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Lights, Camera, Intifada

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

The violence in the Mideast has become a war of images, in which the press is the key to victory

Byline:
Stephanie Gutmann is the author of The Kinder, Gentler Military (Scribner).

Body
Day after day the seemingly incontrovertible evidence of Israel’s brutality rolls in. The snippets of videotape bounced around the world by CNN, BBC World News, and Sky TV are nearly always the same: A mob of dark-skinned teenagers armed with rocks pit themselves against phalanxes of faceless soldiers who respond by aiming rifles. Often, newscasts then cut from the videotape (as Ted Koppel’s Nightline did recently) to Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi thundering, “You cannot shoot our children and get away with it,” or Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat decrying the “daily massacre of Palestinians by Israel,” and TV delivers a message that hits adrenal systems around the world like a dose of amyl nitrate. As a foreign news-following acquaintance puts it, in a typical reaction: How can Israel want peace, when “all I see is the IDF shooting children?”

Spokesmen for Israel’s foreign ministry, its police, and its military (the Israeli Defense Force, or IDF) who set up a 24/7 press center in early October to cope with the flood of journalists there to cover Intifada II say they’re “fighting a war on two fronts.” There is the actual shooting war, where aggression is direct, weapons conventional, and damage visible and measurable. The other front is in the ethersphere, the digital bazaar where freelance photographers offer their most dramatic images and footage to the publication or agency that bids highest. More than almost any other commodity, the trade in images is truly global. Photos are ready for sale faster than news copy, and they need no translation and fewer intermediaries.

The Al Aksa Intifada as it is called (because it started when Ariel Sharon marched at a religious site known as Al Aksa) has been fought with images — the picture of the father and his dying son plastered against a wall to escape cross-fire, the Palestinian man proudly displaying his hands covered with the blood of the Israeli soldier — and on this front, Israelis admit they are getting clobbered.

But there are many reasons why the ubiquitous boys-throwing-stones-at-faceless-rifle-toting-soldiers photo does not tell the whole story. If we had a John Madden of the Intifada, with a grease pencil and a transparent overlay, he could freeze the frame and annotate the pictures. He could draw an arrow to the upper right-hand corner of the frame, for instance, and point out a smudge of black — an inch of rifle barrel protruding from a nearby minaret, a sign that a sniper is perched there. He might draw a circle around a man in the dense center of a crowd, a man who (one can see on closer inspection) is older and armed with something more than a slingshot. (Terrorist groups and ragtag rebel armies from Somalia to Iraq have learned to surround themselves with civilians, both for cover and to discourage the other side from shooting.) He might analyze minute differences in clothing and bearing and show us that some of these young boys are not just “children” drawn by what looks like a game, but militia who have been groomed Hitler Youth-style to kill Jews or die trying. He might point out that the Palestinian Authority ambulance parked on the side of the rock-throwing action is here not just to ferry the wounded; PA ambulances have been used as command and control vehicles, actually delivering “troops” and carrying the makings of Molotov cocktails.

There’s another element one has to understand to make sense of the kids-versus-soldiers tableau. “It is a subject that no reporters want to talk about,” says Noam Katz, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry press center and a man who has known most of the region’s bureau chiefs for years. One has to understand that photographers and to a much smaller extent print reporters (everyone recognizes that pictures are more important) operate under unwritten rules of engagement when they work in troubled areas like the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Reporting in a combat zone is dangerous to begin with, of course. Camera crews often go out wearing crash helmets and body armor (during the first two months of Intifada II, two newspeople were shot and seriously wounded). But fear is amplified (and the investigative spirit curdled) by a pattern of intimidation of journalists who get connected — sometimes very loosely — with stories the terrorist groups who control these areas don’t like. Take the photos the militiamen want and you are generally fine, even helpfully ushered around; take pictures that show Palestinians in roles other than victim, and things can get nasty quite fast.

News photographers have been harassed by Israelis as well. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Israeli settlers threw stones at a car driven by two Arab photographers, breaking a window and hitting one of the men in the shoulder. The photographers said IDF soldiers stood nearby and did nothing. Palestinian and Arab journalists are reportedly challenged and detained rather often, although it should be kept in mind that Palestinians as a group are subject to restrictions instituted by Israel to combat terrorism.

Western photographers have complained of being kept out of certain areas by IDF soldiers. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports also that a number of reporters and cameramen who have been grazed or hit by bullets claim IDF soldiers intentionally aimed at them. But there is still a clear difference between working in Israel-controlled areas and Palestinian ones. Israel, though of course not perfect, is still a modern, Western-style democracy, and there are channels of accountability.

In mid-November, an American photographer was seriously wounded by an IDF bullet aimed directly at her. Yola Monakhov was looking for pictures in Bethlehem. A squad of IDF soldiers were also there, because of a riot that had taken place earlier in the day. Monakhov was with a small group of Palestinian boys who were breaking pieces of concrete into throwable chunks when the IDF squad appeared from around a corner. A boy yelled “run” and Monakhov instinctively bolted in the direction everyone else was running. One of the soldiers fired a shot and hit Monakhov in the back. But IDF soldiers are not allowed to shoot live rounds (as opposed to rubber bullets) unless they are in mortal danger. As a result, the soldier and his commanding officer are being court-martialed, and the Israelis are paying Monakhov’s hospital bills.

The territories, on the other hand, are like the Wild West. Police protection is at best unreliable. Self-interest and brute force rule — as Jean Pierre Martin, a Belgian producer, found out one day in early October. Martin, who works for RTL TV1 (Radio TV Luxembourg), and his crew were on their way to Ramallah. They were at a Palestinian-Israeli clash site when four young men pulled up in “a blue Chrysler van” and began to give orders to stone-throwing children. Then the men produced Molotov cocktails from their car and began handing them out. (Kids on the scene later told Martin that the men were from Al Fatah, Yasser Arafat’s faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.) Other crews on hand apparently didn’t see this development or didn’t consider it newsworthy, because Martin was the only producer who told his crew to begin filming.

After a few seconds, one of the young men saw the filming and strode over; several seconds after that, all the people on the scene, including the stone-throwing children, surrounded the crew. The men took the camera from the hands of the cameraman and disappeared with it. Meanwhile the crowd began to surge around them, trying to hit them. One youth got his hands around Martin’s neck and started choking him. A Palestinian cameraman who had been on the scene working for an American company came “to rescue us,” Martin says. Finally the Palestinian cameraman was able to calm “this very nervous situation.” Martin and his crew were taken to see the PA chief of police. Their camera was already there. Once again, the Palestinian cameraman began to argue on their behalf — eventually, after they assured everyone that the tape of the “cocktail incident” had been erased, the policeman agreed to return the camera. That night, Martin opened his segment by saying, “This is what you would have seen if we still had the tape…”

Martin continued to return to the area, but about two weeks later, just after he and his crew passed the Israeli guard shack at the border checkpoint on the way to Ramallah, they noticed that a white jeep without markings was tailing them. The car followed them to their filming site. There the men in the jeep parked and gave orders to the PA police at the scene (which led Martin to think they were from Palestinian intelligence). This time they didn’t wait for him to begin filming; they began to search his vehicle; again they erased his film, and they smashed one of the still cameras belonging to the crew. The men then told Martin to leave and tailed him back to the border. Just as Martin and crew pulled up to the Israeli checkpoint, a bullet fired from the Palestinian side whizzed by. Somehow this story reached the Israeli government, which described the incident at one of its daily press briefings. Martin says he is angry that the Israeli government “exploited” the story. And he complains that he now appears to be allied with the Israeli government. “They have made it very hard for me to go back,” he says.

Shifting anger from the actual perpetrators to the Israeli government is common. News bureaus in Jerusalem either downplay or refuse to talk about such incidents because, as one bureau chief who wanted to remain anonymous told me, they are afraid of becoming tools of “Israeli propaganda.” “They are trying to make out that we’re allies of the Israeli government — thank you very much,” spat a wire service editor I observed reading an Israeli government press release. All newspeople hate to think that they’re being used as tools — whether to sell a movie star or to support a government — and the struggle to maintain balance is endless. But the fear of being seen as “allied with Israel” seemed near phobic among the press people I observed on the job in Jerusalem.

My sense is that, rather than jeopardize their already tenuous access to the Palestinian territories or endanger their employees by appearing to collaborate with the enemy, many of the media covering the Intifada adjust by simply “not seeing” things or by finding elaborate justifications for ignoring stories that would displease their hosts in the territories. I was in Israel for several weeks during a lull in the violence, staying in a hotel in downtown Jerusalem full of press attracted by a special $80 a night “journalist’s rate” and by the Israeli press center on the ground floor, which offered free Internet connections, juice, cake, and espresso. Filling their plates at the sumptuous buffet breakfast (part of the “journalist’s special”), producers groused about the lull and about the American elections, which had kicked their beat off the front pages. But I didn’t meet anyone who was using the slowdown in daily news to investigate, say, the crucial question of whether the Palestinian Authority police were trying to enforce a recently declared cease-fire — which didn’t seem to be working very well.

