Posted on 09/12/2001 8:19:40 PM PDT by veronica
Major News Networks Withdraw Footage after Palestinian Threats
September 12, 2001
Several major Western news networks have pulled footage of Palestinians celebrating yesterday's terrorist attacks in the United States, after receiving threats.
In the autonomous city of Nablus, thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets to celebrate, chanting "God is Great" and distributing candy to passers-by. The largest celebrations took place in Nablus and Ramallah, where Palestinian police and security forces joined in the celebrations, and fired their weapons into the air.
Foreign reporters held in hotel during celebrations According to the Jerusalem Post, foreign photojournalists were trapped inside a Nablus hotel while thousands took to the streets in celebration of the terror attacks in the United States. The journalists were reportedly forced to remain confined in the hotel, guarded by armed Palestinians--both in uniform and wearing civilian clothes--while the festivities continued in the streets.
At least one photographer who did manage to capture images of the celebrations was told his life would be in danger if the pictures were eventually published.
Several major networks began hastily pulling footage from their television and internet broadcasts. A spokesman for one network, who requested anonymity, said that his reporters were forced to destroy footage taken in the Palestinian autonomous city of Ramallah. He said that Palestinian Authority personnel also phoned his office and demanded that no mention of the celebrations be broadcast.
BBC withdraws photos, alters reportage
The BBC pulled photos of the celebrations from their website and significantly toned down their reportage of the events. Despite footage broadcast yesterday of large crowds of celebrants in the streets, the BBC's broadcasts now claim that only a handful of Palestinians expressed joy at the attacks.
Several networks said that their reporters were directly threatened, while others said that the PA threatened to revoke the entry permits of their personnel into Palestinian Autonomous areas, and to forbid them to employ Palestinian staff.
Such a prohibition would greatly impact the networks' ability to report on the current hostilities in the Middle East, due to the fact that these networks must rely almost entirely on Palestinian stringers and technical staff for local footage.
Israeli reporters have been warned by the Palestinian Authority that if they enter Palestinian territory, their fate will be no different from that of any other Israeli citizen; they will be killed on sight.
The threats recall the case of lynching of two Israeli reservists who lost their way and ended up in Ramallah last October. The reporter who filmed the lynching was eventually forced to leave Israel, after receiving threats from the Palestinian Authority. His network was forced to apologize to the Palestinian Authority for filming the lynching.
Sources: Israel Radio, BBC, CNN
Palestinians Dance - On And Off Television
Palestinians danced for joy in the streets of
several Palestinian Authority cities when they
heard the news of the World Trade Center attack
- but many foreign television viewers may never
know this. Several television stations were
warned by the Palestinian Authority not to
broadcast the film clips of the Palestinian
celebrations, and Palestinian reporters working
for foreign stations in PA areas were physically
threatened for having filmed the scenes. The BBC
last night screened pictures of thousands of
joyous Palestinians, including policemen, in
Shechem, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem - but
today, BBC reported that it was only a "handful"
of celebrants.
CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour's
review of Arab reactions did not include the
Palestinian expressions of joy. However, the
station used the celebration film clips to pose
some hard questions to PA spokesperson Hanan
Ashrawi. Ashrawi had said earlier that the
Palestinian people "deplore and condemn these
terrible acts." The anchorwoman then asked
Ashrawi how, then, she explains "the scenes that
we will now show you and the world audience" -
and the joyous scenes of cheering Arabs flashed
across the screen more than once. Ashrawi,
looking pained, said that these were just a few
people, that they were children - although many
adults could be seen participating in the
celebrations - and that at the time they did not
know the full significance of the attacks.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, asked
shortly afterwards by CNN about the Palestinian
celebrations, said that the terrorism in the U.S.
was a result of continuous incitement by
"Chairman Arafat and his media… But I don't
think that this [the Palestinian reaction] is the main
issue right now. The main thing is that the world
must unite against terrorism…"
King Abdullah of Jordan also attempted to
explain the joyous Palestinians as a "small
minority." He added that the attack would not
have happened had peace been attained last year.
Former American mediator Dennis Ross
disagreed. He blamed the Palestinian leadership
for constantly talking about martyrdom and
struggle and the like, and said that the Arab
nations will "simply have to stop using their media
as a release for their outrage and anger... and to
create a climate of legitimacy for this behavior...
