Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Gatestone Update :: Raymond Ibrahim: Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2013, and more


Facebook  Twitter  RSS
Gatestone Institute
In this mailing:

Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim
March 27, 2013 at 5:00 am
Be the first of your friends to like this.
Egypt: A court sentenced an entire family – Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children – to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity.
The year 2013 began with reports indicating that wherever Christians live side by side with large numbers of Muslims, the Christians are under attack. As one report said, "Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest." Whether in Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, or Tanzania—attacks on Christians are as frequent as they are graphic.
As for the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, a new study by the Pew Forum finds that "just 0.6 percent of the world's 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4% of the region's inhabitants, drastically down from 20% a century ago, and marking the smallest regional Christian minority in the world. Fully 93% of the region is Muslim and 1.6% is Jewish."
How Christianity has been all but eradicated from the region where it was born is made clear in yet another report on the Middle East's largest Christian minority, Egypt's Christian Copts. Due to a "climate of fear and uncertainty," Christian families are leaving Egypt in large numbers. Along with regular church attacks, the situation has gotten to the point that, according to one Coptic priest, "Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair. Sometimes they hit them when they refuse." Another congregation leader said "With the new [Sharia-heavy] constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don't believe we can be treated on an equal basis."
Elsewhere, Christians are not allowed to flee. In eastern Syria, for example, 25,000 Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans and Armenians, were prevented from fleeing due to a number of roadblocks set up by armed Islamic militia groups, who deliberately target Christians for robbery and kidnapping-for-ransom—then often slaughtering their victims.
Categorized by theme, January's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Church Attacks
Egypt: Reminiscent of the 2011 New Year's Eve church bombing in Alexandria, which left over 23 Christians dead, a car packed with explosives was discovered by a Coptic church celebrating Christmas [which is in January] and was neutralized before it could detonate. As patrols seized the explosives-packed car, another car with masked men in it sped away. Separately, hundreds of Muslims chanting Islamic slogans in the village of Fanous destroyed a social services building belonging to a Coptic Church. Security forces arrived only after the building had been completely destroyed. According to the AINA report, the social services building "had all the necessary government permits; it had a reception hall on the first floor and a kindergarten on the second. But the Muslims insisted that it would become a church. Mosques in surrounding areas had earlier called on Muslims, through their megaphones, to go and help their Muslim brethren in Fanous, because Christians were "building a church." Hundreds of other Muslim protesters rioted outside yet another church in Upper Egypt; on claims that a Christian man had sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl, they threw stones at the building. Four stores owned by Copts were torched. Police are investigating the accusations against the merchant.
Nigeria: A total of 30 Christians were slaughtered in two separate attacks carried out by armed men ahead of the New Year, in the Muslim-majority north: on Sunday December 30, 15 people were killed when armed jihadis stormed a church and opened fire on worshippers. The night before, Muslim terrorists broke into targeted homes and slaughtered 15 other Christians in their sleep. "The victims were selected because they were all Christians, some of whom had moved into the neighbourhood from other parts of the city hit by Boko Haram attacks," said a relief worker. Meanwhile, Nigerian president Jonathan revealed that Boko Haram has enablers even within his own government: "The saboteurs in government condoning terrorism by Boko Haram, you do not love this nation," he said. "Those of you who leak secrets to Boko Haram do not love this nation."
Pakistan: On Christmas day, "when Christian worshipers were coming out of different Churches after performing Christmas prayers, more than one hundred Muslim extremists equipped with automatic rifles, pistols and sticks attacked the Christian women, children and men," according to a Pakistan Christian Post report. Several were shot or beaten relentlessly. Much of this appears to have been exacerbated by a fatwa, or an Islamic edict, that came out right before Christmas, saying that, "Christmas cannot be celebrated by Muslims because it is against the concept of monotheism in Islam." Due to the subsequent chaos, Christians "were under siege from Christmas day and running out of food supplies and milk for children on fear of safety and security of life from further attacks of Muslim mob…. The news of this attack on Christians on Christmas Day was intentionally blocked by media and administration of capital city Islamabad."
Russia: Security forces in a North Caucasus province on Sunday killed three Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday in January. Security forces tried to stop a van in a Muslim-majority province but its occupants opened fire and, in the ensuing battle, were killed. Guns and ammunition were subsequently discovered in the van, indicating that the men could have been planning attacks on churches during the services that marked the Russian Orthodox Christmas. "Deadly exchanges of gunfire between police and suspected militants at road checkpoints are common in Russia's North Caucasus, a string of provinces hit by an Islamist insurgency rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya," the report added.