Some photographers are simply so polite that they end up inadvertently influencing news coverage: One freelancer for “the majors” told me he’d never had a problem working in the territories. On the contrary, he bristled, the Palestinian people were only too happy to have him take pictures. At funerals for instance — which tend to be heavily attended by reporters — “they will ask you to take pictures. Here, ‘Take a picture of the body,’ they will say; they’ll actually push you to the front.” It’s different at night he commented; “I wouldn’t take a picture of a guy with an automatic weapon at night.” Why not? “Because he wouldn’t want me to, and I never take pictures of people unless they want me to.” It’s a policy that springs from a good heart. Still, what may seem like decency and fellow feeling to the photographer has the perverse effect of punishing democracies that do not censor media coverage, like Israel, and rewarding the authoritarian governments that strictly control imagery.

Have many journalists in the Mideast begun to practice this kind of quiet, even largely unconscious self-censorship? Does the access problem and, let’s face it, the I-don’t-want-to-end-up-getting-torn-to- pieces-by-a-mob problem, encourage a kind of Stockholm syndrome, an identification with those you are threatened by? The ingredients are certainly there in the petri dish.

On November 2, for instance, a letter appeared in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, a Palestinian daily, ostensibly from “The Palestinian Journalists’ Union.” The “Union” announced that it had informed the Associated Press bureau in Israel that it believed AP had an intentional policy of presenting a false picture of the “just struggle of the Palestinians against the Israeli Occupation and its aggressive and inhuman actions which contradict all international human rights conventions.” The letter went on to say that if the bureau did not change its coverage, the group would adopt “all necessary measures against AP staffers.”

The journalists’ union did not return the calls placed to verify the Israeli Press Office’s translation of the letter from Arabic, and the AP says — via a spokesman in New York — that this is “not an issue we’re going to address at all.” In fact most newspapers receive a steady stream of communiques contesting their coverage and even implying violence — though in the United States the threats don’t often correspond with real-life beatings and seizures of equipment.

Many camera crews, for instance, were able to record the notorious lynching last fall of two Israeli reservists by a Palestinian mob. Only one came back with footage. Mark Seager, a 29-year-old photographer from Britain, was on the scene that day:

“I was getting into a taxi on the main road to go to Nablus, where there was a funeral that I wanted to film, when all of a sudden there came a big crowd of Palestinians shouting and running down the hill from the police station. I got out of the car to see what was happening and saw that they were dragging something behind them. Within moments they were in front of me and… I saw that it was a body, a man they were dragging by the feet. The lower part of his body was on fire and the upper part had been shot at and the head beaten so badly that it was a pulp, like red jelly. I thought he was a soldier because I could see the remains of khaki trousers and boots…. Instinctively I reached for my camera. I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face… A melee began in which one guy just pulled the camera off me and smashed it to the floor. The worst thing was that I realized the anger that they were directing at me was the same as that which they’d had toward the soldier before. Somehow I escaped and ran and ran, not knowing where I was going.”

The only crew to get out with footage — the bodies being tossed out a second-floor window to a mob waiting below — was an Italian TV crew working for a network called Mediaset. There was also a crew on hand representing RAI, another Italian network, led by a producer named Riccardo Christiano. Apparently fearing that Palestinians would think he was responsible for the terrible images that began to saturate news coverage, Christiano wrote a letter to the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. “Let us emphasize that it is not the case [that we disseminated the video], as we respect the work arrangements between journalists and the Palestinian Authority,” Christiano wrote. “Thank you and rest assured that this is not our way and we would never do such a thing.” Acutely embarrassed for this abject promise of favoritism, Christiano’s superiors recalled him to Italy and then recalled the rest of their Jerusalem correspondents. Israel suspended Christiano’s official press card. A friend of Christiano’s defended him to the Jerusalem Post, saying that the letter may have been inaccurately translated from English (“Riccardo’s third language”) to Arabic, but then offered the not terribly helpful explanation that Christiano had been rattled by recent trauma. Christiano had been severely beaten in the Jaffa riots in early October, she told the Jerusalem Post. “His ribs were broken; his cheek caved in, there were fears that a lung might be punctured…. Of all the foreign reporters, he got beaten the worst.” Poor Christiano was even vilified by his colleagues — for exposing the fact that they were responsible for the videotape. Several days after RAI recalled Christiano, Mediaset recalled Anna Mignotto, the producer who, along with a Palestinian cameraman, had produced the surviving lynching footage. “As of today,” Mediaset editor Enrico Mentana explained, “our correspondents can no longer work [in Israel]. We know whom to thank.”

Most of the time, incidents like these don’t get much attention. In early November, three young freelancers — two from Britain, one from Singapore — made a foray into Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem just looking for some good shots:

“We’d met a local lad — he takes us through the back alley. There was a group of guys standing near a house, kind of huddled together talking,” explained 26-year-old Chris Dearden of Britain. “Without thinking I snapped them. They all dive out, and several of them have guns.”

One of the men shoved a gun barrel into Dearden’s face. They strong-armed the three into a stairwell and kept them penned there while they discussed what to do.

“There’s a lot of shouting, they take the camera; there was a lot of talking among themselves. The interesting thing was, there was no unity of opinion. There was one with a gun who had to be held back; then they hand the camera back, to my complete surprise. I open it up real fast; take the film out, [saying] ‘There, it’s yours!'”

To Dearden’s relief and surprise, the men let the photographers go. “We were just about to walk away, when someone came up and kicked the guy who’d been leading us around; he turned around and gets one in the face and then there’s like a complete melee.” “Hopefully our guy got away,” Dearden said, but as they hustled toward the border, he looked back and saw that “somebody got the absolute bejesus kicked out of him.”

Of the “handful of Arabic words he knows,” Dearden says the most important is now the word for picture. “I always say, ‘Sura?’ If it’s, ‘Sura,’ fine; if it’s, ‘No,’ I drop it really fast.”

A number of photographers have had problems with the Israelis, as well — in general their anecdotes were about being told that they couldn’t pass a checkpoint. By law Israeli officials are supposed to give journalists complete access, except when access — say to a hidden missile site — could endanger national security. Dearden and the other two photographers agreed that the Israelis generally leave them alone. “The Israelis don’t really care what you do unless you get right into their face when they’re trying to shoot, ” chuckled Renga Subbiah, a 30-year-old photographer from Singapore who spoke like an upper-class Englishman except when he affected a working-class accent for dramatic purposes. “I got one with a fooking IDF bloke pointing his rifle right into the middle of the frame.”

Operating under the venerable TV news slogan “If it bleeds it leads,” the brash young journalistic mercenary had filled his film satchel with “very good stuff.” This included a “dead guy” (“right up in his face I got”), a wounded child, and a lot of “people shooting.”

And throwing stones? In that particular week, that was the big action in town. “Course I got kids throwing stones,” he said, bragging about one in particular who looked about 6 years old.

With national, international, and local news coverage having become a sort of daily grievance parade — the daily displaying of stumps and wounds by victims of all kinds of real and alleged injustice as if in front of a global godfather — the Palestinians have learned to excel at bleeding. Or at least, the authoritarian leadership has found plenty of civilians it can cajole into doing the bleeding. (In contrast, the Israelis have made it a point of national pride to avoid signs of weakness, and now show a kind of distaste for displaying wounds.) A Palestinian leader recently told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, for instance, that the Palestinians would win this current round of Intifada because “our ability to die is greater than the Israeli ability to go on killing us.” “They want you to show their side,” which means showing “people dead and injured. What they have that the Israeli side doesn’t is lots of dead people,” explains Subbiah amiably.

It would have been more accurate for the Palestinian leader to say “our ability to sacrifice civilians is greater” — as most Palestinian leaders keep themselves well above the fray. In this, they are like the leaders of lots of developing nations. With plenty of passion and smarts but few armaments and even less high technology, the bleeding civilian has become the most potent weapon in the arsenal against liberal, media-saturated Westernized countries.

To the extent that civilians prove useful for their ability to die on camera for a world audience, we will undoubtedly see increasing use of the civilian body as both propaganda weapon and literal shield. In Mogadishu, for instance, American special forces soldiers found themselves facing a grotesque apparition: Rebels would seize a woman from a crowd (alive but usually very doped up), stick their arms under her armpits, so she hung in front of them, and then move towards the enemy line while hiding behind her voluminously-skirted body, and firing with both hands. We saw the civilian- as-sandbag (against bullets and world disfavor) technique immediately after the Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein established his base of operations in the middle of a palace mostly inhabited by women and children. And we see it now abundantly in the Intifada, where Yasser Arafat (who stays very far away from the “front-lines” himself) can be quite confident that Palestinian parents will proffer their children to draw Israeli fire — mainly for the benefit of the Western media.

In fact, the problem of the civilian pawn is transforming Western war strategy and our image of “the threat.” The Marines now train for “urban combat” and the “three block war,” and military scientists are hard at work developing all kinds of non-lethal weapons to deal with the crowds of civilians who will inevitably — knowingly or not — surround the armed terrorist. Now if the strategists could only figure out what to do about the camera.

This article ran in the Weekly Standard on January 1, 2001

Official PA radio news: The Voice of Palestine: January 22

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

VOP featured comments from several high-level PA officials participating in talks with Israel who took a generally pessimistic view of the negotiations, while advancing a firm Palestinian bargaining stance.