They will have to be made to understand that
there's no free lunch..." He said that even if peace
had been attained last year, the attack would
have occurred, because "these terrorists don't
believe in peace, they don't believe in Israel's
existence, they reject everything that we
represent. These groups have to be completely
discredited. [Can this be done?] Well, we all
have to transform our thinking. Yesterday was a
transforming event. We will have to create a new
priority in terms of our war on terror. We will
have to form a very different international
coalition [to root this out psychologically and
practically]. But I don't think that we can just sit
back and say that because it's a difficult task we
can't take it on. We've now been confronted with
something that is worse than any war, in terms of
casualties in a single day, and our thinking has to
change drastically as well."
MTV Arab Affairs reporter Moshe Katz reports
that storeowners in Baka el-Garbiye (in pre-1967
Israel) distributed free food to passersby when
they heard the news. Arab leaders refused to
respond when contacted by Katz for their
response. Others told him that they were afraid
for their lives if they were to condemn the attacks.
Official Iraqi television broadcast the following
commentary, with the exploding World Trade
Center in the background: " The American
cowboy is reaping the fruits of his crimes against
humanity... America [is] tasting the bitter defeat of
its crimes and disregard for peoples' will to lead a
free, decent life. The massive explosions in the
centers of power in America, notably the
Pentagon, is a painful slap in the face of US
politicians to stop their illegitimate hegemony and
attempts to impose custodianship on peoples...
The collapse of US centers of power is a collapse
of the US policy, which deviates from human
values and stands by world Zionism at all
international forums to continue to slaughter the
Palestinian Arab people and implement US plans
to dominate the world under the cover of what is
called the new [world] order."
For more Arab reactions to the attacks on the
United States, see Arutz-7's Arab Press Survey
on our website
"www.a7.IsraelNationalNews.com".
They were only obeying their true masters. Some of them are acting like traitors.
Here in america we threaten the paper's profitability by threatening to keep them "out of the loop" if they report something the admin doesn't like. Or we threaten to pull advertising if they run articles contrary to the financial interests of the advertisers.
Before this story was pulled yahoo had pictures online (i'm sure they still do) of small pockets (30 or so) Palestinians celebrating as well as stories about Egyptians celebrating.
The AP also carried one story with some Palestinians denouncing their brethren.
Yeah, what a little creep. I'll never forget her useless biased garbage reporting against the Serbians in the Kosovo bombing.
You mean the Hamas, terrorist organization itself. LOL! Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black? They're just playing chicken-little now because they know the gunsights will be on them next.
Palestinian terror groups decry US attacks
By Steve Weizman, The Associated Press September, 12 2001
JERUSALEM, (AP) – Palestinian groups which have admitted past attacks on Israeli civilians were at pains today to distance themselves from the devastating events in New York and Washington.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a spokesman for Hamas, said the radical Islamic organization had no involvement with yesterday's suicide attacks in the United States. Hamas has repeatedly trained and equipped suicide bombers for missions into Israeli cities that have killed hundreds of people over the years.
"Our jihad (holy war) is against the Zionist enemy and not against American civilians, or American targets," he said. "We are against the policy of the United States but we are not against the American people."
Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam took an identical line, but added the charge that Israel was exploiting the airborne attacks in the United States to distract attention from its own actions against the Palestinians.
"The Islamic Jihad war will continue against the Zionist enemy because they are our enemy, no one else," he said.
Israel has said its strikes against Palestinian targets are aimed at stopping terror attacks in Israel.
Another radical Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also denied it was connected in any way to yesterday's carnage. A PFLP spokesman, who only identified himself as Jibril, said he thought the attacks were too complex and demanding to be the work of a single group.
"I think its something bigger, it's not us and I don't think it's an Islamic group," he said.
Yet the tightly coordinated hijacking of four aircraft yesterday sounded echoes of an operation in September 1970, when PFLP members seized three planes, flew them to Jordan and blew them up after releasing the passengers.
Palestinian political analyst Ghassan a-Khatib agreed that the scale of yesterday's assault was too large to have been the work of known Palestinian groups.
"This is extremely sophisticated, bigger than any of the groups we already know," he said. "Something like this takes a very big, very strong, very sophisticated group, one which is well integrated into US society."
Khatib did not, however, believe that a hostile government was behind the attacks. "I don't think there is a state which would dare to launch a war against the United States," he said.
US authorities are focusing their suspicions on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian millionaire and terror mastermind.
I see. Members of Hamas maybe?
It's a free country. You can choose to believe that 100% of the Palestinians celebrated the deaths of americans.
I think the cameramen made the final decision. They didn't want to spend their lives hunted by American Muslim death squads, which DO operate in this country.
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