Posted on 02/09/2004 1:23:57 PM PST by yonif
Alarmed by a rise in the number of attacks on journalists, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and human rights groups have once again appealed to the Palestinian Authority to take stiff measures against perpetrators.
The journalists are also planning a one-day strike later this week to protest against the attacks, all of which have been carried out by Fatah gunmen.
The most recent attacks took place last week in Ramallah and Gaza City. In the first case, three masked Palestinian gunmen carrying AK-47 assault rifles stormed the offices of the Ramallah-based Al-Quds Educational Television.
Assistant manager Haroun Abu Arrah, one of two station employees present at the time, told the Committee for the Protection of Journalists that one of the men demanded that he hand over a tape. When Abu Arrah asked for clarification, the gunmen began beating the two staffers with rifle butts and fists.
Abu Arrah said that after the beating, two of the assailants went into another room and fired several rounds at some of the station's equipment, destroying computer screens and video equipment. Abu Arrah and his colleague managed to escape unharmed.
Al-Quds Educational Television director Ayman Bardawil said he does not know the motive for the attack. He pointed out that the station had not aired anything controversial in recent days, nor had it received any threats. Sources in Ramallah said the attackers belonged to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
In 1997, PA policemen arrested Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University [which is responsible for the TV station] after the station broadcast live proceedings of a Palestinian Legislative Council debate.
The PA had repeatedly jammed the live coverage prior to the arrest because some legislators had voiced criticism of the Palestinian leadership and called for implementing financial reforms. Kuttab was released a week later following a campaign launched by local and international press and human rights organizations.
In the second incident last week, unidentified gunmen went on the rampage in the offices of a Gaza City weekly, destroying equipment and furniture. The attack on the offices of the recently established Al-Daar ("the home") was carried out during the Muslim feast of Id al-Adha, when the workers were on holiday.
Editor-in-chief Hassan al-Kashif said he believes that the vandalism came in retaliation for the newspaper's editorial stance against official corruption in the PA. Kashif said he holds the PA responsible for capturing the attackers and bringing them to trial.
Sources in Gaza City said the attack was apparently carried out in the frame of an internal power struggle inside Fatah. Al-Daar and its editor are known to be closely associated with former PA Preventative Security chief Muhammad Dahlan, who is waging an undeclared war against his rivals in the PA security forces.
In yet another incident last week, Fatah activists went on the rampage inside the offices of the private Amwaj radio station in Ramallah. Last month, five armed Fatah activists beat Saif al-Din Shahin, a correspondent for the Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiya, after the car he was in stopped at a major Gaza City intersection.
Shahin said the attackers identified themselves as Fatah activists and warned him against referring to their group in his reporting. The attack was apparently in response to a report by Shahin that many Palestinians were unhappy with the paramilitary parades Fatah held in the Gaza Strip on the 39th anniversary of the movement's establishment.
The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiyya was also targeted last fall. Last September, five masked gunmen stormed the offices of the station in Ramallah destroyed office equipment, including computer screens and furniture. The assailants said they were from the Aksa Martyrs Brigade.
The gunmen did not explain their action, but Palestinian journalists said the station had angered PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and his top aides because of its reports on power struggles within the PA.
The journalists' syndicate condemned the attacks as "criminal" acts against the freedom of the media. One of its members in Gaza City said: "It's become very dangerous to work as a journalist under the Palestinian Authority.
Our leaders expect us to function as their spokesmen and to refrain from making any kind of criticism."
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