Israel ordered the four-month administrative detention of Omar Nazzal. Until recently, he headed Palestine Today, an Islamic Jihad-affiliated TV station (more on that), and also had ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The Shin Bet said Nazzal was detained because of “his involvement in terror group activities.”
You wouldn’t know the extent of Nazzal’s terror ties from AFP coverage though. The names Islamic Jihad and PFLP appear nowhere.
Why the omission?
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The pesky details, I’m guessing, would have spoiled AFP’s sexier angle that the administrative detention was ordered on the eve of World Press Freedom Day.
Ooh.
If the name Palestine Today rings a bell, that’s because the IDF shut down its TV and radio station in March for inciting terror attacks against Israelis.
Following International Federation of Journalists criticism that the closure violated press freedom, Israeli MK Yair Lapid, a former news anchor, responded acerbically then:
“Islamic Jihad used Palestine Today to incite against Israel and encourage others to carry out attacks. The manager of station has been convicted of being a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The connection is so patently obvious that it calls into question your motives in condemning Israel’s actions.”
He added that “freedom of the press does not extend to terrorist propaganda and to those who incite to murder. The content on Palestine Today would not pass the editorial guidelines of any of your members. I was a journalist for over three decades; this isn’t journalism. This isn’t free speech, this is hate speech. You are not defending press freedom; you are defending incitement to murder.”
Don’t be impressed that Nazzal is a also a member of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s general secretariat.
And don’t be impressed that he might have been handy with a camera like Hussam Salama and Mahmoud Al-Kumi, two Hamas cameramen killed in an Israeli airstrike who were nearly honored as fallen journalists in 2013.
If you work for newspapers, web sites, or TV or radio stations affiliated with terror groups, you’re practicing propaganda, not journalism.
Featured image: vectors by Vecteezy
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