We got to those whose work was ‘immoral’ and made them change ‘one way or another,’ says spokeswoman, also acknowledging booting out journalists who sought to ‘film places where missiles were launched’

A Hamas official inadvertently acknowledged on Thursday that the group had strong-armed journalists in Gaza into a reporting style that suited its narrative, keeping many under surveillance and kicking out of the territory those who sought to film the launching of rockets at Israel.

In an interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV on Thursday, relayed and translated Friday by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the head of foreign relations in Hamas’s Information Ministry, Isra Al-Mudallal, complained that “the coverage by foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip was insignificant compared to their coverage within the Israeli occupation (Israel).”
“Moreover,” she said, “the journalists who entered Gaza were fixated on the notion of peace and on the Israeli narrative.” She asserted that the foreign press was focused “on filming the places from where missiles were launched. Thus, they were collaborating with the occupation.” (The Israeli army said last week that 600 of the 3,300 rockets fired into Israel over recent weeks were launched from residential areas, including schools, mosques and homes.)

“These journalists were deported from the Gaza Strip,” al-Mudallal said. “The security agencies would go and have a chat with these people. They would give them some time to change their message, one way or another.

“We suffered from this problem very much,” she added. “Some of the journalists who entered the Gaza Strip were under security surveillance. Even under these difficult circumstances, we managed to reach them, and tell them that what they were doing was anything but professional journalism and that it was immoral.”

On Monday, the Foreign Press Association, an umbrella group representing foreign journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, issued a strongly worded condemnation of Hamas’s intimidation tactics and its interference with their reporting in Gaza.

“The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month,” the statement said. “The international media are not advocacy organizations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.”

As well as targeting journalists in Gaza, the press organization said it was aware that Hamas had been taking steps to vet those media personnel it did not approve of and to prevent them from reporting in Gaza.

“Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA,” the statement said.

The FPA asserted that “in several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.”

In an article for Haaretz on Wednesday that highlighted the FPA condemnation, reporter Matthew Kalman said “Hamas repeatedly demanded a list of the names of correspondents” who were using a specially-chartered bus via a safe passage route into Gaza, “in order to draw up a blacklist of individuals and networks.”

Kalman wrote that “Some reporters received death threats. Sometimes, cameras were smashed. Reporters were prevented from filming anti-Hamas demonstrations where more than 20 Palestinians were shot dead by Hamas gunmen.”

In what Kalman called “perhaps the most serious incidents considered by the FPA,” he said, “Hamas began firing mortars right next to the location of foreign reporters, in what may have been an effort to draw Israeli retaliatory fire.”

A numbers of reporters working in Gaza reported on Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure for military means, but said they were only able to do so once out of the Strip, for fear of Hamas reprisals.

A report by India-based NDTV last week on Hamas assembling and firing a rocket next to a hotel used by journalists was filed hours after the reporter left Gaza, because “Hamas has not taken very kindly to any reporting of its rockets being fired,” NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain wrote.

And to make matters worse, the U.N. is going after ISRAEL for war crimes. lol. What a joke.  

And even worse than that they picked a guy to be the "fair and balanced" judge that just happens to be on the record as thinking Netanyahu is ALREADY a war criminal. Yeah, that's gonna go well for the Israeli's.  

The U.N. is a total fkin disaster and picking this douche "judge" is just more evidence of same.

That's why we should cook them in ovens.

No, Adolf, just you.

Making oven jokes to someone Jewish is beyond "bad taste"

I bet you have the good sense to restrict your little "jokes" to the internet, where it's safe. If not I can see why you are in favor of ObamaCare so the rest of us would have to shoulder your huge medical bills incurred after "joking" like that with the wrong person.

FWIW if I were fortunate enough to witness the event, I would swear to the police on a stack of bibles  that I don't believe in, that you simply "fell down" and that how you ended up with all those cuts, contusions, and broken bones. lol

Who are you... the PC police?

END OF MESSAGE

I figured that now that Israeli Jews were active supporters of genocide, they'd all be in favor of cooking Palestinians in ovens. After all, the one lesson Jews learned from the Holocaust isn't whether genocide is moral or immoral, but just don't be on the losing team.

When some non-muslim insults their prophet

which is no surprise now that we know where YOU get your information from

It would be bad enough if it was only that I am Jewish.
The fact both my parents were Holocaust survivors, and the fact my half brother was in fact, burned alive in a Nazi oven make it even worse.