Jibril Rajoub said the PA was demanding that Israel stop assassinations and stop chasing anyone involved in intifada activities. Nabil Shaath and Ahmad Qreia reiterated that the PA was insisting on UN resolutions-not any American plan-as the basis for talks, and they stressed a complete right of return for Palestinian refugees to homes they left in 1948.

Monday Morning News Round-up Headlines

  • “Muhammad al-Sharif, a 15-year-old child joined the ranks of the intifada martyrs when he was struck by bullets in the head and chest and the Mintar crossing point;
  • Occupation authorities shell the northern approaches to el-Bireh and Silwad in an attempt to invade it;
  • the marathon talks began yesterday in Taba, and the sessions lasted until dawn;
  • His excellency President Yasser Arafat asserted Palestinian rejection of Israeli conditions being set for the talks, and his excellency said what is demanded of the talks is an agreement in the shortest time possible;
  • A political-security meeting near Ramallah last night, and the Israeli position remains unchanged regarding the continuation of the aggression;
  • Israeli judges once again stand by the criminals among the settlers, and the murderer of Hilmi Shusha is sentenced to service duties to society despite having caused the death of the Hilmi the martyr;
  • The journalist of the (Israeli) newspaper Ha’aretz, Gideon Levi asks ‘how can Israel demand that the Palestinian Authority stop what it calls terror when it (Israel) is silent before the terror of the settlers;
  • Israeli political and security institutions continue their attacks on the Islamic properties (waqf) in Jerusalem.;

Monday Morning Bulletin Headlines, 7 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “The martyring of young man Muhammad Sharif from Gaza yesterday who was struck by two bullets in the head and the chest;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat declares Israel’s obligations to carry out agreements without any conditions as imposed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak;
  • His excellency received at his headquarters last night the special UN representative, Terry Larsen;
  • Iraqi cabinet demands that the UN allow Iraq to send financial aid to the Palestinian people;
  • Iraqi anti-aircraft guns open ire on American and British planes over southern and northern Iraq;
  • Four minors were injured when they were struck by a military car near Nablus;
  • Israeli occupation forces carried out a vicious shelling of houses in the prefect of El-Bireh last night;
  • Violent confrontations between occupation soldiers last night and the residents of the town of Silwad;
  • Israeli military sources say that an Israeli soldier was wounded severely by an explosion near the settlement of Netzarim which was built on the land of citizens in the prefect of Gaza;
  • Dr. Nabil Shaath, the Minister of Economic Development, characterized the session of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations last night in Taba as ‘not encouraging‘, and he said the session today would be long.;
  • From his perspective, Ahmad Qreia, head of the negotiating team, said he hoped the talks today would be serious.saying the teams would split into two sets of talks, the first one dealing with refugees and the second dealing with Jerusalem, borders and security;
  • Col. Jibril Rajoub, head of counter-intelligence in the West Bank, estimated that there was a lack of confidence in the Israelis regarding the stopping of assassinations and the pursuit (note: may connote physical or prosecutorial pursuit) of (Palestinian) citizens;
  • A big explosion hit Teheran last night, but no reports of damage or injuries, as the Mujahideen al-Halq take credit for the operation;
  • In Manila, the legal proceedings begin against Former President Estrada.”

Quotes from answer by Arafat to reporters’ questions last night concerning Barak’s setting conditions (broadcast 7:30 a.m.)

“First of all we began the Oslo agreements and the agreements of Sharm al-Sheikh-I (i.e. the first Sharm summit pact) and Sharm al-Sheikh-II. And the first Sharm al-Sheikh took place, and the second Sharm al-Sheikh involved the presence of President Clinton and King Abdullah and Mr. Kofi Anan and Mr. Samir Solana and with the leadership of President Mubarak, and with the presence of the Israeli delegation with Mr. Barak and the presence of the Palestinian delegation with Yasser Arafat. Therefore, the talk about new conditions is very strange. Therefore they have to carry out what was agreed-an exact and reliable execution (of the terms) of what was agreed.”

Asked about the talks Arafat said:
“Our goal is to achieve an agreement in as short a time as possible.”

Quotes from Interview with Jibril Rajoub, 7:35 a.m.

“First, there have been three political-security meetings based on the American initiative presented by the head of the CIA. And the goal of these meetings-to our way of thinking-is to act to stop the aggression, the siege, the lock-down, the pressure to which the Palestinian people is being subjected in all avenues of daily life.”

Question: “Have there been any changes in the Israeli stances?”

Answer: “Up to now, the Israeli position has not reached the level of the goals, not in stopping aggression and in terms of political actions. The fundamental thing is that the Israelis have not respected any obligation, any undertaking, any agreement. Stopping the current condition is seriously bound up and linked with stopping the Occupation.”

Question: “Did the Israelis talk about what happened to their agents?”

Answer: “Inside the regions of the (Palestinian) Authority, there is sovereignty of law. Anyone who oversteps the law will not have any immunity. No one has immunity. Even an Israeli who is in our territory and oversteps the law, we will take them to court. This is a closed subject. This is about the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority in the territory of the Authority.”

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 21

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

In its coverage in advance of the talks, VOP underlined comments from PA President Yasser Arafat that the PA would rely on “international legitimacy” regarding all the major issues: refugees, Jerusalem, borders, land and water. The PA officials and VOP are putting the refugee question first.

Similarly, Dr. Saeb Erikat, in an interview with VOP’s Gaza correspondent, ‘Adil Za’anoun, stressed that Israel must keep its obligations according to UN resolutions.

Ahmad Qreia said there were great gaps that required Israeli decisions (i.e. concessions). Qreia, who led the various PA delegations, stressed four bases for execution of any agreement: the principle, the cost, a timetable, and international guarantees for execution.

VOP also devoted a long and glowing mid-round-up report to the Ramallah demonstration in favor of the right of return-a march staged by the Fatah Tanzim under Marwan Barghouti.

Anchorman Samir Interr, who introduced several other features and interviews on the subject of the right of return, stressed that the Israelis were refusing in their “obstinacy” to accept a refugee return. The features dealt with refugee communities in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, among others and on Israel’s stubbornness in refusing their return, while accepting more than 70,000 foreign workers.

Quote of the Day

“We are in contact with our brother Syrian officials and we are making all efforts to strengthen and coordinate Arab efforts.” (PLO Political Department Head, Farouk Qaddoumi, in morning interview 7:45, Sunday, describing purpose of visit to Syria of high-level Palestinian delegation, which had first visited Baghdad)

Sunday Morning Round-up Headlines

  • “The marathon Palestinian-Israeli talks get under way today in Taba and will last ten days;
  • The new round of talks represents the last chance to reach an agreement before the Israeli elections on the sixth of next month, and they will cover all matters, including refugees, borders, land and water and other matters;
  • And even with the continuation of talks Israeli measures on the ground also continue.;
  • The Executive committee (of the PLO) decides to continue talks based on the declared positions on the main issues and on international legitimacy;
  • Palestinian-Syrian coordination continues, and the contacts with President Assad are ongoing, and we will hear about them in an interview with PLO political department director Farouk Qaddoumi;
  • The minister of religious properties is visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
  • A new president in the White House: George W. Bush.and his inauguration speech concentrates on internal affairs, while his foreign policy is still unclear.”

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

  • “His excellency President Yasser Arafat chaired a meeting of the PLO Executive last night in his headquarters in Gaza;
  • Dr Saeb Erikat, the Home Rule Minister, asserted the National Authority’s complete readiness for continuing measures in the marathon talks to be held tonight in Egypt;
  • The Israeli police arrest a young woman Amna Jawad from Bir al-Nabala in connection with the killing of an Israeli youth last week near al-Bireh;
  • Mass demonstrations and activities yesterday in Ramallah in support of the right of return for the refugees;
  • The families of the 13 martyrs killed in the October demonstrations inside the Green Line announce their refusal to receive resigning prime minister Ehud Barak in their cities;
  • Eleven Algerians killed, among them a child, in a massacre by an armed Algerian group in the Algerian capital;
  • The Republican George Bush Jr. is sworn in yesterday in Washington, becoming the 43rd president of the United States and ending eight years of Democratic rule under former president Bill Clinton;
  • A German newspaper says American forces used depleted uranium in Somalia in 1993;
  • The death toll in El Salvador reaches 801 dead, with about 3,000 wounded.”

Quotes from Interview with Ahmad Qreia, Sunday Morning, January 21, 7:10 a.m.

Question: “First of all, is there anything positive in any of the recent talks.?”

Answer: “Until now there has been no bridging of the gaps on a variety of subjects. The fundamental differences remain, big differences, wide gaps that require great efforts and decisions by the Israeli side.”

Question: “What about the talk that the Israeli side is willing to accept Palestinian sovereignty on the Haram al-Sharif (noble shrine, Temple Mount)?”

Answer: “There has been no discussion of this subject in the last four negotiating sessions. Discussion concentrated on ‘land,’ including Jerusalem as ‘land’ (i.e. territory). We didn’t get into the Old City etc. until now. Just talking about land. There are a variety of ideas, but there was no concentration on any one subject. However, the subject of land is the big question for discussion..We set forth our point of view which was clear, and they set forth their point of view, clinging to the framework set forth by President Clinton in his papers, but as we told them that framework is not the source authority (for the talks).We told them that the source authority is international legitimacy (i.e. UN resolutions).”

