This week, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Information condemned the French press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) for firing Nasser Abu Bakr, who for 20 years worked at AFP’s West Bank office. Abu Bakr, who simultaneously operated as an activist for the PA’s ruling Fatah party, reportedly lost his job over this conflict of interest.
According to reports in the local press, Palestinian officials warned the press agency that the dismissal of Abu Bakr constitutes a “violation of press freedom” and a breach of the “laws of the State of Palestine [sic].” The demarche came after the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a Fatah-controlled union headed by the same Nasser Abu Bakr, called upon the Palestinian administration to revoke AFP’s press credentials. Fatah itself also chastised the organization.
The PA’s invocation of press freedom rings hollow. On the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, the West Bank and Gaza rank 132 out of 180, just above countries like Venezuela and Russia. Human rights organizations have accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting reporters without charging them, censoring critical voices, and even torturing journalists.
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Abu Bakr’s Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has done little to put an end to this muzzling of media. On the contrary: When PA security forces in 2017 arrested and tortured journalist Sami Al-Sai – a member of the PJS – over Facebook posts, the organization refused to offer its assistance. Instead, the Abu Bakr focused on instituting a ban on any dealings with the “Zionist entity,” warning that Palestinian reporters who defy the boycott would be “held accountable.”
AFP ‘Journalist’ Ran for Fatah’s Revolutionary Council
According to the Journalists Syndicate, Nasser Abu Bakr was subject to a “systematic harassment campaign during the past five years from the AFP management and its former and current senior staff” due to his “involvement in the issue of seeking to bring occupation leaders before international courts.”
In reality, it was most likely his biased reporting, conflicts of interests, and antisemitic tendencies that led to AFP’s decision to let Abu Bakr go.
In the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza War, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate falsely claimed that Israeli forces killed 17 journalists. In reality, eight out of 17 were operatives from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations.
At the time, Nasser Abu Bakr acted as the deputy head of the PJS. The inaccurate claim was echoed by AFP (but amended after criticism from CAMERA).
In defiance of all journalistic ethics, in 2016, while still being employed by Agence France-Presse, the journalist ran for a seat on Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. Despite being a candidate, Abu Bakr reported on the Fatah congress for AFP (see here and here). That same year, he made anti-Jewish remarks. Al Watan, an independent news website in the Gaza Strip, reported in 2016:
Abu Baker said in an interview with Mawteny Radio today that he attended the conference of Media and Terrorism in Jordan in order to expose the crimes and practices of the Israeli occupation. He said, “We asked Arab media people to intensify their effort to expose the Nazi and racist crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and to bring back the Palestinian cause to the center of the Arab media’s attention.” [emphasis added]
Needless to say, this comparison between Nazi Germany and purported policies of the Jewish state is deeply offensive to survivors of the Holocaust. It also constitutes an act of antisemitism, according to the IHRA Working Definition.
Responding to the Fatah-led incitement campaign that followed the dismissal, AFP on Wednesday said that Abu Bakr was fired for “purely professional reasons.” The press agency claimed that “several months of contact” with their former employee did not lead to the wanted result.
Albeit years too late, AFP’s resolute stance against bias within its ranks gives hope for the future.
Featured Image via WAFA: PJS head Nasser Abu Bakr (right)
