Crackdown on free press

It's not a great time to be a Palestinian journalist.

Palestinian reporters, photographers and cameramen used to dealing with tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds from the Israeli military are increasingly having to deal with new threats from the Palestinian side when they go out to cover news.

For months in Gaza, Hamas leaders have been periodically cracking down on Palestinian journalists, beating some and arresting others.

Hamas has tried for force local reporters to apply for special credentials to work in Gaza, though most journalists have simply ignored the order.

This week, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas was in the US talking peace with Israel, it was his forces that led a forceful crackdown on West Bank journalists, including one of my friends, Ghassan Bannoura.

Ghassan (at left, picture courtesy of IMEMC) is a 27-year-old journalist with the International Middle East Media Center, an independent on-line English language media outlet based in the West Bank.

He has been working with international reporters for years and had already taken his fair share of flak while covering Palestinian protests and Israeli military operations.

On Tuesday, as demonstrators were gathering in Bethlehem to protest potential concessions Abbas might make in talks with Israel, Ghassan hopped in a taxi with his camera and headed out to cover the rally.

When Ghassan arrived, he said he was immediately stopped by plain-clothed PA police officers who told him he couldn't film. Ghassan was wearing a blue vest identifying himself as a journalist and he tried to question their directive.

When he did, Ghassan said the men pounced on him. They were quickly joined by a group of masked gunmen Ghassan said were members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the militant group aligned with Abbas and Fatah.

Ghassan said the men smashed his head against the side of a car before forcing him inside. They put the barrel of a gun in his mouth and threatened to kill him if he moved.

Ghassan was taken away for questioning, held for hours without being able to call a lawyer or his colleagues at IMEMC. They accused him of being a spy and repeatedly threatened him.

After a few hours of intimidation, they finally let Ghassan go.

Like any dedicated (and slightly crazy) journalist, Ghassan immediately went back to work to write about the day's events. IMEMC produced a short story on Ghassan's ordeal. It wasn't until later that he discovered that his leg was fractured.

"They broke my leg, not my hands," Ghassan said of his decision to return to work.

The Foreign Press Association issued a statement condemning the attacks as "disgraceful and brutal."

"The beatings, arrests and seizure of equipment which targeted journalists carrying out their normal professional duties were shocking in their wanton disregard for basic press freedoms," the association said. "The FPA calls on the Palestinian Authority to thoroughly investigate the causes behind these outrageous attacks and hold those responsible to account."

The PA crackdown on reporters was followed by a fatal clash with demonstrators in Hebron at which one anti-Annapolis protester was shot and killed by PA forces.

The PA crackdown has many people wondering what Abbas is up to.

One prominent theory is that Abbas, long criticized as weak and unable to control the "Palestinian street," is trying to do just that.

If the PA is ever going to evolve into an independent Palestinian state, one of the first things the US and Israel expect Abbas to do is to impose law-and-order in the West Bank. That's one way Abbas can prove that he is in control.

Abbas lost Gaza to Hamas in June, and the PA president has taken a series of steps ever since then to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank.

This week's brutal response to the demonstrations seems to be one more attempt by Abbas to try shed his image as a weak leader and establish himself more as a strongman who isn't afraid to literally crack a few heads in the name of law-and-order.

And, the chances are that the US and Israeli leaders working with Abbas approve, at least tacitly, of what Abbas is doing, even if it sometimes goes too far.

Comments

[tsedek]

one more try:

you why blogs are great?

because you can answer to the people commenting on it.

now, if your only goal is to write down whatever you think, I personally think it is NOT interesting at all. after all, there are billions of people in the world each with their own opinion.

the people starting a blog RESPOND...... or not. Then, for me, it's over: you are not interesting anymore - just one more grain of sand in the sea of billions of grains of sand.

Do you understand what Im trying to say?