Quote of the Day

“And I believe that in a civilized world Sharon would be brought before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity. If he were Milosovic or Pinochet or even Heidar who was elected and chosen as a deputy minister, as a partner in a government and not as the prime minister in Austria, but only as a partner. Sharon’s history is a death sentence for respect for human rights especially for Palestinians and Arabs.”
PA Minister Hanan Ashrawi in morning interview, 8:30 a.m. on V.O.P., approximately at time of bus massacre.

Evening Summary and Analysis

V.O.P. opened its evening news with Yasser Arafat’s call for an international presence to protect Palestinians against Israeli aggression and its “dangerous escalation.” Through the 8PM evening news, the Voice of Palestine was still treating the bus massacre as an accident.

“Referring to the event in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, President Arafat said it was ‘an ordinary event and not terrorism, and the driver was arrested and his crime will be investigated,'” V.O.P. quoted Arafat as saying (during a press conference in Turkey) in its 8PM round-up.

V.O.P. also quoted Arafat as saying the Palestinians clung to a full and comprehensive peace and the rejection of violence, based on the peace process linked to UN resolutions 242 and 338 and the principle of territory for peace.

There was no condemnation of the bus attack, but there was continuous condemnation of Israeli “state terror.” (Despite an Israel Television report of a PA official issuing a disapproval of the bus attack, nothing of this kind was broadcast on Voice of Palestine or PA state television.)

PA presidential secretary Taib Abdel-Rahim was quoted throughout the day during bulletins, warning Israel that its actions were going to lead “to an explosion.”

At Seven PM Wednesday evening, V.O.P. reported that in a split-session of the Palestinian Legislature (Ramallah/Gaza), legislators condemned Israel for its policy of “state terrorism.”

Bus Massacre and Escalation

First news on V.O.P. of the bus massacre at the Holon Junction came at 8:57 a.m. from senior V.O.P. commentator Youssef al-Kazaz, who was at the tail-end of his Mishwar al-Sabah (“Morning Dialogue”) show.

Al-Kazaz said seven Israeli soldiers were killed and ten others (not necessarily soldiers from the way it was phrased) when hit by a bus.

During the 9:00 a.m. news bulletin, the same basic details were repeated along with the fact that the man driving the bus was a Palestinian from Gaza who regularly drove buses for the Israeli Egged Bus Company. There was no intimation that the man had deliberately carried out an attack, and there was scant information about him as well, only that he was wounded, too. The bus incident was sandwiched between news of a new martyr (see below) and funeral arrangements for Mas’oud Ayyad, the Force 17/Hezbollah commander who was killed by Israeli missiles yesterday.

During the 10:00 news show, V.O.P. said the bus driver had been driving for the Egged Company for five years (a detail taken apparently from the Voice of Israel). The bus massacre was not treated as an “attack” or “operation” by the news writers at V.O.P., but with language suggestive of a bus accident.

(At both nine and ten, V.O.P. opened its news with the “assassination” of ‘Ayid Khalid Abu-Harb which was condemned at length by Yasser Abd-Rabbo and other PA officials. No one at V.O.P. drew any connections between the bus attack and Israeli “assassinations/liquidations” over the last week.)

At the time of the attack, PA minister Hanan Ashrawi was describing Israeli “war crimes” in an interview from Washington. During the interview (8:20-8:32 a.m.), Ashrawi mapped out the PA’s press strategy in the United States: to depict Israeli leaders in general as war criminals who need to be brought to justice, particularly Ariel Sharon whom Ashrawi likened to August Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic and Jorg Heidar.

In its 12-noon news round-up V.O.P. led with the headline that the Palestinian Authority rejects any responsibility for the bus incident.

It reported that PA officials-particularly parliamentary affairs minister Nabil Amr — said Israel officials had only themselves to blame for the escalation of violence. Later in the day, this comment was echoed in an on-air interview by Yasser Arafat himself.

V.O.P. identified the bus driver as Ala Khalil Abu Alba, the father of five children. V.O.P. said this identification was based on Israeli police sources. V.O.P. said the driver was seriously wounded in an Israeli operation involving helicopters. V.O.P. said its Gaza correspondent said the driver “had no connection to any political organization,” and that he lives in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza.

Wednesday Morning February 14, Summary and Analysis

V.O.P. opened its morning news with the martyring of several citizens, and at 9:00 a.m. it led its news with the assassination of another citizen.

