A Maariv reporter who has apologized in the past for defaming a Jewish town in Judea and Samaria may now have to do the same again.
The secretariat of the community of Yitzhar and the Shomron Residents Council have sent a letter to the editor of the Maariv daily, Avi Meshulam, and to Maariv reporter Yael Paz-Melamed. They threaten to sue Paz-Melamed for libel if she does not publish an apology for a recent article in which she wrote that Yitzhar is an "illegal settlement.”
Just eight months ago, Paz-Melamed wrote that the town of Kfar Tapuach was illegal. After a similar letter from the relevant bodies, she was forced to apologize, writing, “In my article ‘Avri Gilad in the West Bank– ‘Revolution’” I wrote about his tour in the settlements there, some of them illegal, and it was mistakenly understood that Kfar Tapuach is not legal. I hereby correct that and apologize to the residents of that town, which was established back in 1978 and is a legal town.”
Her original article was referring to a Shomron Regional Council tour taken by popular Army Radio and TV broadcaster Avri Gilad, after which he said that it had been an eye-opener and brought about a ‘transformation’ in his thinking.
The latest article by Paz-Melamed was written in light of the recent Knesset decision to investigate the funding sources of extreme leftist organizations that are accused of working against the IDF and even the State of Israel.
The Shomron Residents Council wrote that the article was “scathing[ly] full of cynicism and sarcasm,” and “launched a frontal attack on settlers of Judea and Samaria and residents of the settlement of Yitzhar in particular, slander[ing] the settlement and [writing] that it is ‘illegal’.” Yitzhar is located between Ariel and Shechem (Nablus).
The aggrieved parties demand that Paz-Melamed issue an apology within three days, threatening that if not, the newspaper and the reporter will be sued for libel.
Yossi Dagan, of the Samaria Residents Council, explained on Sunday evening, “Over 300,000 citizens live in Judea and Samaria, by right and not because someone is doing them a favor. They were sent on a Zionist pioneering mission by the State of Israel, and no one has the right to slander or incite against them, even if he/she is a reporter... The time has come for the media to understand that the era of the ‘chump settler’ is over. One cannot incite against or blacken the name of the highest-quality population and that which contributes the most to the State. Every act of incitement against us will elicit a response, and every slander will result in a lawsuit.”
Avraham Binyamin, spokesman for Yitzhar, said, "The community of Yitzhar was founded legally on State land by the government of Israel. The words 'Eretz Yisrael' [Land of Israel], 'Zionism' and 'settlement' are not considered obscene by the Jewish public which is soul- and value-healthy, unlike the leftist reporters who sit in the cafes built on the ruins of Sheikh Munis and Katamon and prattle on so high and mighty about the corrupt occupation."