Gaza has been unofficially declared a “no go” zone among foreign journalists, who say kidnappings and attacks on reporters have gone too far, and PA officials not far enough.
Foreign journalists have been quietly streaming out of Gaza in recent months as the risk of life-threatening attacks and kidnappings skyrockets.
The last holdout, British Broadcasting Corporation journalist Alan Johnston, was pulled from his car outside his Gaza City office at gunpoint on March 12.
Despite assurances by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that Johnston’s kidnappers have been identified, the journalist’s condition and whereabouts remain unknown.
An announcement last week by a Gaza group said to be close to the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization that it had executed Johnston was discounted by PA officials who insisted Thursday that the reporter is alive.
Rumors reported by media on Tuesday that Johnston’s captors have demanded $5 million as a ransom have not been confirmed.
The continuing saga has left the Gaza area without foreign journalists and is damaging the reputation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Simon McGregor-Wood, Chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.
"Gaza for most of the foreign press corps has become a no-go zone,” said McGregor-Wood.
“There is a great sense of disappointment in Palestinian journalists in the way the case of Alan is being handled," said Reuters News Agency reporter Nidal Al-Mugrabi. "The continuation of the abduction of Alan is sending a bad message to the world, and it has to come to an end.”
PA police officers attacked journalists who were participating in a rally near the PA Legislative Council building in Gaza on Tuesday. Several of the journalists who were protesting Johnston’s abduction were injured by police, who used rifles to push them away. Police threatened to shoot the journalists if they returned to the area.
International Appeals for Johnston’s Release, No Results
A long list of people and organizations have called for Johnston's release or tried to bring it about, including Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, Amnesty International, Britain's Consul-General in Jerusalem, Archbishop of York John Sentamu, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Three hundred top British media personalities signed an advertisement to this effect, was published in The Guardian.
The BBC news website created an online petition which has been signed by 12,000 people. On April 12, a full month after Johnston's disappearance, the BBC held an Alan Johnston Day of Action with events in London, Scotland and the PA. BBC World, BBC News 24, Al Jazeera English and Sky News agreed to simulcast a special program dedicated to Johnston.
Al Jazeera used its portion of the program to blame Israel for ongoing violence between Fatah and Hamas and between local clans in Gaza.
Last week the PA condemned the kidnapping, vowing to "bring the criminals to justice." The Foreign Press Association issued an appeal for Johnston's release, as did both Hamas and Fatah factions in the PA government.
Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti attended a rally by Arab journalists protesting the abduction and said: "We are opposed to the kidnapping of foreign journalists who serve the Palestinian cause."
On April 2 more than three hundred journalists held a demonstration in Gaza with their mouths gagged. Another such protest was held in Ramallah in front of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' office.
British Journalist Union Ignores Gaza Terror, Slams Israel
Despite numerous life-threatening kidnappings and attacks on foreign journalists by terrorists in PA-run Gaza, Britain's National Union of Journalists voted last week at its annual meeting to boycott Israeli goods.
The NUJ resolution was taken to protest Israel's actions in last summer’s Second Lebanon War. No similar action was declared against Lebanon for allowing Hizbullah to fire over 4,000 missiles at Israeli civilian targets from within its territory.
Most British reporters in Israel have chosen to ignore the boycott, however. Many are not members of the NUJ and those who are have denounced the boycott as inappropriate, saying that the NUJ should not adopt political positions.
Johnston’s plight, said several reporters, is the most important journalistic issue in the region.
NUJ head Tim Gospill responded by blaming (Israeli-caused) Arab poverty for the abduction, saying that Johnston’s kidnappers must be “desperate.”