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 20-21

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

The Palestinian Authority formally said goodbye to the Clinton proposals, thanking him for his efforts, while setting its sights on achieving a detailed agreement with Israel within ten days, according to statements and reports of the Voice of Palestine Saturday.

VOP reported a Palestinian cabinet policy statement that reiterated that the PA was interested in achieving a comprehensive peace based on International legitimacy, backed by international guarantees and policed by an international “protection force.” The statement, which was read during all news broadcasts, stressed the need for total Israeli withdrawal and the right of return for refugees to their homes. The PA put the Bush Administration on notice that it expected the Administration to follow this course, even as it signaled strong Palestinian support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (see headlines below).

In its coverage Friday afternoon and Saturday, VOP once again turned a harsh commentary on Israeli candidate Ariel Sharon, branding him “the extremist Ariel Sharon” at almost every mention of his name. This coverage followed publication in Friday’s Israeli newspaper of Sharon’s negotiating plank (only a 42-percent withdrawal versus a 95+-percent Barak withdrawal).

Quote of the Day

“O ye Muslims, the American president has left the Black House after his tenure ended, never to return. And he increased disappointment and failure in that he dreamed of getting what they call the Nobel Peace Prize. And all this at the expense of our people, at the expense of our land, at the expense of our holy places-all this to please the Jews.”
(from Mosque Address at Friday Prayers, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, Mufti Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, presiding, January 19, broadcast on VOP, 11:50 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)

Saturday, Evening Headlines, 7 p.m.

  • “President Yasser Arafat received a British delegation at his headquarters in Gaza today, and he briefed them on the outstanding issues -the continuing siege, the latest Israeli aggression and the dynamics of and the need for defense and protection of the peace process;
  • The Israeli cabinet headed by resigning prime minister Ehud Barak is discussing the latest aggression and the marathon meeting tomorrow Sunday in Taba which is expected to last ten days;
  • Home Minister Saeb Erikat asserted that the National Authority awaits the Israeli reaction to negotiations.making ready an agreement that will put an end to Israeli occupation based on resolutions of international legitimacy linked to the Palestinian cause;
  • Minister of Information Yasser Abd-Rabbo says the National Authority takes any negotiations completely seriously.and he said the National Authority was ready for a detailed agreement which deal with the all the questions.with international guarantees for their execution based on the source authority of the peace process and not on any new source authority suggested by any party (i.e. such as the Clinton initiative);
  • The Leadership asserted its complete readiness to achieve an agreement on a just and lasting peace based on land for peace. and based on international legitimacy. and it warned Israel against continuing aggression.;
  • The Leadership demanded that the new American president George Bush take immediate and real treatment for peace in the region based on international legitimacy and land for peace.;
  • Israeli occupation police arrested this morning the (female) youth Amna Jawad from Bir Nabala in connection with the killing of the Israeli youthnear Ramallah at the end of last week;
  • 13 families inside the Green Line whose family members were martyred at the hands of the Israeli police in September announced their refusal to receive resigning Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in their cities…;
  • An Iraqi military spokesman said three Iraqis were martyred as the result of a bombing carried out by American and British planes in southern Iraq;
  • And finally, at this hour, the inauguration ceremony of George Bush Jr. is taking place in the White House.”

Saturday morning, January 20, Round-up headlines

  • “His Excellency President Yasser Arafat sends a message to President Bill Clinton one day before he leaves the White House;
  • The Leadership asserts that the Israeli withdrawal is a matter of principle for establishing confident, deep and strong relations with the Bush Administration;
  • The Palestinian journalists’ organization takes part in the Arab journalists’ conference in Baghdad;
  • Prisoners’ Organization notes the large percentage of children in Israeli jails;
  • Today, Clinton leaves the White House, and Bush is a new resident there, along with analysis of Clinton’s letter to the Palestinian people and Bush’s mid-east policies;
  • A new customs agreement between the National Authority and Jordan;
  • An exchange of accusations between Barak and Peres.”

Sunday Morning, January 21, Headlines – 7:05 a.m.

  • “His Excellency President Yasser Arafat sent a message of thanks to President Bill Clinton, thanking him or his efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.;
    (News bulletin then covered the Cabinet statement in depth and other items, repeated throughout the day. And noted in 7pm evening bulletin)
  • Israeli occupation forces last night heavily shell the Ruwaiba area near Khan Yunis.wounding four citizens, three of them seriously
  • National and Islamic forces are organizing a mass march in Ramallah today under the heading “NO BARGAINING OVER THE RIGHT OF RETURN.”

Quotes from Mosque Address at Friday Prayers, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem
Mufti, Sheikh Ikrema al-Sabry, presiding
Broadcast on VOP, January 19, 11:50 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

(Note: Much of the mosque speech dealt with the importance of fulfilling the Islamic commandment of pilgrimage to Mecca. Note also that the following section was repeated in three or our different variations, relying each time on a slightly different source in the Hadith-the compendium of Islamic traditions relating to the Prophet Muhammad’s life and sayings.)

“… And God’s messenger (the prophet Muhammad) said ‘He who can make the pilgrimage and does not do so, better that he die a Jew or Christian. And the Prince of the Faithful, Omar Ibn al-Khatab (one of Islamic leaders, known as Caliphs, following Muhammad’s death),.decreed that.even a member of the Ansar (the victorious host of Muhammad’s followers in Medina) who does not make the pilgrimage, even though he be Muslim, yes, even though he be a Muslim, will be subject to the jiziya (the special head tax levied on non-Muslims under Islamic sovereignty).”

[There was a pause in the speech or the reading of the first sura – or chapter – of the Quran, Islam’s sacred scripture, and then the speech resumed.]

“O ye worshipers, we are hearing strange voices here and about raising slogans about ‘human rights’, and they act or those who guard these human rights in pseudo-organizations in Britain and America and in other infidel circles. And they talk about human rights. And they are not aware that the mighty religion of Islam actively protects the nobility of the human being (citation of several Quranic verses).And we Muslims safeguard the human rights and act with generosity of spirit to human beings, and not the infidel organizations safeguarding human rights. And anyone who calls the swallowing up of human rights that emerged from the community of nations in 1948 (i.e. with the creation of Israel) knows that this is just so much ink on paper. O ye Muslims, anyone who calls the institutions for human rights which have connections in Palestine, Europe and America who consider the executions of the treacherous agents who worked for the Occupiers who call for safeguarding human rights have confused exposing evildoers on one hand with protection of human rights on the other…

And we ask why were they subject to execution — these agents, these traitors? And they subjected one of the martyrs to the guns of the occupation soldiers in Hebron while he was wounded. And they treated him savagely and wickedly. And where is the humanity in these extreme actions? And we ask why were we subjected to criminal America and malevolent Britain and the other Western countries as they bombed Kosovo, Bosnia, Herzogovina with dangerous Uranium bombs.which lead to cancer? And what of the crimes of the imperialist countries?

O ye Muslims, the American president has left the Black House after his tenure ended, never to return. And he increased disappointment and failure in that he dreamed of getting what they call the Nobel Peace Prize. And all this at the expense of our people, at the expense of our land, at the expense of our holy places-all this to please the Jews.

O ye Muslims, Al-Aqsa will burn anyone who tries to play with it and anyone who covets Beit al-Maqdas (i.e. the classical Islamic name for Jerusalem, which, is similar to the Hebrew name Beit Ha-Miqdash) except for the people of Allah.

And the city of Jerusalem has been and will remain a grave for pacifying Powers. And there will be an end to the Israeli Occupation, sooner or later. With the power of God and with His help. Because the Islamic rebel has begun to grumble and will soon conquer (also plunder), God willing.by the solution of Salahadin (Saladin) in liberating the land of the revelation, and purifying it from the inferiority (also lowness) of the transplanted ones and the colonizers. And God is powerful in his command. And God will bring victory to Islam and to the Muslims.”

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 19

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary

The mosque sermon of Friday noon broadcast on VOP concentrated on an Islamic justification for the execution of “traitors” and “agents,” while comparing Israel to a “cancer” in the region and characterizing the White House as “The Black House” for “supporting the Jews.”

In the news programs, VOP ignored the murder of the young Israeli near Ramallah.

PA ministers and officials said great gaps still existed with Israel, and they were quoted criticizing the International Commission of Inquiry for delaying its visit to the region until after the Israeli election.

