Israeli embassy protests Ad-Dustour article on Palestinian resistance

AMMAN — The Israeli embassy in Jordan objected to an article published in Ad-Dustour on Wednesday, while the newspaper's chief editor said "the Zionists enemy" has no right to interfere in press freedoms in the Kingdom.

The Israeli embassy protested against an opinion piece headlined "Heroic acts in the West Bank and Jerusalem that should be built on" in which columnist Yasser Zaatreh commended Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

In the article, the writer refers to the stabbing of an Israeli security officer in occupied Jerusalem and the killing of an Israeli settler and wounding of another in Ramallah as heroic acts and slams some Palestinian security figures for cooperating with the Israeli occupation forces in conducting raids in the West Bank to arrest Palestinian citizens. 

Zaatreh said despite the divisions in the Palestinian resistance and in spite of all the Israeli measures and provocations, the Palestinian leadership continues to cooperate with the Israeli occupation. 

"It is clear that all Palestinian factions need to strengthen and enhance the culture of resistance and uprising in the West Bank as the current conditions and continued Israeli provocations and aggressions cannot continue forever," said the columnist.

The article angered Israel, whose embassy in Amman issued a statement Wednesday, criticising the publishing of such articles.

Mohammad Al Tal, Ad-Dustour's chief editor, slammed the Israeli embassy's "meddling" in media freedoms in Jordan.

"The Israeli enemy has no right whatsoever to interfere in media freedoms here. The statement by the embassy shows the insolence of the Israeli enemy," Tal told The Jordan Times over the phone on Thursday.

"We are with the Palestinians and will continue to be. Israel is an enemy and this will be the case until the Palestinians get all their legitimate rights and all Arabs as well," Tal said.

"If the article, which is an act of freedom of expression, angered the enemy, they can go through diplomatic channels and protest, not issue a statement. This shows their insolence and barbarism," said the chief editor.

This is not the first time Israel has objected to articles published in local media.

Last year, an op-ed published in The Jordan Times angered Israel. On April 28, the English daily published a column titled “The big Zionist lie and the task ahead” by former minister of foreign affairs Kamel S. Abu Jaber. 

Accusing the writer of “anti-Semitism” for quoting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs summoned Jordanian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Walid Obeidat.

A day earlier, the embassy of Israel in Amman phoned Chief Editor Samir Barhoum and demanded that the paper publish an apology, a request rejected by Barhoum, who insisted the article represented the writer’s opinion and right, as freedom of speech is enshrined in Jordan’s laws and Constitution.