Murders and Plots of Murder
Algeria: According to a local man who escaped an Islamic raid in the Sahara, the Islamic gunmen, who seized hundreds of gas plant workers, told the staff they would not harm Muslims but would kill Western hostages to whom they referred as "Christians and infidels": "The terrorists told us at the very start that they would not hurt Muslims but were only interested in the Christians and infidels. 'We will kill them,' they said."
Egypt: Two bearded men, apparently Salafis —those Muslims who most try to pattern themselves after Islam's prophet—in what appears to have been a random act of violence, stabbed a Christian woman in Alexandria. The two men were riding a motorcycle when they intercepted Mary and, as she was crossing the street, stabbed her in her abdomen, causing a serious wound in her peritoneal membrane. Mary, a Copt, was transported to the hospital, where she underwent surgery. Although her family filed a complaint with the police, the head detective, as usual, refused to go out and inspect the assault scene. An activist confirmed that this is not the first attack on Coptic women in Alexandria; there were several such cases reported in January, all with no response from authorities.
Iraq: The nation's ever dwindling Christian minority continues to suffer atrocities. A Christian university medical student was killed by a car bomb a day after the body of a 54-year-old female Christian teacher was found with her throat cut. She had been discovered in the same area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city's Christian minority -- some abducted then murdered.
Turkey: An assassination plot against a Protestant pastor was thwarted when police arrested 14 suspects, two of whom had been part of his congregation for more than a year, pretending to be interested in Christianity; one went so far as to be baptized. "These people had infiltrated our church and collected information about me, my family and the church and were preparing an attack against us," said the pastor, a native Turk who had converted to Christianity. "Two of them attended our church for over a year and they were like family."
Also, an 85-year-old Christian Armenian woman was stabbed to death in her apartment. A crucifix was carved onto her naked corpse. Another elderly Christian Armenian woman was punched in the head, and, after collapsing to the floor, was repeatedly kicked by a masked man. According to the report, "the attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly Armenian women, one of whom has has lost an eye…. Opinion remains divided as to whether these are organised hate crimes targeting non-Muslims or just random theft." According to Turkey's Human Rights Association, however, "The attacks were carried out with racist motives," the victims intentionally targeted for being Christian Armenians.
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Egypt: A court sentenced an entire family—Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children—to fifteen years in prison for converting to Christianity. Seven other people were sentenced to five years in prison, mainly for facilitating the formal conversion of the family. Born a Christian, Nadia had converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man; when she attempted to convert back to Christianity after the death of her husband, and reflect this change formally on her and her children's identity card, the request created suspicions among security personnel, who arrested the family. The fifteen year prison sentence followed.
Iran: Saeed Abedini, an American-Iranian Christian pastor was arrested and, in a sham trial, sentenced "to eight years in prison for threatening the national security of Iran through his leadership in Christian house churches. He will serve the time in Iran's notorious Evin Prison, known as one of the most brutal." "This is a real travesty—a mockery of justice," said the American pastor's attorney. "From the very beginning, Iranian authorities have lied about all aspects of this case, even releasing rumors of his expected release. Iran has not only abused its own laws, it has trampled on the fundamentals of human rights." This is not be the first time Tehran has behaved in such a manner.
Malaysia: Threats to burn Bibles in the Malay language were just the latest assaults on Christianity in a Muslim nation regularly touted in the Western press as "moderate." A note written in Malay saying a Bible-burning festival would soon take place was sent to a Christian priest; it ended with a warning in English: "Let's teach 'em a lesson." This latest threat "has had the desired effect of adding to the despair of Malaysian Christians. A fortnight ago the Sultan of the State of Selangor, defying the conventional practice and in the country, forbade Christians from using the word 'Allah.' The Arabic term for God, in usage in religious and cultural contexts before the dawn of Islam, has been used in Bibles in the Malay language and litany for more than 400 years."
