Yesterday afternoon, I met with about a dozen Arab Israeli journalists in Nazareth to get a feel for what they face as part of an effort to create a more solid union presence in the area for all journalists. First, a definition: these journalists are Israeli citizens and do not, as a rule, work in the media in the occupied territories.

We met in a small conference room in the Howard Johnson’s (where did that come from?), fueled by coffee, tea and some way delicious cake (if you haven’t had this experience, daily run-of-the-mill bread and pastry far surpass American fare). And, right off the bat, they are caught in a pretty difficult situation: on the one hand, they work under Israeli state media control but suffer discrimination even acknowledged by the state media broadcasting system. On the other hand, as Israeli citizens, they are viewed with suspicion by Palestinian journalists and the Palestinian governmental authority.

On top of that, they really have no rights. More than one talked about their working conditions in sardonic, depressing terms: they basically have jobs, that pay very little, and keep those jobs as long as the owner decides that they are useful; if the owner comes in with a hangover or some other bone to pick with a particular worker, boom, they can be out on their asses. In our legal terminology, they are “At-will” workers—people who have no job security and can be fired with no cause given. Within the Arab Israeli media, the pay is low and has been stuck at the same rates for more than a decade.

Yet, as pissed off as they are, they hesitate to confront the Arab Israeli media owners because of the fragility of the media infrastructure. For newspaper writers, only 3-4 markets exist, all of which exist on a shaky financial footing. Piss off the owner and you are unlikely to work elsewhere. And, if they could figure out some way of bringing pressure on the owners, they might send the paper under (or so they fear), making the employment market even tighter.

They are as much interested in figuring out ways to attract capital to create new job opportunities, as they are in dealing as an organized group of workers to better their working conditions. We’ll see—I’m hopeful the project I’m working on, via the International Federation of Journalists, will bear some fruit.