Tom Wallace

MY Story

I grew up Irish, French and Catholic with a blue collar family in Boston. My father was a Boston firefighter.

I got involved in the Israeli Palestinian conflict in 2000 due to the close attention I was paying during the Camp David accords pushed by President Clinton. The media bias and the pressure on Arafat was obvious. However, my knowledge was limited so I was very reluctant to even speak about it. Still I knew enough to be confused and dismayed by the coverage.

So I began doing my own research; the more I learned, the angrier I got.

Once the intifada broke out, Arafat was blamed and Palestinians were being massacred. It was time to get involved. The US media coverage was horrendous.

I began working with the Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights media committee. Janice, the committee director made an extraordinary mentor. I will forever appreciate what she taught me. It must have been very frustrating. The very first “letter to the editor” I wrote took hours, over a day actually. I was terrified. But it was published in the Boston Herald resulting in an Instant high.

Next I succeeded in getting a 1/2 page spotlight on Raja Shehadeh published also in the Herald. He was touring with his book and was speaking at Harvard.

During the buildup to war in Iraq, it was feared by many that Israel would increase the atrocities in the West Bank and Gaza under cover of the US invasion. In the meantime I had met a very powerful woman named Susan who had traveled to the West Bank. Her extraordinary story provided the final incentive for me to travel to the West Bank myself. And it just so happened that the International Solidarity Movement was in need of a media coordinator at the time. So with my vast media knowledge and experience I caught the last flight into Israel on the eve of the Iraq war and just a day after Rachel Corrie had been killed by an Israeli bulldozer. It is more accurate to say murdered by an Israeli soldier driving a CATERPILLAR bulldozer paid for the American taxpayer.

During my time there, Britain Tom Hurndall was shot in the head and lied in a coma for nine months until his death. American Brian Avery was shot in the face and James Miller, a British journalist, was shot in the head and killed. I don’t know how many Palestinians were killed in the time that I was there but unfortunately, it was and continues to be almost a daily occurrence and it is almost never covered in US media.

Since then I have continued to work with media, initially focusing on print; working with a small group to get opeds published, advocating for truth and accuracy in US reporting of news from the region etc. Those opeds were written by others, but I’ve had a few of my own published including the Boston Globe, the Jerusalem Post, ZMAG, Electronic Intifada and several smaller newspapers. I’ve also been interviewed by numerous broadcast outlets including the BBC, Channel 2 in Israel, and TV stations in Moscow, Italy, Holland, South Africa and for programs such as Viewpoint with James Zogby and Democracy Now. Print media interviews have ranged from the New York Times to the Boston Globe to Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post.

AMERICAN HUMMUS is my attempt to address broadcast media. It is a work in progress and will take some time to get it where it needs to be. AND I NEED HELP.

The point of all this is that I am not extraordinary. I was however moved to action, as has almost anyone who has witnessed the oppression suffered by the Palestinian people. Adding insult to injury was, and is, the US media coverage of the situation.

I firmly believe that if Americans knew the truth, the Israeli occupation would end. Without US and EU financial and military support, Israel could not sustain such a vast and illegal occupation. You don’t have to look far to find the truth but main stream US media will not provide it.

My goal here is to expose the subtle, sometimes blatant and often insidious methods used by US broadcasters to project and reinforce a narrative cultivated and promoted by the Israeli government and its supporters.

So please help if possible. Do your own research, don’t be afraid to speak up, pay attention and ask questions. If it doesn’t sound right , it probably isn’t.

Support American Hummus in any way you can: I need donations, writers and people to record media.