Israel closes Palestinian youth media office in East Jerusalem, alleging terrorism
The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the recent closure of the East Jerusalem office of the Palestinian Elia Youth Media Foundation by Israeli forces and called on authorities to allow the group to work freely.
Israeli internal security forces and police on April 18 taped a Defense Ministry order on the door that declared Elia a terrorist organization and ordered its immediate closure until further notice; the front door was closed with red and white caution tape, according to news reports and the local press freedom group Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA).
Palestinian Journalist Bakr Abdel Haq, arrested by Israel March 27, 2018. Photo courtesy of The Gaza Post News
No one was in the office at the time and youth foundation members have not been able to enter the office since, Ahmed Hussein Safadi, the director of Elia, told MADA.
The office was shuttered two days after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Twitter wrote that Elia, which has provided media training to young Palestinians and reports on local events in Jerusalem, recruits youths as terrorists and trains them to produce incitement videos.
“Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has failed to produce any evidence that the Elia Youth Media Foundation is a terrorist organization,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington, D.C. “It is absurd to equate young reporters with terrorists. We call on the Israeli authorities to allow Elia Youth Media to resume its work and to stop harassing the press.”
The Israeli Defense Ministry did not reply to CPJ’s email request for comment.
In 2017, Israeli forces raided the offices of two media outlets and several media production companies that provided services to the Hamas-affiliated stations Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds, CPJ research shows.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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