Freedom of the Press, PalArab-style (VIII) (UPDATED)

The series continues....

Hamas' Executive Force on Monday banned any form of demonstration in Gaza unless its organisers obtain permission.

Spokesperson of the EF, Saber Khalifeh, issued a statement announcing that "for the sake of the general benefit and to secure the rule of law, it is totally forbidden to demonstrate without getting permission from the Executive Force."

The Palestinian factions called a rally on Monday in protest against EF actions in the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses at the rally of Palestinian factions said the Executive Force banned journalists from covering the events.

A journalist who attempted to film the demonstration on his mobile phone was arrested.

Of course, Hamas' many repressive actions don't stop idiots in Britain from trying to increase ties with the terror group:

"The government should urgently consider ways of engaging politically with moderate elements within Hamas," the all-party group of lawmakers said.

UPDATE: PCHR adds lots of details of this morning's moderate Hamas activities:

The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 11:00 on Monday, 13 August 2007, tens of members of the Executive Force deployed around the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Palestinian Legislative Council building. They prevented dozens of civilians from reaching the area to attend a rally organized by several PLO factions to protest the attacks of the Executive Force in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the Force prevented journalists from covering the rally, and confiscated the camera of Ahmad El-Ras, cameraman for Ramattan News Agency, and detained him in one of their vehicles. The Force members used sticks to disperse the demonstrators.

Ahmad El-Ras gave the following statement to PCHR’s fieldworker:

“At approximately 10:30, two colleagues and I went to cover the rally in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier area. When I disembarked from the agency vehicle carrying a camera, 2 members of the Executive Force raised their weapons at me; and one of them said to me, “If you take photage, we’ll put an end to you.” I answered them that I have not taken any photage; and I went back to the car to leave the area. Then, two Executive Force vehicles intercepted us. Force members took me and put me in one of their vehicles. They confiscated my camera. Several journalists gathered around the vehicle in which I was detained. They talked to the Force members. The latter stated that they would release me only if the camera tape is confiscated. And this happened.”

At approximately 11:35, two Executive Force gunmen raided the offices of Al-Arabiya and MBC satellite stations in the 12th floor of Al-Shoroq building in Gaza City. They confiscated the camera and rally photage belonging to Al-Arabiya. Reem Abd El-Karim, the director of the offices, informed PCHR’s fieldworker that the Executive Force gunmen raided the office and requested the rally photage. A verbal exchange took place when she refused to hand over the materials. However, the Executive Force took the camera and photage by force. The Executive Force returned the confiscated equipment to Al-Arabiya at approximately 15:30.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style (VII)

The series continues...

An Al-Hayat reporter in Gaza was threatened by Hamas for reporting stories unfavorable to the terrorist organization. Here's the autotranslated article from Al-Hayat al-Jadidah - the words "new life" are the autotranslation of "Al-Hayat al-Jadidah."

threatening anonymous claimed that Abu Ubaydah Hamas yesterday morning colleague journalist improve Astal immediately stop the publication of any news affecting the Hamas movement, stressing that the movement will not hesitate to Deter if he continued to disseminate lies, according related.

Astal said that the threat came against the backdrop of news bulletin Hamas attacks against the Fatah movement in Khan Yunis, the latest of which was the abduction and torture of leadership in the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Yousef Abu Sabha and his companions.

He pointed out that the related threatened to stop the introduction of the newspaper as well as the new life of the Beit Hanoun crossing that did not stop spreading lies, according to him, as well as directly threatened him, saying "We will Baltevgues in Btank that did not stop and consider this latest warning."

I wouldn't be too happy if someone threatened me with being Baltevguesed in my Btank, either.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style (VI)

On Monday, Hamas tried to show its best face to foreign journalists:

'Gaza today is better,' Ismail Haniyeh, still calling himself Palestinian prime minister, told dozens of foreign reporters who joined a bus tour of the coastal enclave that took in a prison, a church, border posts and security installations.

'But the strangling siege ... has affected Gaza very much,' he added, two days before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarks on a new round of peace diplomacy in Israel and the West Bank. 'I hope on your visit you have seen the suffering and will convey to the world the reality of the suffering.'
...

A Hamas official, acting as tour guide, drove home the point the party wished to make: 'You can see now Gaza is more calm,' he said as the buses drove through Gaza. 'Everywhere in Gaza is under control. Everyone bids you welcome. You can go anywhere.'

Journalists were shown round a prison which once housed Hamas political prisoners and now, Hamas officials said, houses only common criminals who in turn spoke well of their treatment.

One said he was serving six months for drug offences but he expected remission for learning to recite from the Koran.