Dhimmitude
[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]
Egypt: A Muslim preacher, Hisham al-Ashri, appeared on prime-time television saying that women not wearing the hijab [headscarf] in public, are asking to get raped. He framed his discussion around Christians, who in Egypt are most likely not to wear veils: "I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can." He further said that, "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered," a remark that pointedly does not take Egypt's large Christian minority—whose own religious beliefs do not mandate veils or ban alcohol—into consideration.
Indonesia: After being threatened with closure, six Catholic schools in the nation that has the largest Muslim population in the world, finally agreed to hire Islamic teachers and offer Islamic lessons to Muslim students. Muslim public schools, however, habitually refuse to offer Christian lessons to Christian students, and teach Islam to all students. As one Indonesian commentator put it, "If the regulation is upheld, will Islamic schools, which are more exclusive than Catholic schools when it comes to accepting students of different faiths, also be required to provide Buddhist, Christian or Hindu lessons for their non-Muslim students?" Separately, the Indonesia Ulema Council's East Java chapter urged other regions in the province to issue similar decrees so that all schools, whether state-run or managed by Christian foundations, provide Islamic lessons for their Muslim students.
Pakistan: A powerful government official's Muslim aide, running a prostitution ring abducted a 15-year-old Christian girl from her home, then forced her to convert to Islam and marry him. As a tenant of the Christian family, the aide was evicted after police exposed his prostitution ring. After his departure, the girl disappeared. When, according to the mother, the aide called the girl's family, "He also claimed that Asma had converted to Islam and asked us not to look for her, as she won't be returning home. I could not believe my ears, because Asma is hardly 15 and Ghaji [the Muslim aide] is thrice her age," she said. "I told him that I wanted to speak to Asma for the last time, so he handed over the phone to her. 'What have you done my child, my child?' I asked as Asma burst into tears. [Asma said:] 'They are not going to let me return home, mother—do something.'" The police, as usual, refused to register a case, telling the devastated parents, "Do you know Ghaji works for Siraj Durrani [a governmental official]? I'd suggest that you forget your daughter and stop creating problems for your other children."
Tanzania: During a Friday mosque sermon, a cleric called on Muslims "not to cooperate with Christians because they were infidels. He insisted that Muslims should not take part in Christian festivals like Christmas, Easter and other celebrations, including baptism and confirmation." He also called on Muslims not to go to Christian funeral services, because infidel Christians are to be buried as dogs: "Let me tell you if you came from a Christian father or mother, but you got assimilated [converted to Islam], consider yourself you are lucky. But if one of your parents is deceased, you shouldn't burry [sic] him or her, but just put him/her in the grave as if you [were] doing it to a dead dog." The report further adds that, "Since the founding of the Saad bin Mwazi mosque in Makorora half a decade ago [where the above sermon took place], most residents of the area, including Christians and Muslims have been listening to hate sermons uttered in the mosque."
Uzbekistan: Police detained 80 church leaders in a raid on a gathering to train people for the ministry. In the process, they insulted the Christians and confiscated their Bibles and Christian books, later destroyed by a court order. According to the report, "Four leaders were charged with offences under the country's harsh laws regarding religious practice, including violating the procedure for holding religious meetings, carrying out unauthorised religious activity and teaching religious beliefs without permission. They were each fined more than a year's salary in Uzbekistan and are appealing against the ruling. On 24 December, a court ordered that Bibles confiscated during the raid must be destroyed, despite the fact that the Committee on the Religious Affairs of Uzbekistan officially recognises the Bible as a legitimate text."
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like dhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Previous Reports:
Related Topics:  Raymond Ibrahim

Canada, Keystone, and the Palestinians

by Christine Williams
March 27, 2013 at 3:00 am
Be the first of your friends to like this.
One can note some important "arguments" the U.S. is having with Canada. Canada is outperforming the U.S. economically on every level.
As Obama wrapped up his Middle East tour, applauded by AIPAC for reaffirming "unbreakable bonds" and "deep affection" between two key allies; and by Al Jazeera for "normalizing" Israel Turkey ties, Obama's neighbors to the north are left scratching their heads about what he meant by his off-the-cuff statement that compared Israeli-Palestinian relations to Canada-U.S. relations.
After acknowledging in his speech the horror of an Israeli sleeping in his bed and having a rocket come through the roof, Obama went on to say: "Even though both sides have areas of strong disagreement, may be engaging in activities that the other side considers to be a breach of good faith, we have to push through those things…. There will be a sovereign Palestinian state, a sovereign Jewish State of Israel and those two states will be able to deal with each other the same way all states do. The United States and Canada have arguments once in a while."
