Palestinian satellite television (PalSat) is set to launch a new tv channel for Israeli Arabs, named 'F48' (Falastin 1948) after the Arabic word for Palestine and the year of Israel's creation, referred to as 'nakba' or catastrophe, reports Variety.
Funded by the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, the first broadcast will be on the June 18, the first day of the Ramadan fast.
According to Haaretz, the channel plans to focus on social and cultural programs, rather than news features which are costly to produce and potentially politically sensitive. Palestinian television only occasionally shows programs about culture and literature, produced by Israeli Arab companies. Mainstream Israeli television is in Hebrew and geared towards Jewish viewers.
The channel is an attempt by Palestinians to connect more with Israeli-Arabs. “The Palestinian leadership understands and is really beginning to grasp that there won’t be a diplomatic solution, not in the foreseeable future,” one official told Haaretz, which marks a change in tone from previously aired policy.