But at the same time, Hamas was seizing newspapers that it didn't think were pro-Hamas enough:

Hamas militiamen on Monday prevented the distribution of three Fatah-affiliated newspapers in the Gaza Strip and briefly detained the local agents of the dailies.

This is the first time that the newspapers, published in the West Bank, were prevented from distribution in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian journalists said thousands of copies from the three newspapers were seized by Hamas's paramilitary Executive Force on the Palestinian side of the Erez border crossing. The newspapers were taken aboard a truck to a Hamas security installation nearby in the town of Beit Hanan.

According to the journalists, six Palestinians working for the newspapers were detained by Hamas for questioning. Two of them, Hatem Kishawi and Samir Jaber, work for the Fatah-controlled Al-Ayyam, which serves as a mouthpiece for the Palestinian Authority. The other four work for the PA-funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda and Al-Quds, a pro-Fatah newspaper owned by a family from east Jerusalem.

Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Executive Force, announced that the move was aimed at sending a warning to the newspapers to stop inciting against his force and Hamas. "They are publishing many lies about Hamas and the Executive Force," he charged. "In addition, they are ignoring the achievements of the Executive Force in imposing law and order in the Gaza Strip."

The three newspapers have been highly critical of Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and have openly supported Fatah in its power struggle with the Islamist movement.

Some Hamas leaders recently called for banning the distribution of the newspapers in the Gaza Strip because of their anti-Hamas stance and in response to the PA's ongoing crackdown on Hamas figures and institutions in the West Bank.

Hamas's capture of the Gaza Strip has forced most Palestinian journalists and editors there to toe the line and refrain from criticizing the Islamist movement.

Gaza-based news Web sites that were once critical of Hamas have begun publishing stories that reflect negatively on Fatah.

Then again, why shouldn't Hamas try to control the news? Hezbollah managed quite well last summer.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style (V): Fatah gets in the game

It is not only Hamas that is harassing and threatening journalists. Yes, even the "moderates" from Fatah and the PA seem to do the same thing:

Palestinian security services personnel on Wednesday dispersed a rally organised by Hamas women. They arrested five people, including journalists. The rally was being held to support the families of political prisoners from Nablus. The families took also part in a meeting before the rally.

Photojournalist Nasser Shtayya told Ma'an that members of the security forces attacked him, and his colleague Samir Khweira, while they were covering the rally, staged in front of the Nablus police department. Shtayya's camera was destroyed in the process.

Eyewitnesses stated that Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Ahmad Al-Haj delivered a speech in which he heavily criticised the Palestinian Authority. This incited his audience, who demanded he apologise for his words.

In order to control the situation, Palestinian security services decided to intervene and disperse the angry crowd. Three Hamas loyalists, Mu'ath Sarkaji, Imad Tanbour and Rami Nasser who were near the rally, were arrested.

Members of the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades from the nearby Balata refugee camp protected the PLC member, who is connected to Hamas.

Notice how the neat divisions between Fatah and Hamas that the MSM want everyone to believe breaks down with only a little research: The pro-Hamas PLC gets protected by the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa. At a Hamas rally in the West Bank.

More context from PCHR, including that the speaker was also arrested. Which is directly related to Natan Sharansky's definition of a fear society vs. a free society:

If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a "fear society" has finally won their freedom.

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Freedom of the Press, PalArab style (IV): Reuters capitulates to Hamas threats

This seems to be turning into a series....

From PCHR, events that happened last Thursday after a Fatah demonstration in Gaza:

Member of the Executive Force detained 3 journalists who were covering the demonstration and forced them to delete video footages and photographs from their cameras. The journalists are:

1) Rami Hasan Abu Shammala, a cameraman of Ramattan;

2) Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, a Reuters reporter; and

3) Bassam Mas’oud, a Reuters reporter.

One of the journalists told PCHR that members of the Executive Force took them to the office of the force inside the hospital and forced them to delete video footages that showed members of the force fining into the air to disperse the demonstrations. They also warned and the threatened the journalists not to publish any of those footages.

Needeless to say, a search through news archives from last Thursday reveal not a single word about this demonstration in Khan Younis. Hamas not only threatened the journalists - they successfully muzzled them, and proved yet again that they control all the news coming out of Gaza.

Gutless Reuters didn't even attempt to report on their own humiliation and impotence. They willingly went along with the demands of the terrorists, and as a result they chose not to report the news. And any way you look at it, a sizable pro-Fatah demonstration in the heart of Hamastan is worth a paragraph or two among the megabytes of dreck that Reuters publishes daily.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style (III)

Another story showing how progressive Hamastan is:

The Hamas-affiliated Executive Force on Wednesday stormed the media tower in Tal Al-Hawa, in the south of Gaza City, and stole the car and mobile telephone of Palestine TV satellite channel manager, Muhammad Dawoudi.