The outlandish comparison – as Canadians do not lob rockets and missiles into Rochester or Detroit or claim the U.S. as "Occupied Canada" -- could have been an Obama gaffe to add to an open-mic one he made during his welcome ceremony after he landed in Israel and declared that this trip allowed him to "get away from Congress." Obama has become quite noted for minor and major gaffes, such as when he insulted Netanyahu and conspired with outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Both incidents raised questions about his character, his policies and potentially hidden agendas.
Although one could not decipher any meaning behind Obama's odd comparison of American-Canadian relations with Israeli-Palestinian relations , one can note some important "arguments" the U.S. now faces with Canada: primarily the Keystone XL pipeline project, designed to carry oil from Canada to Texas oil refineries.
To address further these "once in a while arguments," a Forbes article illustrated how -- with policies similar to what are being promoted by Republicans -- Canada is outperforming the U.S. economically on every level. Entitled "What President Obama Doesn't Want You To Know About Canada", it cited senior sources in the Canadian government who met with Obama administration officials and said their impression was that the White House is jealous of the Canadian government's power to have its way. Even the notoriously liberal Canadian Broadcaster CBC featured in its community blog: "Republicans threaten move to Canada after Obama win".
The Obama administration's energy policy is starkly divergent from the Harper government's. Canada obtains oil from places such as the Athabasca oil sands region in northeastern Alberta, while the Obama administration has reduced drilling permits on public lands and has stalled the go-ahead of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. The Keystone pipeline not only provides an ethical alternative to importing oil from regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela; it is also an "essential part of the North American energy marketplace" and of U.S.-Canada relations, according to former Conservative cabinet minister Jim Prentice , who is now a senior executive with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
When Obama rejected Keystone in early 2012, he pinned the blame for the decision on Republicans, accusing them for trying to push the administration to an earlier deadline. But Obama's dilemma about the Keystone project reveals underlying issues that could have long-term implications for Obama's credibility in his ongoing commitment to promote an agenda affecting "climate change," as well as to his liberal economic policies. For example, during a speech on China and India as emerging economies, Obama's assistant on economic policy, Lawrence Summers, raised the idea that India's political-economic model, which he referred to as the "Mumbai Consensus," may in the end win the day. According to Summers the Mumbai Consensus is "not based on ideas of laissez-faire capitalism that have proven obsolete or ideas of authoritarian capitalism that ultimately will prove not to be enduringly successful…." Recall that George Bush was the whipping boy for laissez-faire capitalism in certain camps after the Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae fiasco that led to the 2008 economic meltdown, even though it is no secret that the Democrats bore guilt.
With respect to Obama's credibility, right after taking office, in having vowed to promote policies that would supposedly moderate climate change, Obama committed the U.S. to the foreground of global climate change initiatives -- the centerpiece of which would entail revamping the flawed Kyoto protocol to bring include equitable commitments from countries such as China and India, which, despite being the most objectionable polluters, had been given free passes under the Kyoto accords. Now, years later and into his second term, Obama faces stumbling blocks in making good on his promises, not the least of which involves the Keystone pipeline.
Before tackling that issue, however, there are a couple other entanglements Obama is facing: now that Republicans control the House, Obama has apparently decided to move forward on his own with climate change initiatives, which include plans to engage federal agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency. National regulations will inevitably involve the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The problem is that Obama has failed to appoint a single judge to this powerful court that decides cases challenging agency regulations -- making him the first full-term president in over half a century to do so, and in effect hobbling his own agenda.
Even though Obama has twice thwarted the Keystone project, the Senate has just endorsed its construction, and House Republicans have vowed not to wait for Obama, but to sidestep the White House and vote on legislation to approve the Keystone project by Memorial Day.
Now that Obama has finished playing relationship counselor in the Middle East, he returns to the U.S. to face serious challenges coming in from Canada and from Congress. Environmentalists have already started branding the Keystone pipeline as the "Obama Pipeline" and the "Obama Legacy on Keystone," and are asking questions such as: "What happens if it leaks?" The surrounding heat being generated from the Keystone controversy may well have had an influence upon Obama's gaffe in comparing U.S.-Canada relations with Israeli-Palestinian relations, even though in reality there is no comparison.
