From YNet-- and picked up later by the New York Times:
Israel has arrested a Palestinian journalist who works for the Arabic language Al-Jazeera satellite network, and a journalists' advocacy group says he is being held without charges.
Al-Jazeera said in a release issued Monday that 47-year-old Samer Allawi, its bureau chief in Afghanistan, was taken into custody on Aug. 10 as he tried to leave the West Bank to return to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Allawi's brother, Masab, told Al Jazeera that his brother carried a Jordanian passport, and that this was his first visit back to the West Bank since he left, in 20 years ago.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said in a statement that Allawi has been detained without charges and called on Israel to clarify the legal basis for holding him.
One of the Zionsts in the comment section said, “I bet he called the police himself[...].”
Ynet and Haaretz commentators are generally vile.
Jerusalem Post commentators are also quite vile.
It seems that it is quite common in Israel to believe that Palestinians are liars, exaggerate, or acting. I see the term “Pallywood” tossed around a lot referring to Palestinian media fakery. The problem with that is they lack such technology to do so. That and they can’t even use the bathroom with Israel knowing about it.
ttt (tangent to topic)
CAMERA is doing its out-of-focus best to instill the Fear of the Lobby (FotL) in C-Span Washington Journal moderators.
Myron Kaplan’s latest drool attacks comments that rained into Wash Journ while a Georgetown U. prof. was discussing the significance of the Berlin Wall.
The first caller to compare the Berlin wall to Israel’s wall around Palestine was cool, calm, factual down the line (thanks for doing the transcripts, Myron; they’re a pain):
so far so good. the prof and Scully both stayed well within the acceptable lines of the narrative, that is to say, they both refused to acknowledge reality and gave no reasons for their decisions to do so.
But Kaplan found something — plenty — to complain about, that provided him ammunition to label Alan’s comment “anti-Israel caller;” gave Kaplan the opportunity to plug a more comprehensive set of lies that CAMERA managed to get published in a major newspaper; and took the WJ moderator to school and brandished the FotL paddle:
The most interesting phrase in Kaplan’s mendacious rant is the bolded phrase: Facts Disappear. That is CAMERA’s entire agenda: to frame the picture from a radical Israeli point of view, emphasizing MFA talking points and what Israelis wish the reality was, perhaps even genuinely –but deludedly THINK the reality is, but which are only propaganda, relentlessly purveyed. Kaplan’s corrective of the WJ moderator’s response says, in effect, “Why aren’t you as deluded as I am? Why don’t you hate as much as I do?”
But the WJ audience is getting wise to CAMERA’s frame. A follow-up call endorsed Alan’s comment and took the Professor to school for failing to see the obvious comparison! –
Both the professor and CAMERA reacted viscerally and illogically to the last part of that response: the professor said,
““To say Israel has killed far more people than Germany – what are we talking about – Germany in World War II.”
NO, professor, we are NOT talking about Germany in World War II; the topic you were invited to discuss is the Berlin Wall, remember? Earlier in the conversation, statistics of numbers of people killed while trying to escape over the wall, etc., were presented by either the guest or the moderator; iirc, 178 people were killed while trying to cross the wall. ISRAEL HAS KILLED MORE PEOPLE THAN THAT for the crime of protesting Israel’s destruction of Palestinian property while building ever more intrusive expansions of the Apartheid wall.
CAMERA’s response to that statement by the caller displays yet another of CAMERA’s tricks, suggestive of MEMRI’s tactics of putting words in mouths. Here’s how CAMERA reported the caller’s comment:
Give him credit, Kaplan did put brackets around Nazi. But the topic was NOT Nazi Germany, the timeframe was NOT Nazi Germany, the anniversary being celebrated had nothing to do with Nazis; the context was NOT Nazi Germany.
CAMERA and its fellow travelers have become so accustomed to dropping Nazi nuggets and watching the dog salivate that they do so reflexively. CAMERA persists in a shuttered universe; more and more Americans are viewing Israel through wide open lenses and observing and reacting to a fact-based reality.
