Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh, born in Tulkarem, is a unique voice of straightforward reporting from the West Bank and Gaza.
InContext reports from a talk Abu Toameh gave in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Excerpt:
Why is he working for a “right wing Israeli newspaper?” Abu Toameh says he’s always asked. Because he’s a “real journalist.” In the PA, there are no real journalists, just mouthpieces for the thugocracy (my word, not his).
As for the foreign press, Abu Toameh shrugs. They see no evil and hear no evil when it comes to the behavior of the PA. He describes an incredible scene back in 2002 when he was covering an event at the mukata, Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. With a crowd of international reporters standing around, two palestinian policemen brought a man out, threw him up against a wall and shot him — right under the window of Arafat’s office. When the reporters converged, the policeman seemed bewildered. It was just a simple execution, nothing to get excited about, he said. And no one did. In fact, according to Abu Toameh, no one else even mentioned it. But he did.
The problem of imbalanced reporting, says Abu Toameh, has much to do with the failure of Israeli press relations:
When he’s covering a story that reflects poorly on Israel and tries to get a government spokesman to offer a rebuttal, it’s a long and frustrating process…The Arab spokespeople, on the other hand, are always more than willing to talk, to accomodate, to make a reporter feel welcome. Hospitality is a famed Arab trait, and one for which Israelis are not reknowned. Knock on the door, wake them up in the middle of the night, no problem. Hanan Ashrawi will come out in her nightgown to answer your questions.