Related Topics:  Christine Williams

How Morocco Is Transforming Africa and Why Americans Should Care

by Ahmed Charai
March 26, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Be the first of your friends to like this.
These developments present special opportunities for the United States to partner with Morocco in achieving its own aspirations on the continent. "Not enough business executives know that if you want to make a good investment today, you should look to the African continent to do so." — Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary of State.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI visited three African countries south of the Sahara last week -- Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Gabon -- and convened a series of meetings the outcomes of which are poised to affect the region's development and security, as well as America's relations with much of Africa.
The north African monarch is no stranger to his southern neighbors. Since February 2005, the King has visited more than ten countries below the Sahara, including such strategically vital nations as Gambia, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger. The visits have been part of a strategy to enhance Morocco's role as a supporter of political, economic, and cultural development on the continent, as well as its role in enhancing regional security.
On the development front, the kingdom has developed a series of high-profile projects that have garnered attention in the continent's public discussion. For example, the kingdom's National Office of Electricity is now supplying electricity throughout the rural areas along the Senegal River, affecting 550 villages and 360,000 people. Along the way, the initiative is expanding expertise honed inside the kingdom's borders, and which stems from an indigenous rural electrification program that has brought electricity to 98% of villages across Morocco.
Other Moroccan-led ventures are affecting the state of medical care on the continent: Witness the Moroccan pharmaceutical industry's base in the Senegalese capital Dakar, which now manufactures and exports generic drugs, to treat malaria, diarrheal diseases and cholera in Africa's poorest countries. These non-profit ventures, together with commercial initiatives, are fostered by the Moroccan banking industry's presence in 20 African countries, as well as in the large Moroccan diaspora communities which serve as on-the-ground facilitators across the continent.
Meanwhile, on the security front, the kingdom is playing a greater role in supporting the struggle against jihadist groups and mitigating the culture of religious extremism that breeds them. In December 2012, Morocco, which was holding the rotating chairmanship of the UN Security Council, played a prominent role in the adoption of a resolution authorizing the deployment of an African military force to intervene in Mali, after an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group had conquered a portion of the country the size of France.
Further, the monarchy is reinstating its membership in the African Union (AU) after years of absence due to tensions with another AU member state, Algeria. Morocco's re-entry to the AU means that its security capacity will be boosted by a well-trained and highly equipped army, schooled in fighting terrorism and transnational crime, as well as enabling it to take advantage of Morocco's strong alliances in Europe and the United States.
Nor are Moroccan prescriptions for regional security limited to military operations: This video of the King's meeting last week with Sufi Muslim leaders in Senegal is indicative of his strategy of strengthening moderate Islamic leaders as an alternative to those who distort Islamic principles to serve their own ambitions.
These developments, in turn, present special opportunities for the United States to partner with Morocco in order to achieve its own aspirations on the continent. In a speech on January 16, US Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson offered an appraisal of the economic appeal of Africa: "Seven of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are located in Africa today," he noted, "yet not enough American business executives know that if you want to make a good investment today, you should look to the African continent to do so." The speech called for bridging the networking divide between American and African entrepreneurs, but was short on details for how to bring it about.
Two months later, during her last visit to Morocco as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton noted that the country's new constitution had opened up the political system, and advanced the status of women and minorities. She announced a Moroccan business development conference to be held in Washington, and also envisioned "economic integration across North Africa," with Morocco playing a prominent role. But she made no mention of nations below the Sahara.
Both speeches are forward-looking and important. But they also suggest that Americans still perceive the continent through the lens of the 20th century, when the Sahara desert still represented a sort of wall between north and south that was rarely breached. In the 21st century, this wall has come down: Thanks to new roads and modern transportation, commerce and the transfer of expertise across the Sahara have increased exponentially.
With this in mind, the Obama administration would do well to bring together Assistant Secretary Carson's observations about African economies with Hillary Clinton's vision of Morocco as a fulcrum for the United States on the continent. The kingdom serves as a connector, as well as an integrator, to the mutual benefit of both Americans and Africans.
Ahmed Charai is publisher of the weekly Moroccan newspaper L'Observateur and president of MED Radio, a national broadcast network in Morocco, MEDTV network and chairman of the board of Al-Ahdath al-Maghrebiya Arabic daily newspaper. As an expert on Morocco and North Africa, he sits on the Board of Trustees of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and also as Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground in Washington. He is a member of The National Interest's Advisory Council.