Morning Headlines — 7am news bulletin

  • Israeli occupation forces close Salahadin Road that links north and south Gaza;
  • And a night-time Israeli shelling of the houses of citizens near the Palestinian-Egyptian border;
  • And other Israeli attacks throughout the homeland;
  • Mr. Ahmad Qreia says that the gaps between the two sides, the Palestinian and Israeli, remain great. He made his comments after a Palestinian-Israeli political meeting held last night;
  • Minister of Information and Culture Yasser Abd-Rabbo expressed his disappointment with the performance of the investigating commission into the implementation of the understandings of the Sharm al-Sheikh summit, (particularly) delaying for three weeks its visit to the region. And Abd-Rabbo said that the commission was being subjected to pressures by Israel;
  • In a message sent to the Voice of Palestine, President Bill Clinton sends a message to the Palestinian people at the end of his term, in which he asserts the steadfastness, bravery and resistance of our people, and re-affirming that it (the people) must have self-determination in its land and the establishment of an independent state;
  • Resigning Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak proposes a special regime for the occupied city of Jerusalem under which Israel would continue its control over the Jewish Quarter and the Buraq Wall (i.e. The Western Wall sometimes known as the Wailing Wall, regarded by Muslims as the “Buraq” or “Burak” wall, where some Islamic traditions say the Prophet Muhammad tethered his mythic steed, Buraq), but Barak stressed his refusal to execute an agreement that consolidates sovereignty over Haram al-Sharif (in the hands of) to the Palestinian side;
  • The special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Anan in Southern Lebanon, Steven Stora, supported an investigation into Israeli use of depleted uranium in Southern Lebanon;
  • A Vietnamese delegation visits Iraq on a humanitarian mission, and this is the first time Vietnam initiates a humanitarian visit to Baghdad, following its occasionally expressed support for Iraq and for the lifting of the siege on the Iraqi people;
  • A summit between the North Korean leader Kim il-Jung, who is visiting China, and Chinese President Jiang ze-Min in Peking (Beijing) yesterday.” (Apologies for spelling errors here: Arabic rendition of Chinese and Korean names is no picnic.)

8 a.m. Friday news round-up

  • “At this hour, Israeli occupation forces storm Silwad near Ramallah and place a curfew on it;
  • The American President Bill Clinton says in a message to the Palestinian people at the end of his term tomorrow that the Palestinian people had never been so close to the realization of its goals; (remaining items similar to 7 a.m.)

    Attitude to Violence

    The murder of the sixteen-year-old israeli boy whose body was found near Ramallah (the discovery of whose unidentified body was mentioned in VOP broadcasts two days ago) was not mentioned in any of the morning VOP broadcasts. Similarly there was no condemnation.

    However, in palestinian newspapers and in the WAFA news service, the PA issued a statement disapproving of such actions, “despite the continuation of Israeli aggression”. (In Arabic, the term used for disapproval was rafd which literally means “refuses” or “rejects”.)

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 18th

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

VOP led its headlines with the daylight murder yesterday of Hisham Maki in Gaza, but Maki was not characterized today as a “martyr”-which would have been obligatory had he been killed by Israelis or Israeli agents or even had he killed himself in any kind of anti-israeli context. [Note: in some radio broadcasts yesterday and in a few newspapers this morning, Maki gets “martyr” status, but the “company line” is clearly that he was not a martyr, and only a time-lag factor allowed “martyr” to be appended to his name.] The strange locution-“the exalted departed”, juthman al-rahoum, instead of the more typical “the exalted martyr” juthman al-shahid, is an indication that PA officials do NOT believe that the gangland-style murder was connected to the Palestinian national struggle. In fact, Maki was known to have many debts-apparently some of them to some PA leaders themselves, including Yasser Arafat.

There is a clear escalation of internal Palestinian violence, including inside Jerusalem.

A morning interview with Fatah Secretary Marwan Barghouti indicated that the Palestinians are suffering from a decline in basic services and are trying hard to raise cash to improve their infrastructure-especially electricity and water. This may just be another call to citizens to pay their bills, but it could also be readying themselves for an Israeli escalation that may include the cut-off of electricity and water. In addition Barghouti spoke of the Palestinian campaign “to clean the markets of Israeli products”-a boycott of Israeli goods. Barghouti said this was important in order for the Palestinians to develop their own manufacturing capabilities. In a sense, Barghouti was also enunciating a Palestinian riposte to Ehud Barak’s ideas of a unilateral separation from the Palestinians.

The Israeli election campaign continues to be a source of interest to the Voice of Palestine, with VOP using Israeli Arab Knesset members as commentators on the issue. This morning MK Muhammad Baraka said: “Barak has no chance of winning without the Arab vote.”

Regarding the state of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, VOP referred to yesterday’s interview with Saeb Erikat (see below, January 17 additions) and through a skeptical interview with Nabil Amr, PA Parliamentary Affairs Minister, who said the talks had really gone nowhere. Amr also voiced the fear that Colin Powell’s comments about the Bush Administration’s devotion to Israel’s security might mean increased American vetoes in the United Nations Security Council in defense of Israel.

VOP featured yesterday afternoon an interview with Hussein Shaheen, one of the leaders of the Jerusalem Fatah-Shabiba organization to which several “agents” surrendered themselves yesterday. VOP also featured (also in the 2pm Panorama show) one of several “agents” who had turned himself in.

In its programs yesterday and today VOP continues to highlight Iraq on the tenth anniversary of the Gulf War with a Monday morning feature on the suffering of the people of Baghdad as well as afternoon coverage of a Nablus march of solidarity with Iraq (see enlargements and additions section for yesterday).

Morning Round-up Headlines 7 a.m.

  • “Assassination of the director of the Radio/Television manager Hisham Maki and the night-time shelling in Gaza and Tulkarm;
  • Continuation of aggression by settlers against our citizens;
  • The Palestinian-Israeli talks recess and begin again today. “

Morning Headlines – 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m. News Bulletin Headlines

  • “His excellency President Yasser Arafat will discuss in Cairo today with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak the latest developments in the Palestinian lands and the peace process against the background of continued Israeli attacks on our people;
  • A Palestinian-Israeli negotiating session will be held today that was supposed to have been held yesterday;
  • Dr. Saeb Erikat the Home Rule Minister asserts that Israel is stretching its measured political-military negotiation to assure its policy of assassinations and siege;
  • Israeli occupation forces shell through the night the Western neighborhoods in Tulkarm with heavy weapons and tank fire.;
  • Israeli forces close the road from Dir al-Balah and Khan Yunis that was open yesterday;
  • Masses of our citizens will escort the exalted departed Hisham Maki, general director of Palestinian Broadcasting and Television as well as the Freedom Fighters channels who was slain by the hands of treacherous traitors yesterday afternoon;
  • The Journalists association in Jericho and the Jordan Valley condemns the attack on the director general of Palestinian broadcasting and television;
  • Israeli reports of increasing differences between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Regional Development Minister Shimon Peres about how to conduct talks;
  • Iraqi Vice President Taher Yassin al-Ramadan denies that the subject of re-settling Palestinian refugees in Iraq has been put out on the table in exchange for a resumption of ties with Washington;
  • Conflicting reports on the killing of Congolese president Lauren Kabila.”

Quotes from Thursday Morning interview with West Bank Fatah secretary Marwan Barghouti, 7:10-7:20 a.m.

Question: “You held an open meeting in Ramallah yesterday under the heading the cut-off of Palestinian services and the future.”

Answer: “What we talked about in the recent meeting was the cut-off of services with chambers of commerce yesterday with the electrical company and the water authorities etc.the most important thing, the necessary thing is acclimating to the new conditions of the Intifada in all institutions. To have contingency plans for this matter.

The second matter is to prepare connections to strengthen voltage lines to Palestinian citizens for special circumstances. The third thing is for Palestinian citizens to settle their debts and their obligations.”

January 17 – Additions and Enlargements

Afternoon Headlines – 2 p.m. — Panorama

  • Masses of our citizens escort the martyr Walid Khalil who was assassinated near the settlement of Netzarim yesterday;
  • “Several citizens arrested by occupation forces in Shuweifat and Hebron
  • It was just announced that an unidentiied man was found killed in al-Bireh;
  • The Fatah Shabiba (youth) organization in occupied Jerusalem announced that three agents surrendered themselves to the Shabiba organization.and it was announced that they will be turned over to the security forces;
  • The Nablus charitable organizations announced today a march in solidarity with the Iraqi people to mark the tenth anniversary of the military siege placed on them.characterizing the siege as a crime against humanity;
  • Speaker Ahmad Qreia is currently meeting Israeli foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.;
  • Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa met with Ben-Ami in Cairo this morning;
  • Reports in Israel of differences between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Regional Development Minister Shimon Peres on the negotiations;
  • The most recent report is that the President of the Congo, Lauren Kabil was wounded but is still alive.”

Quotes from Interview with Saeb Erikat, Home Minister, head of negotiating committee, January 17. 2:25 p.m.

Question: “Was the political security meeting sufficient?”

Answer: “The political-security meeting had limited results.The Israeli side refuses our demands to lift the siege and end the aggression and the assassinations and to release people arrested. The Israeli side is negotiating with itself, only bringing up before us matters it wants to carry out. It makes decisions unilaterally for siege and assassinations. That’s impossible. That’s completely against the agreements. The Israeli side carries things out by itself. It’s the side that decides, that carries out and that announces the decision to carry out. There was nothing new in the meeting.”

Quotes from Interview with Ahmad Qreia, PA Legislature Speaker, (enlarged version) 7:07 – 7:15 a.m,. January 17

“Really, it was a general discussion on a variety of matters, concentrating on the matter of land, the question of Jerusalem, at the beginning, and at the end, it was serious. The differences continue and continue. But the talk was serious.”

Question: “Is there something positive about this talk? Will it lead anywhere?”

Answer: “Well, the gap continues. The differences remain. But there was serious talk between the two parties.”

Question: “The gaps remain great, but did you notice from the Israelis the ability to change anything or did they just cling to their stubbornness of the past period, the period of the elections?”

Answer: “Perhaps there are some matters and some talk on which we can build. But to say we’re getting to something final and basic, I CANNOT SAY THAT.”