The caller was given the opportunity to follow up on the professor’s response, and did so by stating that Israel’s settlement activity is illegal, and citing Gershom Gorenberg’s disclosure that Israel has been knowingly acting in violation of international law since 1967. This was too much truthiness for poor old Myron; he went off the, dredging up old attacks on Gorenberg and arcane arguments that have nothing to do with THIS document, which is the core and the evidence of Gorenberg’s claim:
Gorenberg has disclosed to numerous audiences how difficult it was for him to find this document, how long it took before he could gain access to Israeli files, and how hard the Israeli government worked to try to make this “fact disappear.”
But there it is, CAMERA.
Now the C Span audience knows that Israel is acting in violation of international law, knows that is so acting, and has been doing so since 1967.
(there’s more to CAMERA’s hyperventilating and regurgitation of lies and hasbara that you can read on their website if you want to. I didn’t want to bring too much attention/traffic to the place.
So like why the heck is Aljazeera giving so much airtime to feel-good stories about israel: copious attentive analysis of the events on Rothchild Boulevard – and without mentioning the ‘occupation’ except in passing? How come I haven’t heard a whisper or a pip-squeak about the outrageous and illegal arrest of Mr. Allawi on their OWN news channel and I watch it pretty much every day?
Aljazeera news, especially the Arabic section, has lost quite a number of journalists and cameramen whilst on duty since they first came on the scene. I recall for instance when our forces in Baghdad targeted their station during the 2003 Iraq invasion, bombed it, killed their staff and then claimed it was mistaken coordinates that caused this mini massacre. I think our forces did the same in Afghanistan too, killing staff there, destroying broadcasting equipment, turning their compound into rubble. My point is that violence against their staff or property usually ends up as a looped news item on aljazeera – but not this recent Allawi story. I suspect the israelis figure they can push the buttons on Aljazeera knowing that their response would be restrained due to the fact that they wouldn’t want to eff-up their broadcasting license here in the USA – not now while they’re on a limited broadcasting access/trial period.
Question is, who exactly put a sock in the mouth of Aljazeera on this Allawi issue, nay shoved a sock into the very mouth of it’s owner Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani? Was it Hillary? Denis? Or is it self-imposed censorship, a tactic by the politically savvy Sheikh Hamad who is more interested in spreading his media influence across America in the long run, than he is having a media mud-fight with the dirty israelis today or even tomorrow?
And as to israel being such a loser, constantly scoring own-goals: well I don’t honestly think they give an eff ’bout any goy let alone a goy ‘scoreboard’.
taxi, AJ put out 2 really good videos about the settlements. i’d link to them but i have them up in draft and am hoping they hit the front page shortly. if they don’t i will link to them (color me lazy)
it’s my guess they arrested the reporter after these videos were made as retaliation.
Good point annie. The last couple of days I’ve been too busy to watch it in the day and really only tuned in at night for an hour or so – at a time when no mention of settlement or Mr. Allawi was made. Either way though, it sure seems like there’s an ugly behind the scenes ‘situation’ going on between Sheik Hamad and israel – of course with us in the middle.
Jeez the AP is slow! I had this in my Aug 12 Today in Palestine list, from a Hamas site:
Israeli intelligence tried to recruit Al-Jazeera journalist
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 12 Aug — Samer Allawi, who is detained by the Israeli occupation authorities said that the Israeli intelligence tried to recruit him but he refused and that he was threatened with being accused of something serious. Allawi, a Palestinian journalist who works as al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Afghanistan, was visited by the lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Betah Tekva detention centre where he is being detained. Allawi told the lawyer that his detention is to do with his work as a journalist in Afghanistan and called on human rights organisations and international journalist bodies to pressure the Israeli occupation to release him … He was detained on Tuesday at the Allenby Bridge on his way to Jordan after the end of a visit he made to his family in the village of Sabastya near Nablus.
link to palestine-info.co.uk
yeah, i recall reading it on twitter a few days ago too.