Related Topics:  Ahmed Charai

Palestinians Impose Severe Restrictions on Foreign Media

by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 26, 2013 at 8:00 am
Be the first of your friends to like this.
This latest restriction serves as a reminder that the Palestinian Authority is not much different from other dictatorships, which assign "minders" so the journalists see and hear only what the dictators want. Representatives of the international media — as well as human rights organizations and groups that claim to defend freedom of the press -- have not protested against the PA's threat to restrict journalists' work and even arrest them. One can only imagine the response had Israel issued a similar ban or threat.
It's official: the Palestinian Authority does not want foreign journalists to work in territories under its control in the West Bank unless they receive permission in advance from the Palestinian Ministry of Information.
The decision was taken earlier this week by the Palestinian Ministry of Information and the Palestinian Journalist's Syndicate -- a body controlled by Fatah-affiliated journalists.
Foreign journalists who ignore the latest restriction face arrest by Palestinian Authority security forces, said Jihad Qawassmeh, member of the Palestinian Journalist's' Syndicate.
He warned that any Palestinian journalist who helps international media representatives enter the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories without permission would face punitive measures.
"The Palestinian security forces are entitled to arrest any person who enters the State of Palestine without permission," Qawassmeh added.
The new decision is directed primarily against Israeli journalists who cover Palestinian affairs. Recently, many Palestinian journalists complained that it was unacceptable that their Israeli colleagues were being allowed to operate freely in Palestinian territories while they did not have permission to enter Israel. They also complained that the Israeli Government Press Office was refusing to issue them press credentials.
The Palestinian journalists demanded that the Palestinian Authority impose restrictions on the work of both Israeli and international reporters.
The Palestinian journalists' claim that they are not free to work in Israel and are being deprived of Israeli press cards stands in contrast to their calls for boycotting Israel.
The Palestinian Journalist's Syndicate has long been opposed to "normalization" with Israel, and bans its members from holding meetings with Israeli colleagues. Some Palestinian journalists who defied the ban were recently expelled from the syndicate.
So while the Palestinian journalists are promoting a boycott of Israel, they are also demanding that the Israeli government issue them with press cards so they can enter Israel.
Besides reflecting hypocrisy on the part of these Palestinian journalists, the latest restriction serves as a reminder that the Palestinian Authority is not much different from most Arab dictatorships.
Under these dictatorships, foreign journalists need to obtain permission from the relevant authorities to enter the country to cover a story. In many cases, the authorities assign a "minder" to guide or escort the journalists to make sure that they see and hear only what the dictators want.
The Palestinian Authority, which has often displayed a large degree of intolerance toward journalists who refuse to serve as a mouthpiece for its leaders, wants to work only with sympathetic reporters.
The timing of the ban is no coincidence. It came in the aftermath of US President Barack Obama's visit to Ramallah and Bethlehem, where Palestinian protesters set fire to and trampled on his pictures. The protests seriously embarrassed the Palestinian Authority, especially because they underscored the large gap between its leaders and the street.
While the Palestinian Authority continues to talk about making peace with Israel, many Palestinians are opposed to the idea; they argue that the leadership in Ramallah does not have a mandate to make any concessions to Israel.
These objections appeared in addition to some protests also directed against Mahmoud Abbas and his policies, especially against his declared opposition to an armed struggle against Israel and an alliance with the US and the West.
Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leaders went out of their way to show Obama that they are in full control and that they enjoy the backing of the overwhelming majority of Palestinians. But TV footage and news reports of the anti-Obama demonstrations threatened to spoil their effort to persuade Obama.
Particularly disturbing is that representatives of the international media have not protested against the Palestinian Authority's threat to restrict the journalists' work and even arrest them. One can only imagine the response of the international media had the Israeli authorities issued a similar ban or threat.
It also remains to be seen whether human rights organizations and groups that claim to defend freedom of press will react.
Once the ban goes into effect, officials of the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information will find themselves serving as censors and editors of all news items concerning the Palestinians. Unless, of course, foreign journalists raise their voices and insist on their right to write their own stories from Ramallah.
Related Topics:  Khaled Abu Toameh

To subscribe to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list_subscribe.php
Posted by solsticewitch13 at 1:25 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)