In a rare show of criticism towards Hamas, the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday accused the Gaza Strip’s rulers of trying to muzzle reporters operating in the coastal enclave. Under new rules issued by the US-designated terror organization, Palestinians applying for entry visas on behalf of foreign news outlets were told they must always accompany their colleagues and would be held responsible for what they produce.
Among other restrictions, Hamas ordered media not to report on Gazans killed by misfired Palestinian rockets and to blame Israel for the escalation with Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
After the Foreign Press Association denounced the “severe, unacceptable and unjustifiable restriction on the freedom of the press,” Hamas claimed it had abandoned the supposed policy change. Yet, as the AP reported, “Hamas has still signaled its expectations, which could have a chilling effect on critical coverage.”
Hamas’ threat is but the latest attempt to intimidate journalists. Since it violently seized control of the Strip in 2007, the terror group requires all visiting reporters to have a regime-approved local sponsor overseeing their work — usually a Palestinian journalist or translator hired by the media outlet.
To document the danger of this intimidation, HonestReporting looked into some of the “fixers” who helped shape the Western coverage of the recent conflict between the Israel Defense Forces and Islamist terrorists in Gaza.
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New York Times’ Fady Hanona Urges Missile Attacks on Israel
Out of the eight articles produced by The New York Times during the three-day PIJ-initiated conflict, six credit Fady Hanona as having contributed from Gaza City (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).
Hanona, a freelance producer and fixer who has also been hired by the BBC, The Guardian, and VICE News, appears to be working to further the anti-Israel narrative promoted by Palestinian terror organizations that seek the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.
For one, he supports arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, having backed him repeatedly on his now-deleted Facebook profile. Prior to his incarceration, Barghouti co-founded and headed the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an organization that murdered dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and shooting attacks during the Second Intifada (2000-2005).
Hanona moreover made light of the escape from prison of members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in September of last year. Most of the escapees were serving life sentences for their roles in attacks on Israeli citizens. Ayham Kamamji, for example, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering teenager Eliyahu Asheri.
Indeed, Hanona makes no attempt to hide his desire that Israel be removed from the map, referring to the country’s sovereign territory as the “[19]48 lands,” while putting “Israel” in scare quotes in Twitter posts.
Related Reading: AP Dubs Palestinian Arch-Terrorist ‘Popular, Charismatic Leader’
During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, the New York Times freelancer took to social media to threaten the murder of Ghassan Alian, an Israeli Druze who commanded the IDF’s Golani Brigade at the time.
Then, on August 18, 2014 — days before a ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hamas — Hanona urged the Palestinian “resistance” to reject a truce and continue its missile attacks on Tel Aviv, which had at that point already cost the lives of five civilians.
In another online post from the same month, he went as far as invoking Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to support his point about the strength of Gazan fighters. “As Hitler said, give me a Palestinian soldier and a German weapon, and I will make Europe crawl on its fingertips,” Hanona’s post read, citing an unconfirmed quote attributed to the man responsible for the murder of six million Jews.
Furthermore, the NYT fixer shared a now-deleted propaganda video of terrorist groups in Jenin on Facebook, telling his followers that Palestinians should return to “the culture of fighting and killing Israelis.”
“I don’t accept a Jew, Israeli or Zionist, or anyone else who speaks Hebrew. I’m with killing them wherever they are: children, elderly people, and soldiers,” Hanona asserted, adding: “The Jews are sons of the dogs… I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler did. I will be so happy.” According to his Twitter feed, Israel’s security services subsequently flagged his name when he applied for a permit to travel to Jerusalem.
Related Reading: Exposed: How Palestinian Fixers Manipulate their Media Bosses
CNN’s Ameera Harouda Deplores Arrest of Palestinian Terrorist
Fady Hanona is, of course, entitled to his personal views, however ignorant and distasteful they may be. But as HonestReporting previously explained, fixers and translators with a political agenda can be selective with the information they feed the journalist or, at worst, mistranslate the words of interview subjects, resulting in skewed news coverage about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
And Hanona is not the only Gaza-based fixer with a questionable record when it comes to journalistic ethics. Take, for instance, Ameera Harouda, a freelancer who has done work for CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
When Israeli troops recaptured prison escapee Zakaria Zubeidi in September, Harouda expressed dismay in a Facebook post, while liking a comment that labeled Arab Israelis who reported the terrorist to the police “traitors.” Notably, Zubeidi planned an Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades attack that killed six Israelis.
CNN’s woman in Gaza also called for the release from jail of Anhar Al-Deek, a terrorist charged with an attempted stabbing attack against an Israeli family.
Related Reading: Media’s ‘Moderate’ Palestinian Authority President Celebrates Escape of Terrorists From Israeli Prison
Research shows time after time that news consumers regard objectivity to be one of the most important litmus tests for professional journalism. Reporting the facts — without agendas and biases — is widely understood to be the media’s prime function.
To restore public trust in the media, The New York Times, CNN, and other outlets must uphold their commitment to objectivity.
Therefore, we at HonestReporting call on our subscribers to contact New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Patrick Kingsley and, respectfully but firmly, demand that the “newspaper of record” immediately terminate its relationship with Fady Hanona.
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UPDATE:
Featured Image: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
