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No Due Diligence: Media Silent on Terror-Supporting Ministers of New PA Cabinet
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Media outlets should always report the facts — but also questions about them. Last week, however, the media reported on the formation of a new Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet, but hadn’t researched the background of its ministers, two of whom have been exposed as avid terror supporters.
Instead, the media painted a flawed picture of the potential reform of the Palestinian Authority by either being uncritical of the new cabinet, or by mentioning challenges it faces that have nothing to do with terrorism.
Background Checks
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) published damning evidence about two new Palestinian ministers on March 31, two days after media had reported on the formation of the new cabinet.
PMW discovered that:
The new Palestinian Minister for Religious Affairs, Muhammad Mustafa Najem, has said that “Allah turned [the Jews] into apes and pigs,” and called to “afflict the Jews with the worst torment.” He did so in a 2002 sermon aired on official Palestinian Authority television during the Second Intifada, a bloody period during which Palestinians murdered hundreds of Israelis.
The new Palestinian Minister of Women’s Affairs, Muna Al-Khalili, called one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s history — the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre in which 37 civilians were killed, including 12 children — a “quality resistance operation.” Her praise was quoted in an official Palestinian Authority daily in 2018.
Merely three weeks after the deadly Hamas October 7 massacre in southern Israel, Al-Khalili spoke at a conference about emphasizing “the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupation (i.e., Israel) that has continued for the past 75 years.” She also participated in a demonstration calling for the release of terrorist prisoners.
Muhammad Mustafa Najem called Jews “apes and pigs.”
Muna Al-Khalili participates in activities praising terrorism.
None of this has been mentioned by mainstream media, which means one of two things:
Palestinian reporters working for international media outlets have knowingly withheld information they most probably have been aware of; or
Reporters and editors alike didn’t bother to run in-depth background checks on the new cabinet members.
In any case, it’s bad journalism.
But what’s doubly disturbing is the approach taken by some media reports about the PA.
At worst, these stories have been uncritical of the new cabinet that is meant to lead to a “reformed” PA. At best, they were selectively skeptical about the issues it faces — from corruption to non-democracy — ignoring the PA’s decades-old support for terrorism.
CNN, AFP, and Reuters simply echoed the report of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, announcing the new cabinet.
CNN didn’t provide any context, except for quoting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ call to reform the PA, and adding one line at the bottom saying, “it has long been seen as corrupt by US politicians and Palestinians themselves.”
AFP went a bit deeper, mentioning the US message about the potential for a “revitalized” PA. It even counted how many female ministers are included in the new cabinet, and mentioned some members’ hometowns: “the new government is made up of 23 ministers, including three women and six Palestinians from Gaza.”
Reuters declared that Abbas had “appointed the new government in a demonstration of willingness to meet international demands for change in the administration.” The agency did provide five paragraphs of background, but focused on the strained internal Palestinian divisions and the financial woes of the PA.
Nowhere did they mention the PA’s policy of “Pay-for-Slay” — where terrorists and their families are given salaries for life for slaying innocent Israeli women, children, and men — or the anti-Israeli incitement in the PA’s schools.
Selective Skepticism
Some outlets have been more skeptical, but selectively.
The AP’s headline and first few paragraphs — which are what most people bother reading — are in the context of the expected reform of the PA. The wire service even details some background on certain members of the new cabinet, but not on Najem or Al-Khalili.
The AP’s skepticism, which kicks in only in the seventh paragraph, only focuses on issues like the PA’s corruption, non-democracy, and inner divisions.
Again, there is no mention of the PA’s support for terrorism, which is the first thing any reasonable reporter should wonder about in light of October 7 and any talk of its future rule in Gaza.
The same issues plague the reports of NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Terror-supporting ministers and terror-supporting policies aren’t mentioned.
Had it been a new Israeli government, media would have scrutinized every minister with a fine-tooth comb. Reporters would have asked critical questions.
Why is it any different when it comes to reporting on the Palestinian Authority?
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post No Due Diligence: Media Silent on Terror-Supporting Ministers of New PA Cabinet first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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