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GPO summons ‘Guardian’
reporter over controversial letter |
By Gil Hoffman THE JERUSALEM POST 04/02/2011 |
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Edelstein demands British paper apologize
for letter to the editor which defended Palestinian terror by calling it
‘freedom struggle.’
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Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli
Edelstein instructed the Government Press Office Thursday to summon the Guardian’s correspondent in Israel to protest
a letter to the editor that Edelstein said encouraged Palestinian
terrorism.
The letter in the UK newspaper, written by Ted Honderich of
London, criticized Israel for turning down alleged Palestinian offers revealed
by the Guardian last week. He wrote that
Israel’s “taking from the Palestinians” part of what he called “their historic
homeland” justified Palestinian acts of violence.
RELATED: GPO apologizes for ‘bra-gate’ incident Taking ‘hasbara’ to cyberspace
“The Palestinians have
a moral right to their terrorism within historic Palestine against neo-Zionism,”
Honderich wrote. “Terrorism, as in this case, can as exactly be self-defence, a
freedom struggle, martyrdom, the conclusion of an argument based on true
humanity.”
Edelstein
wrote Guardian editor Ian Black that he
was amazed that his newspaper would agree to publish a letter that calls for the
murder of innocent civilians. He demanded that Black print an apology and
clarification stating that the newspaper did not condone terrorism in any form
and did not consider it a legitimate tool in a struggle for freedom.
“I
expect you to make clear to your readers that you believe that terrorism is a
violent and despicable act, directed mainly toward innocent civilians with the
intent to strike fear and anxiety in a society,” Edelstein wrote. “Certainly
this was the goal of those who employed terrorism in the London bombing of July
2005.”
Edelstein wrote that he had instructed GPO head Oren Helman to
“urgently summon” Guardian correspondent
Harriet Sherwood to discuss the letter.
However, Sherwood could not be
reached, because she is currently reporting in Egypt.
Meanwhile, former
GPO head Danny Seaman began his new job this week as deputy director-general of
Edelstein’s ministry.
Seaman, who won his new post via a public tender,
now technically has authority over the GPO, which he headed for 10 years before
losing a tender for the post to Helman.
A former government official with
25 years of experience in Israel’s public diplomacy said, “It’s good to have
someone there who will speak truth to power, and we all know how much power the
media has.
Danny has great experience in the hasbara [public diplomacy]
world, but now he is in a position that could allow him to speak his mind and
tell it like it is.”
Foreign Press Association head Josef Federman, who
is the news editor at The Associated Press’s Jerusalem bureau, was diplomatic
about the appointment.
“We know Danny, we worked with him for many years,
and we wish him well,” he said.
But another member of the foreign press,
who chose not to be identified, said that Seaman had proven to be too
aggressive, too nationalistic and too rightwing in the past, and that he hoped
he would not use his new post to interfere with the work of the media.
In
a recent interview with Jerusalem Post
editor David Horovitz, Seaman complained that some in the foreign press were
unconscionably ignorant, disinclined to appreciate fundamental truths about
Israel’s best features, incompetent and sometimes downright
immoral.
“Ever since the enemies of Israel understood that it could not
be defeated militarily, because of its strength, their goal has been denying us
the right to use that strength,” he said. “And here, unfortunately, the media
sometimes are politically cooperating with this, and other times are being duped
into it. They don’t understand that they are being used by those elements who
are abusing freedom of the press, abusing freedom of speech, abusing all these
civil rights in Western society.”
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