1) The Palestinian Authority shut down the only Christian TV station in the West Bank. PA police simply raided Al-Mahed (Nativity) TV and pulled the plug. Asia News (via Haviv Rettig Gur) reports:
According to unconfirmed reports that reached AsiaNews, the closure appears to be financially motivated. Palestinian authorities demanded money, a “licence” that was not paid.
The Bethlehem-based station was more likely targeted because owner Samir Qumsieh is an outspoken voice for the dwindling Palestinian Christian community. The PA was surely not amused to read what Qumsieh told the Wall St. Journal:
Christians have only recently begun to talk about how Muslim gangs simply come and take possession of Christian-owned land while the Palestinian security services, almost exclusively staffed by Muslims, stand by. Mr. Qumsieh's home was firebombed three years ago. The perpetrators were never caught.
"We have never suffered as we are suffering now," Mr. Qumsieh confesses, violating his own introductory warning to the assorted foreign correspondents in his office not to use the word "suffering."
Nativity TV was raided during Vice President Joe Biden's visit. Ethel Fenig wonders why Biden, a Christian, had nothing to say.
2) The US government finally designated Al-Aqsa TV as a terror organization, sending a message that the feds will no longer distinguish between the station and Hamas.
One example of how Hamas used Al-Aqsa TV to blur the distinctions between terror and credible journalism: Omar Silawi a cameraman on the station's payroll launched mortars at Israel, then filmed the IDF's retaliatory shelling.
As this NY Daily News staff-ed sums up the Treasury Department's move:
Better late than never.