Media sources told Ma'an that the Executive Force entered Dawoudi's home in the residential part of the tower and attempted to arrest him, yet dozens of journalists intervened and prevented the arrest.

The Union of Palestinian Journalists has condemned the repeated assaults against journalists, in general, and this attack against Dawoudi in particular.

In a statement to Ma'an, the union declared "such conduct represent a violation of the freedom of opinion", describing the attacks as "ideological terrorism" against journalists.

This of course begs the question of how so many liberals (like Jimmy Carter) can support a movement that goes against everything that is supposed to be important to liberals - like, you know, freedom.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style (II)

A nice followup to yesterday's story about PalArab press freedom, from the Jerusalem Post:

A prominent Palestinian journalist from the Gaza Strip has sought political asylum in Norway, Palestinian journalists said Saturday.

Seif al-Din Shahin, the correspondent for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel network, left the Gaza Strip together with his family, they said, noting that he had received many death threats over the past few months.

Shahin's request has yet to be approved by the Norwegian government. Several other Palestinian journalists are also reported to have fled the Gaza Strip out of fear for their lives.

Earlier this year, masked gunmen set fire to the offices of Al-Arabiya in Gaza City, causing heavy damage to furniture and equipment. Although no group claimed responsibility, Palestinian journalists blamed members of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The group was also responsible for beating Shahin in two separate incidents in 2001 and 2004. The second assault followed Shahin's live broadcast of a rally held on Fatah's anniversary. The report angered Fatah leaders who had instructed Shahin and other journalists to report that tens of thousands had participated.

In 2003 he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces because of his reporting. Al-Arabiya's offices in Ramallah have also been attacked by Fatah gunmen on a number of occasions.

I like the fact that Fatah threatens reporters for not lying about the size of their rallies. Which means, of course, that many reporters willingly lie to the world for the Fatah terror thugs. Nice!

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian reporter for the Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper in the West Bank has confirmed that he has been receiving threats via his Palestinian 'Jawwal' mobile phone.

In a phone call to Ma'an, the journalist, Sami Said, confirmed that he has received threats, ordering him to stop writing and to keep silent. He said that the threats came after he published news reports on internal Palestinian issues in Al Akhbar newspaper. He refused to name his intimidators.

Sami Said, a journalist from the West Bank city of Ramallah, is married with one child. He has worked as a reporter for many international agencies.

Once again, Palestinian Arab thug tactics have worked to silence criticism. (If they hadn't worked, Mr. Said would have named who he was threatened by.)

One would think that journalists would notice that the people whose cause they champion unabashedly are the same people who continuously threaten their lives. As much as the PalArabs try to paint Alan Johnston as a singular case, the fact is that many journalists in the territories have been threatened, kidnapped and killed over the years.

Yet another indication of what a Palestinian Arab state would look like.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab style

From Ma'an:

Five Palestinian journalists were injured after being attacked by police guarding the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza.

The journalists were demonstrating against the abduction of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.

The police attacked the journalists with rifles and many sustained bruises. The journalists were forced to return to the strike tent in the centre of the city.

Ma'an's reporter said that he and dozens others of his colleagues "were protesting and then were attacked by the police and obliged to return to the tent".

Some other reporters confirmed the attack and said that the guards threatened to shoot the journalists if they continue their protest in the area.

No word on any reaction from the British National Union of Journalists.

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Freedom of the press, PalArab-style

A Palestinian Arab magazine that is published by the PA-controlled Al-Ayyam newspaper has pulled its latest issue:

The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Ayaam pulled the plug this week on the latest issue of a biweekly journal it publishes called Al-Haal ("The Situation"). The reason for the suspension of publication was an Al-Haal interview with an Arab who assisted Israel in its war on terrorism in the PA. Al-Ayaam said that the positive portrayal of the anti-terrorist PA resident was damaging to the newspaper's reputation and to its professional underpinnings.

In the interview, the PA dissident, identified as one of the greatest allies of Israel, brags that he advised the leaders of the various PA terrorist factions regarding their tactics. However, Al-Ayaam editors felt that the portrayal of the Arab counter-terrorist was too positive, even heroic. The chief editor of the Al-Haal biweekly said in response that the editors of Al-Ayaam actually opposed those sections of the interview that appear to include criticism of the status quo in the PA.

Either reason is censorship.

And remember, kids...the liberals who are so enamoured of everything "Palestinian" are the ones who scream the loudest about "free speech."

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