But the worst of it is, willywonka already knew this about my personal history. And I believe he used that knowledge to frame his words intentionally. And while his words are vulgar beyond belief, all he REALLY does is confirm that he is just another terrorist supporter among many terrorists and collaborators living among us. Even in Cleveland, Ohio. Right, willy

Not sure what your problem is lately but you are acting like a total asshat. You have long past stopped being remotely funny and have started to become a hater and vile poster.

Please tell me you're just a troll.  Please.

...he won't notice and turn on the oven, cooking that Frankenstein cat to death.  Poetic justice/karma.

There are Israelis who have called for genocide. That's not propaganda. That's quoting them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/01/times-of-israel-genocide-article-post-deleted_n_5641971.html

So, logically, the Israelis would want get this genocide over as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Ergo, ovens.

Remember the rule. A group of people don't get to play the victim card, if they repeat the behavior of their former oppressors.

When you have Jews trying to justify genocide, you lose all your Holocaust brownie points. It would be exactly the same thing if black people came out in favor of slavery.

And no, it wasn't meant as a joke. It was a comment meant to cause you to pause for a moment of self-reflection. Or is navel gazing a foreign concept for Jews?

By the way, if I were a Jew, the last people on earth I would offer nukes to where these people.

you went with even MORE slandering and vile hatred shit against Jews??? You are now officially a sick and twisted fk and you have become what you say you hate.  

Great job Willy! I hear the Third Reich is hiring again. Put me down as a reference for you. I'll rave about your anti-semetic shit to them.  

If they wont take you, no worries, Hamas is currently hiring "human shields".  

No experience necessary either.

... but back in 2008, you weren't drinking the Jew hatred kool aid quite yet. There was no such thing as al jazeera english

you've gone from someone i frequently agreed with, to the most odious and blatant anti-Semite on this board. Compared to you, Xiaominglover1 was a Zionist.

...but I'll be damned if I recall ever reading it.

For the record, I know dick-all about anyone else's family on this board.

No, I'm not an anti-Semite. As an atheist, I hate all religious nutbags equally. People just handle Jews with kid gloves.

END OF MESSAGE

I do know something about your family. They're fond of chickens.

based on the opinion of one person? You might try to include the paper that "published" the editorial (Times of Israel) except it was only on line (not in print). How much supervision was there to his posting? It appears as soon as The Times discovered this they deleted it and fired the author.

If you'd like to participate in a thought experiment analogy. . . .
Were the WWII allies committing genocide (or at least trending toward genocide) when they fire bombed entire civilian cities (Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc.). I'm not equating the threat coming from Palestinian areas to the WWII Axis, but from Israel's perspective, the threat to Israel is quite high. It seemed the Allies were prepared to go much further in their killing of civilians in order to get the Axis to surrender unconditionally.

-- Modified on 8/16/2014 4:16:37 PM

posed to the Allies and Israel as a metric to determine whether the killing of Palestineans was a war crime or not. But we do not call this "genocide' but simply the use of disproportionate force for the risk posed.  What happened to "totally invalid?" LOL

       You must have been doing some reading as to one of the factors the the UN war crimes inquiry group will examine. Glad to see you are keeping an open mind and are not simply "picking sides" as you once mentioned.

The comparison I made then and now remains valid. It's the results of your measurements that are wrong.

Glad to see that I've had you thinking about me. Too bad you gave up two weeks ago.

You should really stop trying to be Switzerland. Neither of you will remain safe forever.

If you ever wondered where TSTTT and SPOTY ever came from, WW was the inspiration for both. He at one time was the worst troll on this board, and then he seemed to get his act together for quite some time, only to regress back into this vile and hateful person you see today. Maybe with any luck he will revert back to only being slightly annoying and only BSC on matters regarding business.

-- Modified on 8/17/2014 12:43:07 PM

I typically don't post about the Israeli-Palestinian issue, because in spite of all the press, I don't feel I have a clear picture on the truth of the matter, other than neither side trusts the other, and for good reason. And, the issue about how to restore and maintain trust is the center piece around which most people, on both sides disagree, and which I feel I have little to add. But, your inflammatory language, and generalizing an OP ed piece to being the view of all or many Jews, is not in any way a part of reasonable discussion. Perhaps you can elucidate your intentions behind such talk.