Palestinian news group blocks Israeli contact
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
05/11/2012 01:47
A Palestinian journalist group forbids its members from meeting with their Israeli counterparts.
![Photojournalists [file photo]](../HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=176349 "Photojournalists [file photo]")
Photojournalists [file photo] Photo: Marc Israel Sellem
Any Palestinian journalists who meet with Israeli colleagues will be expelled
from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank, the group warned on
Thursday.
The warning followed a meeting that took place last week
between Israeli and Palestinian journalists on the occasion of World Free Press
Day.
Similar meetings have also taken place over the past few months in
France, Norway and Germany, prompting the Fatah-dominated journalists syndicate
to issue the warning.
“We are opposed to such meetings because they are
designed to achieve normalization with Israel,” said a senior member of the
journalists syndicate in Ramallah. “Any member who meets with Israeli
journalists will be fired.”
Last week, the Palestinian Journalists
Syndicate in Ramallah boycotted a ceremony organized by the US Consulate on the
occasion of World Free Press Day.
The syndicate accused the US of being
biased in favor of Israel and threatened to expose the identity of any
Palestinian journalist who accepts the invitation.