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Monday, September 17, 2001
PA unapologetic on confiscating rally footage

PA unapologetic on confiscating rally footage

By Lamia Lahoud The Jerusalem Post 17 September 2001

JERUSALEM (September 17) - Palestinian Authority actions to confiscate film
footage of Palestinians celebrating the terror attacks on the US were
logical to prevent the media from painting the wrong picture of Palestinian
sentiment, Bassam Abu Sharif, an adviser to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, said
yesterday.

"This was a normal preventive act... we don't want to give more to the
Zionist propaganda which portrays all Palestinians as terrorists," he said.
"The idea is that these people were not allowed to film, because a small
group of people on film would represent the Palestinian people as a whole."

He said only a few kids held up pictures of bin Laden, and the police
arrested journalists and confiscated the film of those who defied orders not
to film an illegal demonstration.

Abu Sharif charged that Israel has violated press freedom far more than the
PA and accused Israel of taking advantage of it for its own propaganda.

"How many were injured and killed by the IDF? How many times have cameras
been broken... there are soldiers on trial for severely beating an Egyptian
camera crew," he said.

Journalists and cameramen have complained that they have been threatened by
Fatah activists for planning to show footage of celebrations, and there have
been reports that Palestinian policemen detained cameramen who filmed a
Hamas demonstration in Gaza on Saturday at which Palestinians carried
pictures of Osama bin Laden.

PA officials countercharged that pro-Israeli media are trying to portray the
reaction of a handful of people who were celebrating as the Palestinian
attitude.

Commenting on the complaints by the Foreign Press Association, one
Palestinian source responded: "Let them not send any spies next time."

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