Mid-East Realities

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CIA, Israel, and Arafat force Palestinian newspaper to close

January 3, 2002

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3 January 2001: "If you're not with us, you're against us." Lots of meanings to this new American mantra. The CIA, the Mossad, the Shinbet, and the military -- these are the groups now in charge. And that of course is what happens when a regime like that of Yasser Arafat's puts its fate, and indeed its very survival, in the hands of the intelligence agencies and under the table financial and political deals that would never be possible if they were known. This information from occupied Palestine about how the latest "peace negotiators", CIA Chief George Tenet and Pentagon Marine General Anthony Zinni, are doing all they can to shut up, intimidate, and repress, all who stand in their way, whether fighters, journalists, politicians, you name it.

CIA, Israel, force PA to close down independent weekly

[Hebron (West Bank): 4 January]: The Palestinian Authority on Thursday closed down the offices of the "Hebron Times," an independent weekly newspaper published in the southern West Bank town of Hebron.

The paper's editor, Walid Amayreh, said more than 30 Palestinian security operatives arrived at the offices of the paper shortly after midnight Thursday with an order to close his tabloid-like weekly.

"They told me that they were acting under duress and that they were embarrassed but had no choice."

Earlier, a high-ranking PA security official intimated that CIA officials had recommended the closure of the paper for being overly critical of Israel and US policy toward the Palestinian people.

"It is lamentable that the United States which values press freedom at home is bullying the Palestinian Authority to suppress press freedom in Palestine. What happened to the American First Amendment, or maybe it doesn't apply to non-Americans?" Amayreh asked rather bitterly.

The Hebron Times occasionally hosted Islamist columnists, such as Nayef Rajoub, a brother of PA Security Chief Jebril Rajoub.

Last week the editors of the Hebron Times were summoned to the Hebron Governor's office where they were told to tone down the paper's criticisms of American policy.

Amayreh said he would sue the PA for damage.

"This is a licensed publication, we didn't violate the press law or any other law, the PA itself didn't cite any wrongdoing on our part, so the closure is absolutely illegal.

"The paper was the only source of income for more than ten families, the CIA-ordered closure of the paper means that ten families are going to live in poverty, and poverty breeds lots of nasty things."

A PA official, who asked for anonymity, said "Amayreh is absolutely right, but we are obliged to close the paper, because the Americans and the Israelis want it to be closed because they don't like it, and we can't say no."

The PA recently closed more than 40 charities, offices and youth clubs the Israeli intelligence and the CIA claimed were associated with Hamas.

However, the extremist Israeli Prime Minister has so far refused to give the PA credit for the draconian measures, insisting that much more ought to be done.
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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/1/545.htm