Thursday, January 18, 2007
Elder of ZiyonThe Palestinian government has announced that it will prosecute the television station Al-'Arabiya for the news it broadcast on Wednesday night, in which the television channel reported that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh uttered the controversial statement, "We will not accept conditional aid, even if it were to come from God."
The government has described this statement, which was disclosed during a programme called "Akher Sa'ah", meaning 'The Final Hour', as lies and fabricated. In a statement, the government also said that they are considering boycotting the Al-'Arabiya satellite channel and are calling on the station to stop broadcasting the news.
The article goes on to say that Haniyeh was just quoting something a Fatah advisor said on Al-Manar TV and would never have said such a blasphemous comment.
But a little more color and detail emerges from the Arabic Maan News account of the aftermath:
The Fatah movement condemned threats against journalists, the media, local, Arab and international multiple formats by the Hamas movement and the government. "
Fatah said, "Hamas lost Atzanha and balance across crazy threats against the Arab channel judiciary and its correspondents in Gaza and the contents of the threats brutal murder, arson, kidnapping and a succession of terrorist methods multi following the broadcasting of a report that the audio recording of the Prime Minister insulted by the divine self..."
Now, the rhetoric and wild accusations between Fatah and Hamas have been steadily increasing so there is no way of knowing if Hamas really threatened murder or kidnapping because they didn't like a news story in this case. But it would be consistent with attacks against reporters and news outlets in the past, including recent attacks and threats against the Wafa pro-Fatah news agency.
