dr. Mohamed Salem Echarkaoui stressed the need to develop a reference document on the media terminology related to the Palestinian cause and called for setting up a committee to draft this document and submit it to the Islamic conference of information ministers for adoption and use by the media outlets in all the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states.
Echarkaoui, who was participating in a virtual workshop held by the Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation news agencies (UNO) on Tuesday (March 21, 2023) on the theme “media use of the Palestinian cause terminology” with the participation of the OIC secretariat general and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), in addition to the Union member-news agencies, diplomats and media professionals, underlined “the scope of the challenge implied by the failure to master the media terminology and the dangers it entails for the accurate understanding of the truth of the Palestinian cause … one of the causes lost between terms and digital maps and disinformation”.
He also pointed out that “preserving the terms and concepts associated with Al Quds, that embody the identity and present of the holy city, is part of the missions of the Agency which was entrusted with the duty of promoting and protecting the civilizational legacy of the city of Al Quds, as a shared legacy for all humankind, and preserving the cultural identity of the city, its legal status and religious and civilizational features”.
The Agency managing director also surveyed, during his presentation, part of the contributions of Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency, an offshoot of Al Quds Committee chaired by His Majesty King Mohammed VI –may God protect him, to support the Palestinian cause at various levels, especially regarding the communication field and granting the Royal aegis to celebrate the Agency Silber jubilee.
Echarkaoui also warned against “information coverage without full command of the subject, checking the terms and their implications and investigating”, stating that “the media, field correspondents and chroniclers should check the concepts and terms before publication so as not to convey a distorted image and harm the lay people, such as those resisting in the city of Al Quds”.
To confront the media machine hostile to Al Quds population, Echarkaoui said: “we are such in need of recollecting the historic “Al Quds call” signed in 2019 by the Commander of the Faithful, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, chairman of Al Quds Committee, and His Holiness Pope Francis, on the city “as a shared legacy of all humanity and as, primarily, a crossroads, a symbol of peaceful coexistence between the followers of the three revealed religions and a center of mutual respect and dialogue values”.