Throughout broadcasts today and yesterday, Israel is being depicted as a cold-blooded murderer-not only of Fatah commanders but also of innocent children. (Israel has denied involvement with several of the deaths, including the death of a 14-year-old boy)

Quotes from Interview with Hanan Ashrawi, February 14, 8:20-8:32 a.m.

“There is strong worry (about Sharon) and we have to study all the possibilities about what kinds of irresponsible plots Sharon could put forward, or maybe (Note: these next few words were said with a kind of snort as if to deprecate the possibility of their being at all true) whether he might have changed.

We, as Palestinians, we have made it clear that we cannot accept a person like Sharon as a partner for peace because we realize who Sharon is. We know his past history and his hands which are covered with blood and with a chain of massacres and crimes he committed…We as Palestinians cannot except that Sharon has undergone a change, that he has broken with the past, that he is a new person…And I believe that in a civilized world Sharon would be brought before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity. If he were Milosovic or Pinochet or (note: interviewer Khalid al-Qasem tried to cut Ashrawi off but she just kept going) or even Heidar who was elected and chosen as a deputy minister as a partner in a government and not as the prime minister in Austria, but only as a partner. Sharon’s history is a death sentence for respect for human rights especially for Palestinians and Arabs.”

Wednesday Morning Round-up Headlines

(note: announcer Khaled al-Qasem has begun, today and yesterday, to dedicate the headlines to “confronting Israel” as he leads into the morning headlines)

  • “The Occupation kills an officer in Presidential Security (force) and murders a child in cold blood;
  • The national Authority condemns the crime, and Fatah threatens reaction as Barak congratulates the army;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat confers in Amman with the Jordanian monarch King Abdullah on the peace process and Israeli aggression against our people;
  • Palestinian and Arab diplomatic dynamism to confront the Israeli policy;
  • Reports and eye witnesses and doctors about the Israeli use of poison gas which is internationally prohibited;
  • The United Nations estimates that the Palestinian siege imposed by Israel at a cost of one billion dollars;
  • Occupation forces lock-down the airspace over Gaza in an escalation only one day before the departure of pilgrims on the Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca, that is one of five essential commandments or “pillars” of Islam);
  • The former Israeli government, its sun setting in the outward appearances of being caught between a policy of siege and assassination;
  • Palestinian refugees caught between bullets and poverty.”

Morning Headlines 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “Eight citizens suffer various injuries in confrontations at the northern approach to El-Bireh yesterday, and Occupation authorities arrest the child Taher Harubi, after his being wounded, and take him to an unknown location;
  • Medical sources in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis say Israeli occupation forces decided to use poison gas during their artillery shelling of Khan Yunis,… and Dr Riyad Za’anoun, the health minister has sent a letter (for assistance) to Egyptian and Jordanian authorities about the unknown poison gas used against citizens;
  • Occupation forces close Gaza International Airport… before the departure of pilgrims on the Haj…;
  • The National Authority condemns the crime of assasination of the officer Mas’oud Ayyad of the Presidential Force, Force 17, in Jabalya yesterday morning, President Yasser Arafat’s advisor Nabil Abu-Irdeineh blamed the Israeli government for the operation and for irresponsible conduct that poisons the atmosphere;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat conducted talks in Amman with Jordanian monarch King Abdullah…;
  • The American State Department considers that the situation in Palestinian territory has deteriorated seriously following the assassination of the martyr Ayyad yesterday;
  • The European Union condemns the assassination policy of Israel against our Palestinian people…;
  • Representatives of the Likud Party and the Labor Party cite great progress in talks yesterday for forming a government….”

2 p.m. Afternoon Headlines

  • “The martyring of the youth Ayyid Khalid Abu Harb, First Mate in the Palestinian Navy in east Tulkarm;
  • The National Authority refuses attempts to place blame on it for running-over operation in Tel Aviv today in which nine soldiers were killed and nineteen others wounded
  • The identity of the bus driver, who worked for the Egged Bus Company for five years, is Ala Abu Alba, father of five children, from Gaza;
  • Masses of our people in Gaza escort the exalted martyr Masoud Ayyad who was killed by an Israeli warplane (note: yes, they said warplane this time, not helicopter) yesterday;
  • Israeli forces place an air blockade on Gaza International Airport;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat, who held talks this morning with Jordanian monarch King Abdullah is now meeting Jordanian prime minister Ali Abu Ghaghib.”

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