Our rebuttal to AP’s opinion piece on President Mahmoud Abbas
The role of news agencies is very important, particularly in a region like the Middle East. Their role has been mainly understood as one of a service provider transmitting news accurately. Analysis and opinions based on their reporting has been left for pundits, politicians, newspapers and other media outlets. However, Associated Press has decided not only to provide news but also its own opinions and terminology, thus misrepresenting its own reported news and adopting the discourse of one of the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; that of the occupier. We the Palestinians have been greatly disappointed about AP regarding several news reports, including their last “fact check” or opinion piece on the historic speech delivered by president Mahmud Abbas at the United Nations.
It is greatly unfair and undemocratic for AP in its capacity as a news agency to distribute its commentaries, ideas, and erroneous fact checks, while it refuses to allow rebuttal through the same channel. Respectable News agencies in a democratic and transparent mode of behavior are accountable to the public. They cannot be beyond accountability. If they misquote, disseminate erroneous news, or editorialize, they must allow correction, apologies, and provision of equal space for rebuttal.
The Associated Press opinion piece, questioned the historic speech of President Mahmud Abbas. We believe that the so called fact checks raised by AP are mostly ideological and not factual. AP adopts the Israeli language, and misinterpretation of facts. Some of the responses to President Abbas speech were:
· In response to “we are the last people living under occupation” AP says “The world is full of ethnic minorities that might claim to be ruled by occupiers, ranging from Tibetans living under Chinese rule, to Kurds in Turkey, Basques in Spain, Chechens in Russia and Muslim separatists in Indian-ruled Kashmir.”
Our case cannot be compared to any of those (honoring the legitimacy that every people have). We are not an “ethnic minority” aiming to separate from a bigger country that we have been part of for centuries. We are the indigenous population of this land that has been colonized by illegal foreign occupiers. In 1917, we were colonized by Britain, which helped deliver 78% of our land to the Israelis in 1948, who in 1967 occupied the rest of our country i.e. The West Bank and Gaza. It is not up to a news agency to decide who we are, the world has already accepted the fact that we have been living under colonial rule for the past decades.
· In response to a reference of Palestinian prisoners being prisoners of conscience and struggle for freedom, AP says “Abbas did not mention that most Palestinian prisoners are being held because of alleged involvement in violence against Israelis. Israel's prison service says it's holding some 6,000 "security" prisoners, many of them involved in planning or carrying out deadly attacks on civilians.”
With this response, AP has officially recognized the legitimacy of Israeli military tribunals over Palestinian civilians. International law is clear, civilian prisoners deserve a fair trial that cannot be guaranteed by the State of Israel, the occupying power. Military prisoners should be treated as prisoners of war, under the Geneva conventions. AP omits that since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, almost 900.000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces. One wonders if you think that the majority has been involved in what Israel calls "security" offenses. Under Israeli military laws, the Israeli army can detain any Palestinian without any justification. Thousands were imprisoned under "administrative detention" regulations requiring no declared pretext, or legal reasons. AP accepted unquestionably the Israeli claim.
· AP criticized President Abbas for not stating the ties of the Jewish religion with the Holy Land.
This statement is purely ideological. President Mahmoud Abbas was representing the rights of his people. Palestine shows great respect for all peoples and religions that have passed though Palestine, including Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
To blame President Mahmoud Abbas for not explicitly stating the Jewish connection with the Holy Land is for AP to officially adopt the Israeli position and to impose it on its readers. President Abbas did not say that Palestine is exclusively for the followers of Christianity or Islam, whereas Mr. Netanyahu wants Israel to be exclusively for the Jews, thus jeopardizing the rights and future of 1.5 million citizens, comprising 22% of the population of Israel, all of whom are indigenous native Christian and Moslem citizens and not settlers imposed by the force of military occupation on their land.
. In response to the reference made re the Gaza Strip and President Mahmoud Abbas' condemnation of Israel for committing war crimes against the civilian population of Gaza, AP considers that Hamas' actions ends Gaza's relationship with Palestine, giving Israel the right to kill 1400 of its civilians, injuring 50,000, many with phosphorus bombs, and destroying 20% of its homes. AP disqualifies President Abbas from condemning the Israeli actions deemed as war crimes by the UN, and its investigating committee led by Judge Goldstone.
· AP says that “The Palestinians did not accept two Israeli peace offers, in 2000 and 2008, that offered them a state in the vast majority of the territories they claim. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly offered to launch negotiations — but refused to accept minimum outlines of a peace deal endorsed by the Palestinians and the international community. He has also not met the Palestinian condition of a settlement freeze for the duration of the talks.”
AP once again has adopted the official Israeli line of blaming the Palestinian side for not accepting to sign these Israeli "peace offers" requiring the Palestinians to accept a state without international borders, no control over air space, electromagnetic sphere, natural resources nor access to our capital Jerusalem as well as no solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. AP fails to mention the countless Palestinian attempts to have meaningful negotiations , the Palestinian Peace Proposal of 1988, the Arab Peace Plan of 2002, and all the other proposals made by the Palestinian side. Regarding the 2008 offer, we point out that AP failed to mention that Mr. Olmert the former Israeli Prime Minister refused to continue the negotiations because of his war on Gaza and later on for his Israeli legal problems. When Mr. Netanyahu spent 19 hours negotiating with President Abbas during the month of September, 2010 shuttling between Washington, Sharm el Sheikh and Jerusalem, he refused to negotiate any of the major six core points, which outline all our joint negotiating effort, insisting that he had no mandate to do so until President Abbas accepts his two preconditions:
1. accepting the exclusive Jewish character of Israel and
2. Accepting Netanyahu's defense doctrine of maintaining indefinitely the Israeli occupation of the Jordan Valley, and territories 10 km deep into the Western Borders of the West Bank.
AP also claims that the settlement freeze is a Palestinian precondition to negotiate, while in reality it is an Israeli obligation according to the Road Map, the same way that East Jerusalem is not “disputed” but internationally recognized as occupied (another regular misrepresentation made by AP reporting).
AP’s so called fact check continues this line of argument by stating: “Israel might argue — as Netanyahu did in his rebuttal Friday — that Arab enmity to Israel long preceded the settlement of lands occupied in 1967".
AP thus completely misrepresents the history of Palestine. The two-state solution, adopted officially by the PLO in 1988, has been the greatest step to peace. However, allowing Israel to continue its colonial settlement project in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal, unfair, and makes the two-state solution impossible to implement. President Mahmoud Abbas was also clear that the injustice against the Palestinian people began with our exile in 1948 rather than only with the 1967 occupation. The catastrophe of the 1948 Nakba and forced transfer of our refugees has been unveiled by Israel's own prominent historians such as Benny Morris, and recognized by the Israeli negotiating paper on refugees in Taba, 2001. We would like to ask the so called "fact checkers" how this Netanyahu false interpretation of history makes settlements legal, and its continuation acceptable, despite international rulings, and the Road Map.
Last but not least, AP omits to say that Israel is the only country in the United Nations whose acceptance as a member was conditional to the respect of two UN resolutions: 181 (two states) and 194 (right to return). Israel has not implemented any of these requirements.
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