Hamas,
Gaza, Iran - News Censorship By PR, Terror, Murder
By
Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel ----- January 24, 2008 ....... Nowhere can
one find democracy to be more alive, more vibrant than in the
Fourth Estate. A few years after the French Revolution, Edmund
Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons,
said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important
than them all.'
The
Fourth Estate are working journalists. Whether it be print journalism,
broadcast journalism or Internet journalism, the Fourth Estate
both informs and keeps in check the First Estate - clergy, the
Second Estate - nobility, for the enlightenment and protection
of the Third Estate - commoners.
It
has always been the ultimate tool of checks and balances.
A recent historical example was the Watergate Affair where Washington
Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein through intensive
investigative journalism brought down US President Richard Nixon,
forcing him to resign in disgrace.
Today
one can find the Fourth Estate in action in both Israel and
Hamas occupied Gaza. But the distinction and size between working
in Gaza and Israel is no different than the width of the Atlantic
Ocean. In Israel, the Fourth Estate is allowed access to governmental,
commercial and religious affairs. Israel's government-appointed
Winograd Commission of inquiry into the Second Lebanon War and
its targeting of the IDF, the Israel Ministry of Security and
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert releases its finding to both the
domestic and global media without missing a heartbeat.
But
the story is quite different in Hamas occupied Gaza. Hamas,
a terror led and Iran fueled organization which qualifies as
a First Estate entity does not allow free speech. If one cares
to express themselves against Hamas, the penalty is either a
bullet through the head, a beheading or a hanging.
But where it really gets scary is when Hamas points their guns
at journalists.
Now
we have the Islamic First Estate attempting to control the Fourth
Estate, not by blackmail, fraud or even public relations. But
rather through the blatant use of terrorism - the murder or
attempted murder of innocent civilians. Recently, a TV camera
crew from Israel came under both sniper fire and Qassam rocket
attacks by Hamas as they were investigating the Hamas sniper
murder of a farm worker on the other side of Gaza.
The
incident was fully documented and filmed.
Carlos
Andres Chavez, a 20-year-old volunteer from Ecuador, was killed
after he was shot by a Palestinian sniper from within the Gaza
Strip as he was working in the fields of the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz
located near the coastal territory.
The
Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, took responsibility
for the murder.
The
murder and beheading of American journalist and Wall Street
reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan by Islamic terrorists
highlights another recent incident at intimidation by Islamic
terrorists. It is believed that Al Qaeda was responsible for
this murder.
Iran
has also acknowledged that a Canada - Iran photojournalist was
beaten to death after her arrest outside a prison in Tehran.
Iran Vice President Ali Abtahi said Zahra Kazemi died "of
a brain hemorrhage resulting from beatings". Kazemi, 54,
was detained on 23 June for taking pictures of Tehran's Evin
prison. She was later pronounced dead after falling into a coma
And
according to Human Rights Watch, after testifying to a US presidential
commission about their torture during detention, a group of
Iran journalists have received death threats from judicial officials
under Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi.
We
want the Iran government to know that the world is watching
what happens to these young journalists. The Iranian government
is responsible for their safety, said Sarah Leah Whitson,
executive director of Middle East and North Africa Division
at Human Rights Watch. The Iranian authorities should
be protecting citizens who testify before presidential commissions
instead of sending them death threats.
Reporters
Without Borders condemned the fatal shooting in Baghdad of Iraq
TV journalist Liqaa Abdul-Razzaq in what "once again bears
the hallmarks of an execution." An interpreter and the
driver of the taxi she was travelling in were also killed in
the same shooting, while a woman friend was wounded.
"We
are outraged by what appears to have been a targeted killing
designed to intimidate the entire press and we call on the authorities
to carry out a rapid and thorough investigation to identify
those responsible and prevent this kind of tragedy continuing,"
the organization said.
It
also reiterated the principle that "journalists are neutral
observers whose work must be protected and respected in order
to ensure that news reporting is as free and thorough as possible."
But
Hamas has little if any respect for journalists. If anything,
journalists are used solely as a PR tool and provided with misinformation
with headlines that appear in such global newspapers as the
Belfast Telegraph and The Independent: "The
poor and the sick suffer as Israel cuts power to Gaza."
Israel
never cut power to Gaza. Hamas did. And the power which was
severed was limited to Northern Gaza from where the Kassam rockets
are launched daily slamming into the town of Sderot, Israel.
As part of its propaganda machine Hamas shut down Gazas
only power grid last week in protest of Israels blockade.
Hamas
then broadcast images of children in a dark Gaza City, holding
candles and portraying Israel as the aggressor.
How could Hamas broadcast pictures of children holding candles
in Gaza if there was no electricity?
We're
continuing to supply the people of Gaza with electricity despite
the overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact
that Israel residents and Electric Company workers that are
being sent to Gaza vicinity communities are under threat from
Qassam rockets, said Israeli Electric Company (IEC) workers'
committee chairman Miko Zarfati.
Several
Israel electrical workers have been injured in rocket attacks
in recent years and like farmers and others working near the
Gaza fence, have been most recently threatened by sniper fire.
So
as the democratic, free media in Israel attacks Ehud Olmert
and others for their actions in Lebanon, as the democratic press
in Israel takes the IDF to task for occasionally ignoring the
needs of innocent Palestinians at defensive, security checkpoints,
Hamas does not criticize it merely silences international reporters
by bullets.
Just
ask a group of international journalists at the Gaza - Israel
border crossing of Erez, whose cars were sprayed by bullets
two weeks ago by Hamas snipers.
If
Israeli soldiers should ever hit and injure a journalist, it
is never by intent. Either the journalist was not wearing clothing
to identify himself as a journalist, did not inform the IDF
that he or she was in the area or as in war time - the journalist
was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a risk that
journalists take to get the story out. The ultimate sacrifice
by the Fourth Estate for the many in the Third Estate.
But the murders and kidnappings of foreign journalists by Islamic
terrorists, by Hamas, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran and
are well planned events to silence those who dare to speak up
against Islam. Iran's extreme Revolutionary Guards have maintained
the death sentence on British author Salman Rushdie is still
valid - 19 years after it was issued.
The
military organization, loyal to Iran's supreme leader, said
the order was "irrevocable", on the eve of the anniversary
of the 1989 fatwa. The order was issued after publication of
Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses", condemned as
blasphemous.
This
is just one of the many basic and fundamental differences between
Hamas occupied Gaza and a small, democratic and free nation
called Israel. But yet the Belfast Telegraph, the Independent,
The LA Times, AFP, The Times and many other Western news
media outlets chose to ignore these hard and documented facts
as they continue to misinform and incite their readers against
Israel. A nation which unilaterally left Gaza in a move for
peace, but yet their innocent citizens and working journalists
are still under attack by Hamas Kassam rockets and terror sniper
fire.
The
Fourth Estate has become a target in the Middle East and in
distorting the news from time to time lends some credibility
to those who target them. But yet another distinction between
Hamas, Iran and Israel is that Israel may revoke a government
issued press card, but Hamas will revoke one's life.