“Ynet and Haaretz commentators are generally vile. Jerusalem Post commentators are also quite vile.”
Ynet and Jerusalem Post, absolutely, but not Haaretz. Haaretz has some, but these are more than balanced by the many truthtellers, who are a rarety on the other two.
My induction into sanity on I/P was partly through Haaretz, both its articles and its talkbacks. I still take a daily quick look, but seldom visit the other two; they just make me laugh at their outlandishness or make me disgusted.
Nothing like Mondoweiss though, the best on the planet!
I was called a Holocaust denier in another thread for questioning that there isn’t a conspiracy against Ron Paul using electronic voting machines. I would consider that quite vile myself….
I call them as I see them. Your vile anti-Palestinian comments could be find-and-replace swapped out for anti-Semitic buzz words and find a home at Stormfront. That you decide to do that with EVERYTHING anti-Zionists say here just goes to show that you aren’t interested in honesty and integrity, but pro-Israeli propaganda and nothing else. And it just goes to show how deep people like you are entwined with neoconservative corruption. The same sort of tripe you peddle against us about the voting machines is a paternal match for the “nukes in Iraq” canard that got 5,000 American soldiers killed FOR NOTHING. Good men and women who had a promise from us, as a nation, to only be used in our defense and people like you lied to them (and then you usually take it step further by mocking Pat Tillman or writing off their deaths as “bad press” like rachelgolem and hophmi do).
Don’t pretend like you’re the injured party here.
Funny you brought up stormfront Chaos, but anyways. care to share some of these vile anti-Palestinian comments?
The same sort of tripe you peddle against us about the voting machines is a paternal match for the “nukes in Iraq” canard that got 5,000 American soldiers killed FOR NOTHING.
So again questioning if there is a conspiracy w/ voting machines makes me responsible for 5,000 dead US soldiers? Are you kidding me?
Funny I brought up Stormfront? My German-American grandfather was an American soldier who went over to Germany and Poland saving your ancestors’ asses, so you can go stuff yourself, thank you very much.
Sooner or later the blood on your hands will be a debt that comes due. Mark my words.
So again questioning if there is a conspiracy w/ voting machines makes me responsible for 5,000 dead US soldiers?
why ask? do you know the meaning of paternal match?
don’t play dumb dbg, we were all around for florida. it’s for you to argue it wasn’t a conspiracy if that’s your point. otherwise hell yes, iraq was signed sealed and delivered and over a million dead. take a bow or divorce yourself from the illusion team cheney would have been controlling the levers of the superpower thru democratic means on e way or another. because yes, it most definitely required a conspiracy.
Chaos, you don’t know jack about my ancestors, so don’t tell me about what your grandfather did in WWII, I guarantee you both my grandparents, their children, my father, and my cousins, have done more for this country in a day than your grand daddy did during the entire war.
The founder of stormfront is a huge Ron Paul supporter, how would your grandpa feel about that?
annie,
pretty sure electronic voting machines weren’t in issue in florida. unless they have ‘hanging chads’ as for team cheney, what does that have to do with me?
assuming I am some neocon is just like me assuming you are a neo nazi
Whatever American soldiers have done during WWII is AT MOST saved Western Europe from Commies.
Wow, remind me how Zionists don’t hate US troops again?
I really couldn’t tell how spherical Zionists unlucky enough to populate your head hate US troops, but as of us – average Israelis – we actually do like US troops, probably even more than some people back at home.
So now instead of attacking the troops, you’re going to attack the average American taxpayer. Nice.
for vile nothing tops team shalom over at daily kos. they are the worst bullies i have ever encountered and the site supports them. the people who challenge them get banned so they just become more empowered , uglier and uglier.
zionism is known for this kind of vicious advocacy which seems rather appropriate come to think of it.