A journalist employed by the Israel Broadcasting Corporation Kann, the new government corporation which replaced the IBA, has praised on her twitter account the terrorist Basel Al-Araj (31) who was eliminated in a shootout with Israeli security forces last week. This according to a report by Channel 20.
The journalist ,Samah Wattad, tweeted a page entitled "Palestine Info Center" on which a picture of the terrorist appeared with the caption "the intellectual is the first to fight and never gives up."
Al-Araj opened fire on soldiers searching for wanted terrorists and weapons in El-Bireh near Ramallah. A Special Operations Unit located him and eliminated him after a short gun battle.
Wattad responded to Channel 20's query by acknowledging her tweet and stating: "I don't know why you refer to him as a terrorist when even the news referred to him as a "wanted man."
23-year-old Wattad is a resident of the Israeli Arab village Jat and is an investigator employed in the Arab department of the broadcasting corporation. She claimed in an interview with the Walla site that she had always dreamed of being an Arab war correspondent and had hoped to work in journalism. She also complained that the Arab sector had been blamed for the recent spate of arson attacks and asked in a clip broadcast by Kann, "Why should people refer to all of us as potential terrorists."
Basel Al-Arej, a 31-year old Bethlehem-native operating out of Ramallah was wanted over his involvement in planning a series of attacks against Israelis. Al-Arej was also suspected of multiple attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces.
When security forces attempted to arrest him during a pre-dawn raid last Monday, he opened fire from his hiding place with a Carlo-style submachine gun.
Israeli forces involved in the operation - including the IDF, Border Police, and Shin Bet internal security service – returned fire, killing Al-Arej. No injuries were reported among security forces involved in the operation.
After Al-Arej was liquidated, a search of his home turned up two automatic weapons: an M-16 assault rifle and a Carlo-style submachine gun.
The Kann corporation responded by stating that despite the fact that their employee published the item on her personal Twitter account, they viewed it with great severity and had instructed her to meet with her supervisors and explain her stance.