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Casualty of War: Censuring Truth in Palestine

By Mohammed Omer

Palestinian journalists outside the United Nations office in Gaza City protest Israeli attacks on journalists in the West Bank and Gaza (Photos M. Omer).

AS AESCHYLUS observed nearly 2,500 years ago, “In war, truth is the first casualty.”

This inevitably places freedom in jeopardy, for when truth is confined to the round file, censored and ultimately eliminated, fear begins to prevail over reason. Convinced that it is the way to safety—and with no evident alternative—people begin to take the path of least resistance. Yet safety is subjective, and heavily dependent on a narrative provided and controlled by those in power. Public ignorance enables the consolidation of power, and those ruled become mere puppets. As rulers seek to silence, it is the task of journalists to expose. When the former prevail, it is the people who lose.

Stroll down the streets of Gaza today and something becomes evident. It is not that newsstands resemble those in the U.S., where sensationalist tabloids and bubblegum for the brain have edged out the comparatively venerable daily newspapers and national publications such as Time, Newsweek and Life. No, such censorship in favor of sensationalism has yet to arrive in Gaza.

Rather, what one notices throughout Gaza today is the absence of news—even of the parasitical tabloid version. Scan our racks. The main newspapers, Al Quds, Al Hayat-Al Jadeeda and Al Ayyam—publications loyal to Fatah—are missing. Nor is this the first time newspapers have become the victims of censorship. This time, however, it is not solely, or even largely, the fault of the Israelis.

In June 2007, Ramallah’s Fatah-led government under Dr. Salam Fayyad banned the Hamas-affiliated Falsteen and Al Risalah newspapers. This past July 28, following an explosion which killed six Palestinians and injured more than 15, Hamas police forces confiscated Fatah-affiliated newspapers at the Eretz crossing and prevented them from entering Gaza. As a result of Hamas’ July 2008 ban, the Ramallah government began arresting media crews and journalists working for a Hamas-owned television station in the West Bank.

This media stand-off between Gaza’s Hamas leadership and the Fatah leadership in the West Bank has resulted in a number of journalists being arrested by both sides. Ultimately, of course, it has affected freedom of expression within Palestinian society. Moreover, the dispute continues to escalate, as each political faction attempts to control what information Palestinians may be permitted to hear or read.

In an interview, Taher Al Nounno, spokesman of Gaza’s de facto Hamas government, offered the following rationale for banning the three Fatah newspapers.

“We have given them some notes to make their report more professional, but they have refused to deal with us,” Al Nounno stated emphatically. “The three newspapers have been publishing lies and instigating [unrest]. They are a long way from professionalism in showing [both sides of the argument],” he maintained.

In a separate interview, Fatah leader Nimir Hamad, political adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, justified the decision to ban the distribution of Hamas-affiliated newspapers—despite the fact that Hamas has recently allowed Al Quds daily to be distributed in Gaza.

“Al Resalah and Falastin are both instigation and propagandist newspapers calling for strife,” Hamad asserted, “and…are publishing extremist and fundamentalist thinking.”

Not only does Fatah prevent Hamas TV crews from reporting in the West Bank, while Hamas prohibits Fatah- and Palestinian Authority-affiliated crews from working in Gaza, but both parties have jailed journalists, closed radio stations and confiscated media equipment.

An Ongoing War on Words

According to the internationally respected watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RWB), at least nine news media outlets—three of them state-owned, the rest privately owned—have ceased operating in Gaza since June 2007. The RWB also has noted numerous incidents, including assaults and abductions, constituting intimidation of journalists by Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza in retaliation for reporting deemed unfavorable.

Unlike the United States or most Western nations, neither Israel nor Palestine has a constitution (although both operate under basic laws). As a result, the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press are arbitrarily bestowed rather than guaranteed by law. The closest such guarantee is found in the Palestinian Authority’s Basic Law, which states that every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and expression, whether orally, in writing or through other means.