Protecting New Friends:

The PA Clamps Down (Again) on the Press

By Khalid Amayreh

After signing the hapless Wye Memorandum on October 23, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stepped up its suppression of the media on the pretext (in Wyespeak) of "combating incitement." PA police chief Ghazi Jabali stated, "Israel was our enemy before the signing at Wye. Now this has changed. Israel has become our peace-partner. We shall not allow anyone to instigate or incite against our partner." On October 23, accordingly, Sheikh Hamed al-Beitawi, an Islamist leader and high-ranking judge in the Shari'a courts of Nablus, was whisked from his home to solitary confinement in a prison outside the town. His "crime" had taken place on a satellite TV station called al-Jazira, which is based in Qatar. He had criticized the Wye agreement as "a sell-out, placing Palestinian society under CIA supervision in the service of Israeli security's whims and demands." At the same time, the PA sought to keep journalists and cameramen from meeting with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder and spiritual leader. The PA Criminal Investigation Squad arrested and harassed eleven reporters and cameramen for "interviewing an objectionable person without first receiving official permission." When all efforts failed – one week after Beitawi's imprisonment – the PA put Sheikh Yassin under tight house-arrest. It cut his telephone line and barred him from receiving visitors, nor was he allowed to attend the Friday prayer at his neighborhood mosque. The arrest, said Ghazi Jibali, was aimed at "protecting the Palestinian people and Yassin himself from his own evils." Yasser Arafat, however, as well as his secretary, Tayeb Abdul Rahim, said on several occasions that Sheikh Yassin's arrest was for his own protection, hinting that Israeli agents were seeking to kill him. Their mendacity became apparent on December 23: Arafat canceled the arrest as a "gesture of good will" upon the advent of Ramadan. The real reason was not Ramadan. It was the chief's displeasure with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who by that time had unilaterally suspended the Wye agreement.

Attack on the Press
Throughout all this, the PA's Ministry of Information remained publicly silent. Its private whispers on behalf of the journalists fell on deaf ears in the security agencies and met further rebuff in the General Information Department (GID), a new security-oriented body which has been set up to deal with journalists. The GID issued a decree on November 5, requiring that all foreign journalists obtain a special permit before entering the self-rule areas. Strangely, the Ministry of Information denied that such a decision had been made.
The PA's harassment of the press was flagrant from the start of Clinton’s visit through the Anglo-American bombing of Iraq (December 16-19). When demonstrations broke out, the PA did not want the world to witness the torching of American flags. Several officials unashamedly claimed that "the United States has become the Palestinians' premier friend" and that "Whoever sets the American flag on fire undermines Palestinian national interests." Quoth Ghazi Jabali: "Only traitors would demonstrate against the United States."
On December 18, PA police, on orders from Jabali, brutally attacked a group of journalists covering an anti-American demonstration in downtown Gaza. According to Najib Abu al-Jabin, who works for the Associated Press, the police "attacked, beat and dragged us to a local lockup, where drug addicts and other criminals are kept." Zakariya Talamas, who heads the Gaza chapter of the Palestinian Journalists Union, was also beaten up and briefly detained. He said: " I'm very sad to say that the law of the jungle prevails here." (The Gaza-based weekly, al-Risala December 24.) In addition to abusing and maltreating journalists, PA police also shut down several press offices, accusing the proprietors of "covering an illegal demonstration" and "endangering relations with a friendly country." Abdul Salam Abu Askar, one of those whose office was closed, testified as follows: "Several secret-police agents besieged my office after nightfall and asked me if I had disseminated films of the protests. Before I could answer, they dragged me to the police station, where I found eight other photojournalists whose cameras, films, and pictures had all been confiscated."
Abu Askar went on to say: "There I met Colonel Talal Abu Zeid, head of the Investigations Department, who demanded that I refrain from disseminating any press materials undermining the PA's image." In addition, the PA shut down six private television and radio stations for "over-covering" the anti-American protests. Included were "TV Bethlehem" and " TV al-Watan" (in Ramallah), whose audiences exceed those of the official PA station. As for those stations which it allowed to remain open, the PA told them to confine their coverage to "local news," i.e., to events within the confines of the town where each station is based. After the Americans ended their attack on Iraq, the stations were allowed to re-open.