Question: “There’s some talk about a great ability to reach understanding, with all the reservations of both sides.based on the American framework.?”

Answer: “Absolute Not. There is no talk of that. There are our subjects out on the table. They are: the land and, Jerusalem and the refugees and the borders. These are the four matters we’re talking about. If things go well, we’ll add to it the question of water. And it’s agreed that there is no agreement until we agree on all matters.”

Question: “Is this going to remain a bilateral clash in negotiations or is it possible that arena will be enlarged, that the Americans will enter or that regional parties will come in.?”

Answer: “The talks until now have been bilateral. The gaps are big and I don’t see bridging them in so short a time, because the gap is wide..I believe that any American administration will devote itself to this matter because the region of the middle east is a vital region in American policy and American strategy.”

Question: “Is there something here for the Europeans?”

Answer: “The Europeans are watchful and guarding the peace process and its success, but their role and movements are measured.They get wet but this is not translated into a real and active and powerful role. It’s not the kind of participation we would like to see.”

Quote of the Day

“They took pictures of me and threatened to make a scandal if I didn’t work for them.” (Unidentified ‘Israeli agent’ who surrendered to PA, describing how he was recruited by Israel, interview-with voice distorted-VOP, 2:35 pm, January 17).

Quotes from Interview with Hussein Shaheen, Shabiba official, to whom three Israeli agents surrendered in Jerusalem 2:30 p.m.

“In Jerusalem some agents came in. They came in individually, not in groups. After the announcement that it was for their own good. (In other places) They went to the security forces and the offices, and in Jerusalem they came to the Shabiba. They’re in their twenties, all of them. They’re scared..Some of them became agents because of financial circumstances, and others for other reasons having to do with life in Jerusalem. They’re all from inside the city of Jerusalem.”

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 16th

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

The Palestinian Authority reacted in a very cautious but optimistic way to last night’s meetings and continued contacts with Israel: The head of the PA negotiating team, Ahmad Qreia (Abu Ala), told the Voice of Palestine that the talks were serious but there were major gaps and no real progress on substantive issues-leaving almost no chance for any agreement before the Israeli elections.

“It’s agreed that there is no agreement until we agree on all matters,” said Qreia.

VOP, unlike the Voice of Israel, was not reporting the imminent opening of the Gaza airport and the increasing influx of Arab workers into Israel. Similarly, VOP is covering the security talks-for several days now-through the prism of attempts to “stop Israeli aggression,” “to lift the Israeli siege,” and “to halt the attacks on our people”: without any mention of need to halt attacks on Israelis.

The PA has apparently put the death penalty on the back burner-no executions are being announced-but it is still pursuing a campaign against anyone who would “cooperate with Israel,” and VOP has broadcast that scores of Israeli agents have surrendered to Palestinian authorities.

The regular PA commentator on the Israeli elections, MK Dr. Azmi Bashara, appeared on the air once again to poke fun at “the two generals”-Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon-asserting that it was a near-certainty that Barak would be defeated.

Morning News Round-Up Headlines, 7:00 a.m.

  • “A new meeting today between the Palestinian and Israeli delegations headed by Ahmad Qreia and Shlomo Ben-Ami n an attempt to bridge the gaps between the stances o the two parties;
  • Ahmad Qreia says the talks are serious but there are real clashes in the negotiations;
  • The Political-Security committee headed by Dr. Saeb Erikat, the Minister of Home Rule, and the Israeli delegation led by Minister of Tourism Amnon Shahak met through the night, and the Palestinian side renewed its demand for an end to all forms of Israeli aggression;
  • Tens of agents turn themselves in to the security organizations, revealing details of their operations with Israel ;
  • Israeli television campaign begins…and both candidates concentrate on their military careers;
  • American President Clinton will give a speech to the American people at the end of his term, and medical report shows that he is sufering from skin cancer;
  • President of the Congo Lauren Kabila assassinated by one of his body guards.”

Morning Headlines:

News Bulletin Headlines 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “The Palestinian delegation lead by Speaker Ahmad Qreia and the Israeli delegation led by Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami will hold a meeting today to attempt to bridge the gaps between the two sides on the main issues;
  • Ahmad Qreia described the talks last nights as ‘serious and deep’ but said there were also real clashes in the talks with the Israelis concerning the issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, the land and borders. And Mr. Qreia said that the issue of settler attacks on our people and putting an end to assault on our people was at the forefront of the talks yesterday;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat headed a meeting last night of the Supreme Negotiating Committee to discuss the latest developments in the talks last night with the Israeli side and the efforts to put an end to Israeli aggression and to restore the peace process;
  • There was a Palestinian-Israeli security-political meeting at the Beit Hanoun junction which stretched into the late hours of the night concentrating on putting an end to Israeli aggression…;
  • Masses of our people in Nablus escorted yesterday afternoon the exalted martyr Mahdi Shtaya from the town of Salim who was shot dead two days ago by occupation soldiers;
  • Occupation troops and settlers extended their aggression yesterday, wounding 9 people;
  • Last night in Gaza, occupation soldiers shelled several homes of citizens…;
  • Four of our citizens in the Mintar area in eastern Gaza by fire from occupation soldiers, and four more were wounded by settlers’ fire on citizens residences near the Tufah checkpoint, and the settlers renewed their aggression in Dir al-Balah and Mawasi, destroying 100 dunams of agricultural land;
  • Occupation forces destroyed ten homes in Jenin;
  • Under protection of occupation troops, settlers uprooted 100 olive trees near Nablus…;
  • A responsible Egyptian source says that the Egyptian President will receive in Cairo today Israeli foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to discuss recent regional developments in the wake recent Palestinian-Israeli meetings…;
  • The Palestinian delegation to the United Nations renewed its demand for international protection to stop Israeli aggression against our people…;
  • Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday received a Palestinian delegation headed by Dr. Farouk Qaddoumi, head of the Political Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as the ministers of Public Works, Economics and Health ‘Azam al-Ahmad, Maher al-Masri and Dr. Riad al-Za’noun. And the presient of Iraq sent his personal greetings to President Yasser Arafat and the sons of our people as well as Iraq’s stance of solidarity with our right to our struggle until we secure the legitimate rights of our people…;
  • The White House announced that a lesion taken from the back of President Clinton was cancerous…;
  • A spokesman or President-Elect George Bush announced that he would retain George Tenet as head of the Central Intelligence Agency-the CIA. And Bush asked Tenet to remain at his post for an indefinite period;…
  • President-Elect Bush says that his administration is re-examining the foreign affairs conceptions…;
  • President Clinton for his part is preparing a televised departure speech to the American people Sunday night….;
  • A spokesman or OPEC said it was lowering prices….”

Quotes from Interview with Ahmad Qreia, PA Legislature Speaker

“Really, it was a general discussion on a variety of matters, concentrating on the matter of land, the question of Jerusalem, at the beginning, and at the end, it was serious. The differences continue and continue. But the talk was serious.”

Question: “Is there something positive about this talk? Will it lead anywhere?”

Answer: “Well, the gap continues. The differences remain. But there was serious talk between the two parties.”

Question: “The gaps remain great, but did you notice from the Israelis the ability to change anything or did they just cling to their stubbornness of the past period, the period of the elections?”

Answer: “Perhaps there are some matters and some talk on which we can build. But to say we’re getting to something final and basic, I CANNOT SAY THAT.”

Question: “There’s some talk about a great ability to reach understanding, with all the reservations of both sides…based on the American framework…?”

Answer: “Absolute Not. There is no talk of that. There are our subjects out on the table. They are: the land and, Jerusalem and the refugees and the borders. These are the four matters we’re talking about. If things go well, we’ll add to it the question of water. And it’s agreed that there is no agreement until we agree on all matters”.

Dateline Jerusalem: Journalists Under Palestinian Pressure?

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

The Palestinian Authority has a thing about journalists. The independent Committee for the Protection of Journalists which monitors abuses against the press and promotes press freedom around the world reports: “In the nearly seven years since the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) assumed control over parts of the West Bank and Gaza, Chairman Yasser Arafat and his multi-layered security apparatus have muzzled local press critics via arbitrary arrests, threats, physical abuse, and the closure of media outlets. Over the years, the Arafat regime has managed to frighten most Palestinian journalists into self-censorship.”

There’s no reason to suspect that foreign correspondents, who were notoriously hounded in Beirut twenty years ago by the PNA’s forerunner, the PLO, are not exercising the same kind of self-censorship today, compromising fair and objective coverage of the current situation.

Still, the most effective clamp on the truth is the peer group; the homogenized ideology of the press corps where independent thinking continues to require courage and fortitude. In a region where the media has in many ways shaped the conflict, the combination of fear and lockstep thinking on the part of its protagonists does not bode well for a resolution.

Ramallah: Things Would Never be the Same:

The lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah on 12 October 2000 proved to be a watershed in western coverage of the new intifada. Up until that point, most western journalists traveled wherever they wanted to.

Sky TV News reporter Chris Roberts says that at the outset of the violence, the PA welcomed reporters with open arms. “They wanted us to show 12 year olds being killed,” he explains. But after the lynch when PA operatives did their best to confiscate and destroy tape of the grisly event, and Israel Defense Forces used the images to target and arrest the perpetrators, Palestinians have sometimes vented their hostility to the U.S by harassing and intimidating western correspondents. “Post Ramallah where all goodwill was lost, I’m a lot more sensitive about going places,” Roberts admits.

Ahmed Budeiri, a bright, twenty-something Arab stringer for ABC TV, acknowledges that Ramallah was “really dangerous for foreian security forces, beaten and relieved of their film of the lynching. But most of the TV cameramen were Palestinians. Given PA intimidation of Palestinian journalists, it’s not surprising that almost all of them, except for one working for the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, and another shooter for the independent Italian station, RTI, meekly handed over their film.

Nasser Atta, a Palestinian producer with the ABC News network, was outside the Ramallah police station with a camera crew as the bloody scene unfolded. Appearing the next day on ABC’s “Nightline,” he told host Ted Koppel that crowd members had assaulted his team to stop them from filming the action. “I saw how the youth tried to prevented [sic]—prevented my crew from shooting this footage. My cameraman was beaten,” Atta said.

A British photographer, Mark Seager wrote in London’s Sunday Telegraph (October 22): “I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me shouting ‘no picture, no pictures, ‘ while another guy hit me in the face and said ‘give me your film.’ One guy just pulled the camera from me and smashed it to the floor.”

Most reporters acknowledge that the PA openly confiscated TV footage and still photos of the lynch. But some, like CBC’s Neil Macdonald, asked PA Security chief Jibril Rajoub’s about the matter and were told that no tape was seized.

Others, like Bill Orme of the New York Times, came to their own conclusion that while the mob which attacked journalists did include some uniformed Palestinian police officers, “no one is suggesting that it was PA policy. It was not an official order.”

The film that did escape the clutches of the PA police made its way to TV screens around the world in an unorthodox way. According to Gideon Meir, deputy director general for public affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in Rome was able to secure the video from the independent Italian RTI TV station and within six hours of the gruesome event, the images were received in Jerusalem. The Italians released it without charge, said Meir.

TV Newsweb, a web site for TV editors and coRrespondents reported the transmission of the footage a little differently. “Two tapes are spirited away and reappear in Jerusalem one hour later. Al-Jazeera’s tape is offered for sale at US$1,000 per minute, but it’s shot shakily from far away and lacks impact. The RTI tape is extremely graphic.

RTI’s Israeli tape editor, who was at the scene, gave her eyewitness account at a Jerusalem press conference organized by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office. RTI eventually makes the tape available to the agencies in Italy and the gruesome pictures lead most evening newscasts.”

Meanwhile, veteran Italian TV reporter Riccardo Cristiano had just been released from the hospital were he spent more than a week recovering from injuries he received when he was beaten up in Jaffa while covering the riots started by Israeli Arabs. Cristiano’s nose was broken, his cheek gashed, and he almost lost the use of his right eye.

The Italian government TV channel reporter went back to work the day before the lynch. According to CBC’s Macdonald, Cristiano, “a very pacifist guy” was traumatized by the Jaffa attack. When he received death threats the day after the Ramallah events, presumably from Palestinians who mistakenly associated his TV channel with the damning lynch footage, Macdonald says Cristiano penned a letter in English to a Palestinian journalist friend at Al Hayat Al Jedida newspaper assuring the colleague that his station had nothing to do with the filming nor would he ever violate journalistic ethics by transmitting film to an embassy or government office.

On Monday, October 16, 2000 a version of the letter appeared in Arabic on the front page of the paper. Cristiano lost his Israeli press credentials and was recalled to Rome. The RTI correspondent was spirited out of the country for her own safety after the IDF used freeze frames of her film to nab six of the perpetrators in undercover raids.

I traveled to Rome to meet Riccardo Cristiano last December. The tall, gray haired, mustachioed, soft-spoken Cristiano acknowledges that he’s a leftist, but in his quest for justice for those whom he perceives as oppressed, he feels he’s following in the footsteps of his father, renowned Italian artist Paolo Cristiano.

The senior Cristiano was a member of the Italian resistance who spent three years in a series of Nazi camps. He weighed 60 lbs when he returned home. Riccardo says his father is mortified by those who accuse his son of being anti-Semitic. “The only thing he wanted to do when he came to visit me in Israel was visit Yad Vashem,” Riccardo says quietly. Recently, Cristiano met with the head of the Jewish council in Venice to explain his actions and gain his support.

The Al Hayat letter became a significant political issue in Italy because Cristiano worked for the government station and his letter was perceived to have endangered the life of a reporter from the independent channel operated by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy’s center-right opposition. Berlusconi’s party is critical of support for the Palestinians on the part of Italy’s government-sponsored media.

Over the course of several interviews, Cristiano is careful to talk only about what has happened to his life in the intervening months, not the details of his controversial letter. Even though he does not have a job, he is technically still employed by RAI while he awaits a disciplinary hearing which will determine his future as a journalist. His October letter was unauthorized, and he can’t afford to be accused of another unauthorized action such as an interview explaining his actions.

Interestingly, Bill Orme, as an FPA (Foreign Press Association) board member, recalls that in a telephone conversation with Cristiano the day the letter appeared in Al Hayat, the Italian reporter verified and even defended its contents, telling the FPA that he was concerned for the safety of his staff.

Cristiano’s plight does provide a certain insight into the journalistic fraternity of those covering the Middle East. Like other reporters who were beaten up by Palestinians over the past few months, Cristiano felt no rage against their violence. Neither does he expect much from the PA. He relates how his crew was filming a bodyguard of PA Jerusalem Affairs minister Faisal Husseini who slapped someone at a garden party at Orient House, the PA Jerusalem headquarters. Another guard came over and destroyed the film. Cristiano, the deputy bureau chief, complained. The next day Husseini sent an apology and all was forgiven.

While Cristiano has obvious sympathy for the Palestinian cause he Is not “anti-Israel”. He speaks of his special interest in the Armenians, and views both Israel and the Palestinians as “nations under trauma.”

But until his name is cleared, Cristiano continues to be a fallen man. “My friends think I’m in this mood because I lost my job in Jerusalem,” he says sadly, “but the reality is that I lost my honor and credibility from myself and my heritage.”

Extensive interviews in Jerusalem with correspondents based here as well as those who were flown in for the crisis indicate a highly complex journalistic reality. Within the Jerusalem based press corps of several hundred reporters, there are varying degrees of knowledge and understanding of the situation. After the first week of the violence, many media outlets reassigned journalists from other posts to assist their colleagues in Jerusalem. In some cases these people did have previous experience covering the Middle East, but in most instances the journalists landed in their bureaus at Jerusalem Capital Studios with little background on the history, geography or political landscape of the area.

Whom do they turn to for a crash course on the Israel-Arab conflict? By and large it’s other journalists who provide them with an overview of the lay of the land. Georges Malbrunot, correspondent for France’s Le Matin daily paper, for example, calls the BBC his “living Bible.” Thus, as Fiamma Nirenstein, the Israel correspondent for Italy’s La Stampa newspaper points out, “… the extraordinary informal power of the media — iconoclastic, sporty, ironic, virtually all of one mind” (Commentary, January 2001) comes into play.

In fact, the best factual reporting from the new intifada has come from the few correspondents with background in the area who jetted in for a few weeks and left before they became tainted with the political correctness required of the resident media set.

Jack Kelley of USA Today, for example, filed a couple of stories during his limited days in Jerusalem. In one piece he described his experience riding along in an IDF jeep patrolling the volatile Ayosh Junction outside Ramallah. Eyewitness accounts of the violent provocation by Arab youth and the decision making of the equally youthful IDF troops provided an accurate insight into the challenging situation.

But for most of the American Colony Hotel based western correspondents there are certain “given” assumptions which provide the backdrop for all their coverage. Topping the list is the notion that Palestinians are engaged in a struggle for independence and Israeli oppressors are using their might to stand in their way.

Journalists arrive at this view based both on experiences in their own native lands as standard bearers for minority rights and other liberal causes, but also as a result of their reliance on local assistance here in Israel. Since very few of the foreign correspondents in Israel are fluent in Hebrew or Arabic, they rely on a network of local sources as well as the service of “fixers,” locals who can “fix” situations for them. Some 400 PA residents are currently in possession of Israel Government Press Office credentials. Most of these Palestinian “fixers” also know Hebrew, and their GPO credentials generally enable them to navigate quite well throughout Israel without security intimidation.

Much of the current conflict is raging in Area A (under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control) so it is not surprising that the “fixers” are generally young, western-educated Palestinians who know how to operate in PA territory and who introduce the journalists to their circle of acquaintances.

In contrast to this informal networking on the Palestinian side, correspondents generally get the Israeli point of view from official sources. The Government Press Office (currently a one man operation) is charged with informing journalists of briefings with government officials and coordinating coverage of the comings and goings of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Foreign Ministry and the IDF Spokesman’s office provide access to IDF commanders and other top officials. “We suffer from a deluge of information,” notes Washington Post bureau chief Lee Hockstader. Others like Phil Reeves of London’s Independent newspaper acknowledge that Israel provides excellent entree to senior officials in contrast to more limited and guarded access to PA higher ups. Chris Roberts of the UK based Sky TV News service calls the Israeli official PR effort “a well oiled machine.” But there is little Israeli effort to establish personal relationships with journalists to provide them with a non-propagandistic, man-on-the-street view of events.

The effects of this vacuum are easy to discern. When Ted Koppel taped a Nightline show at the East Jerusalem YMCA in the early days of this intifada, several smartly dressed, attractive, young English speaking Arabs made sure they saved a chair for New York Times bureau chief Deborah Sontag. When Sontag arrived she was greeted with kisses by one of the young women in the group.

The influence of Arab crew members is obvious even in the offices of some news outlets. At the ABC TV studio for instance, the only map hanging in the office is dated March 2000 and displays the title “Palestine.”

A reporter for a Canadian paper explains how knowledge of Arabic can be a very useful thing. In Beit Jalla last December, the IDF sent a missile into the Church of St. Nicholas causing little damage. The PA called a news conference there. In English the local clergy said “Oh, this is so terrible, see what the Israelis are doing.” In Arabic they were overheard saying to each other: “That m ____ f____ Arafat. Why can’t he keep his guns away. He’ll get us all killed.”

But most journalists speak very little Arabic, so they use Palestinian crews which creates another problem. The harassment of Palestinian journalists critical of Yasser Arafat is well documented by Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists wrote in an October 20, 2000 report:

“Major newspapers routinely avoid coverage of issues such as high-level PA corruption and mismanagement, human rights abuses by security forces, and any reporting that might cast Arafat in a negative light. Moreover, the major Palestinian dailies all enjoy cozy relations with the PA, further blunting their editorial edge.”

Coercion, abduction and violence by PA security chief Jibril Rijoub’s forces is a fact of life for East Jerusalem Arabs, as Nadav Shragai documented in the Israeli newspaper HaAretz in June, 2000.

Who knows under what pressure Palestinians working for western news organizations operate, or to whom they report. In effect, little seems to have changed since Zev Chafets wrote in his book ‘Double Vision’ (Willam Morrow, 1984) about Western journalists coverage of the Lebanese war of the early 1980s. (Just substitute American Colony for Commodore, and Jerusalem for Beirut.)

“In conformity with the PLO-dependent security system, Western reporters ghettoized themse

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 12th

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis Beginning with its Thursday night coverage, VOP took a very tepid view of the relaxation of Israeli closures and other measures against the Palestinians. Similarly, despite much ado in the Israeli press about progress in negotiations, VOP broadcast interviews with Palestinian officials who saw little possibility of even achieving an agreed statement of purpose or principles.

VOP also did not broadcast or report any apology by PA Information Minister Yasser Abd Rabbo, who had referred to Ehud Barak and other Israeli officials as war criminals worthy of judgment by a war crimes tribunal. VOP continues to broadcast similar comments by its own broadcasters and reporters regularly-and even more incendiary messages in the Friday mosque addresses which are beamed live at the Palestinian audience.

VOP once again put its emphasis on martyrs and wounded, this time highlighting in Thursday night and Friday reports the Israeli use of gas, which, VOP said, led to the death of one man and the near-suffocation of three children in Jenin.

VOP covered Yasser Araat’s report to the Arab summit foreign minister to the effect that Israel was using illegal heavy weapons on civilian targetrs, including uraniaum-tipped artillery shells and bullets

Morning Headlines 7am/8am/9am:

  • “His Excellency President Yasser Araat asserts Israel using heavy weapons and uranium shells against our cities, in report to Arab summit;
  • The high state court confirms a death sentence by firing squad against Majdi Makawi who gave information to the Israelis which led to the death of Jamal Abdel-Razik and others;
  • The Russian news service says that the Russian defense minister will study the use of uranium in former Yugoslavia during a vist there next month;
  • The United Nations environment director says an investigation may be opened into the use of uranium-enriched weapons by the allies in Iraq in 1991.during their aggression in Iraq.”

1 PM AFTERNOON news round-up and HEADLINES

  • “Masses of our people escort the funeral of the exalted martyr Muhammad Said Hanoun Ghanem at this hour in Jenin;
  • After mosque prayers, crowded mass marches across the homeland in support of the right of the refugees to return to their homes;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat stresses that what the Israeli occupation army has done (to lift closures) to remove part of the siege is NOT sufficient;
  • Minister Yasser Abd-Rabbo says that the National Authority CANNOT accept a declaration of principles;
  • The two sides-Palestinian and Israeli meet last night and say that a great deal separates them from agreement, but agree to meet again.”

Official PA radio news – The P.B.C. VOP (Voice of Palestine) Radio: January 13th

By
​Center for Near East Policy Research
-

Summary and Analysis

Throughout Saturday, the Voice of Palestine gave great prominence to the executions of two men convicted of “cooperation” with Israel, as well as the approval of two more death sentences. Note: this is the only use of “cooperation” in the context of Israel that has been heard on VOP (one week ago, the term was also used in the context of 48 sentences handed down by Lebanese courts-also for “cooperating” with Israel).

VOP also quoted at length from Friday and Saturday morning interviews with PA Justice Minister Freih Abu-Medein explaining that the two men were convicted of aiding Israel in killing several Fatah and Hamas (Alan Bani Odeh gave information regarding Ibrahim Beni Odeh, who worked for Hamas) operatives.

In its broadcasts Friday midnight and Saturday morning, VOP published interviews with PA officials-or quotes from them (including who said the differences between the PA and Israel remained far greater than what was described by Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

PA Gaza Security chief Muhammad Dahlan said he was waiting to see more changes “on the ground,” and Information Minister Yasser Abd-Rabbo once again delcared that the PA would refuse another declaration of principles.

Quote of the Day

“Anyone we lay our hands on will not merit the mercy of the Palestinian people or the mercy of Palestinian law.” (Justice Minister reih Abu-Medein, Saturday morning interview 7:30 AM, January 13)

Friday Midnight Headlines-January 12/13

  • “His Excellency President Arafat tonight confirmed the death sentences to be carried out Saturday morning of two agents working for Israel;
  • The occupation authorities are still holding the body of Shakil al-Husseini, 33 years old, in Hebron;,
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat says the National Authority is continuing to study the results of its meeting the day before yesterday with the Israeli side at the Beit Hanoun crossing in Gaza;
  • Home Rule Minister Dr. Saeb Erikat said another meeting with the Israeli side would take place Saturday night.”

Saturday Morning Headlines, January 13

  • “The martyring of Shakil Hassuna in Hebron (note: his name was reported slightly differently the night before);
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat approves two death sentences by state security courts to be carried out on two agents in Nablus and Gaza;
  • The gap between the Palestinian and Israeli sides remains large as talks loom tonight;
  • The Palestinian National Authority demands an active European role in the peace process and the end of violence by Israel against our people;
  • The head of the Political Department, Farouk Qaddoumi, goes to Iraq for discussions with Iraqi officials about aid Iraq has promised to the Palestinian people;
  • A human rights report says Israeli police cold-bloodedly attacked our people inside the Green Line last September;
  • A full report in this broadcast on the state of the Israeli elections and a profile of the Likud candidate, Ariel Sharon.”

Quotes from Saturday Interview with Freih Abu Medein

Question: “Death sentences for two agents working for Israeli occupation forces. What is the hour of execution?”

Answer: “Before noon today in Nablus and Gaza at about the same time.”

Question: “Who are the agents?”

Answer: “The first agent is the one responsible for the deaths of our men in Rafah, and he is, unfortunately, a close friend (Note: could also be relative) of one of the martyrs..It is difficult, a difficult treatment..But Israel is carrying out a war, a war of assassinations. Therefore we think we have to take measures, such as the death sentence, in confronting the difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian people..The other traitor also is a cousin of the man killed: Bani-Odeh, his name is Alan Bani Odeh, responsible for the assassination of the martyr Ibrahim Bani-Odeh, one of the elements of the Hamas. The president approved the decision immediately yesterday. We didn’t do this before. It was Ramadan, and you don’t carry out such a sentence in Ramadan.”

Question: “There are many assassinations and many agents in our people. How many more sentences like this can we expect?”

Answer: “There will be sentence this week of the agent responsible for the death of (Hussein) ‘Obayat in Bethlehem. And anyone we lay our hands on will not merit the mercy of the Palestinian people or the mercy of Palestinian law. Palestinian blood is pure blood and may not be spilled by agents. General (Shaul) Mofaz and the army (i.e. Israeli chief of Staff and his army) has all kinds of information and is carrying out war crimes on Palestinian land.”

Question: “So there will be death sentences carried out against two traitors, but my question is can we expect more?”

Answer: “Perhaps there will be ten to 15 more people, but we’re not fond of death sentences. If there are people in the security services, in the police, in the intelligence in the West Bank and the same thing in Gaza, if they turn themselves in to any office of the Ministry of Justice, we will treat the matter quickly and generously.

Saturday Night Headlines – January 13-9 p.m. / 10 p.m.

  • “A Palestinian-Israeli Security and Political meeting continues at this hour in Gaza with the participation of President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Regional Development Minister Shimon Peres;
  • Nabil Abu-Irdeineh says the meeting is covering the main elements in the negotiations and the peace process, among them Jerusalem, the refugees, the settlements and borders as well as putting an end to Israeli aggression against our people. And Abu-Irdeineh stressed that any agreement would have to lean on international legitimacy: resolutions 242, 338 and 194 which specializes in the return of the refugees.”
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