The
New Palestinian "Journalists"
|
|
|
|
Share:  
|
  Be the first of
your friends to like this.
Silence
only prompted more hostility.
Many new
"journalists" are political activists disguised as journalists,
and full of hatred. They see themselves as foot soldiers in a revolution.
They are giving journalism, and especially Palestinian journalism, a bad
name.
An Israeli journalist, Avi Issacharoff, who has been covering
Palestinian affairs for over a decade, reported that he and his cameraman
were nearly lynched by a Palestinian mob as they tried to cover a
Palestinian demonstration in the town of Beitunia, near Ramallah, on May
16.
Issacharoff said the attack began when a Palestinian female journalist
incited masked Palestinian men against him and his cameraman.
"One of the Palestinian journalists, a young woman, then called
over to a group of masked men, who swiftly surrounded me and began
attacking me," Issacharoff
said.
He said that were it not for the intervention of two Palestinian
Authority security agents, his friend and he would have been beaten to
death by the masked men.
"They extradited me and my colleague, and got us to safety,"
he added. "I dread to think what would have happened if they hadn't
been there."
|
Rioting
Palestinians hurl rocks at Israelis near the town of Beitunia in
February 2013. (Image source: Noam Moskovich / The Israel Project)
|
The attack on Issacharoff and his friend did not come as a surprise to
those who have been following the campaign waged by some Palestinian
journalists against their Israeli colleagues during the past year.
The campaign began last year when some 200 Palestinian journalists
signed a petition calling on the Palestinian Authority leadership to ban
Israeli newsmen from entering Palestinian territories.
In April 2013, Gatestone ran an article about the campaign against the
Israeli journalists. The article was entitled, "Palestinian
Journalists Declare War On Israeli Colleagues."
This item, however, was ignored by the mainstream media in the West
and even by most Israeli media outlets.
Israeli journalists explained back then that they preferred not to
report about the threats against them so as not to escalate tensions with
their Palestinian colleagues.
The Palestinian Authority leadership chose to ignore the threats
against the Israeli journalists; the silence only prompted more
hostility. The Palestinian journalists stepped up their campaign.
At one point, some Palestinian journalists outspokenly started
inciting against their Israeli colleagues.[1]
"Israeli journalists are soldiers with press cards," wrote
journalist Akram Natsheh. "The Israeli media is an essential part of
the Israeli army and even serves as its mouthpiece."
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, in a letter to Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for banning Israeli journalists
from entering Palestinian territories. The syndicate also demanded that
the Palestinian Authority refrain from providing any kind of assistance
or protection to the Israeli reporters.[2]
Despite the threats, some Israeli journalists continued to show up in
Ramallah and other Palestinian cities and villages, thereby exposing
themselves to threats
and physical assaults at the hands of Palestinian journalists and
activists.
Even Palestinian journalists working for Israeli or Jewish media organizations
found themselves facing threats and attacks. In some instances,
Palestinian journalists walked out of briefings by Palestinian Authority
officials in Ramallah to protest against the presence of representatives
of the Israeli media.
Last December, Israeli journalists who arrived in Bethlehem to cover
Christmas celebrations were expelled
from the city after complaints by a number of Palestinian
journalists.
Last week, the campaign reached its peak with the attempted lynching
of Issacharoff and his colleague near Ramallah. "The effort to kick
Israeli journalists out of Palestinian Authority areas has created a violent
incendiary atmosphere against us," he
wrote. "Almost all of my Israeli colleagues have felt, on their
flesh, unpleasant incidents, to put it mildly, of late. But on Friday, a
certain red line was crossed. On Friday, the threats and the hostile
atmosphere escalated into real violence and, in my case, to an attempt to
lynch me."
Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before the threats
against Israeli journalists were translated into real violence.
Some Palestinian journalists have justified their campaign by arguing
that comes in response to Israeli security restrictions that ban many of
them from entering Israel. Others, however, have admitted that they
simply do not want to see any Israeli inside their areas because
accepting presence of even one would be a form of
"normalization" with the "Zionist enemy."
In this regard, Hamas has been honest enough to state that it is
opposed in principle, to any form of collaboration with the Israeli
media. That is why Hamas has banned Palestinians from dealing with
Israeli journalists.[3]
The Palestinian Authority bears responsibility for failing to take
action against those who are inciting against Israeli journalists working
in its territories. Some Palestinian Authority officials have even
inflamed the hostility by coming
out in favor of the campaign against the Israeli journalists.
Unless these are exposed and reined in, more people — businessmen,
tourists and journalists — are likely to lose their lives in Ramallah or
Jenin.
In the good old days before the peace process began, 20 years ago,
Israeli and Palestinian journalists used to cooperate, help and work with
each other. But there is a new generation of Palestinian
"journalists" who have been brainwashed to a point where they
regard themselves as foot soldiers in a revolution. Many of them are
political activists disguised as journalists, and full of hatred. They
are giving journalism, and especially Palestinian journalism, a bad name.
The writing is still on the wall.
[1] http://www.qudsn.ps/article/1360
[2] http://wattan.tv/ar/news/31354.html
[3] http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=37&issueno=12455&article=711441
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment