Palestinian journalist: Car arson won’t stop me from criticizing PA

"I was expecting them to do something, but I never imagined that they would come to my home and burn my car.”

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian journalist Nadia Harhash (photo credit: KHALED ABU TOAMEH)
Palestinian journalist Nadia Harhash
(photo credit: KHALED ABU TOAMEH)
Palestinian journalist and author Nadia Harhash said on Saturday that she has no doubt that her car was recently torched because of her recurring criticism of the Palestinian Authority.
Harhash, a mother of four from east Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post that she intends to continue writing about corruption in the PA despite attempts to silence her and other critics.
On June 30, Harhash’s daughter, Sirina, spotted a masked man walking toward her mother’s car in the neighborhood of Bet Hanina in northern Jerusalem. Bet Hanina is located within the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality. Like all residents of east Jerusalem, Harhash holds an Israeli-issued ID card, which gives her permanent resident status in Jerusalem.
“My daughter was awake when, around 2:45 am, she saw from the window a masked man approaching my car,” Harhash recounted.
“When I woke up to the barking of the dog, the car was already on fire. I immediately phoned the police, who arrived at the scene within minutes. The man who set the car on fire used petrol bombs. He managed to escape before the police arrived.”
Harhash said it was obvious from security camera footage that the unidentified arsonist was a “professional.” She is convinced that the man had been hired to torch her car in order to warn her against writing about corruption in the PA or criticizing senior Palestinian officials.
“In the past few years, I wrote many articles criticizing the performance of the Palestinian leadership,” Harhash said. “I’m sure many people in the PA were not happy with that. I was expecting them to do something, but I never imagined they would come to my home and burn my car.”
Harhash said she began receiving threats in late March after she published an article criticizing the way PA spokesman Ibrahim Milhem was handling the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the West Bank.
“The article was published on a Ramallah-based Palestinian news website,” she said.
“The managers of the website were forced to remove it under pressure from the PA. I received threats and angry messages from many people. I was told that a decision has been taken to harm me and that I should stay away from the West Bank. I was told that my articles created problems because I’m inciting the public against the Palestinian Authority.”
Undeterred, last month Harhash published another article in which she criticized nepotism in PA ministries. The article came in response to reports that the relatives of two PA and Fatah officials in Ramallah had been appointed to senior positions in the Palestinian government.
“In my writings, I reflect the general mood of the Palestinian public, which is fed up with corruption in the PA,” Harhash explained.
“These are issues that the Palestinians care about, but many are afraid to speak out. I’m not afraid to deal with sensitive issues because I see my work as a basic tool for bringing about change. My voice is important because we don’t have a free media. Some people are even afraid to ‘like’ my postings on Facebook.”
While many Palestinians have privately expressed support for her work, others “are too afraid to speak in public,” Harhash said.
After the torching of her car, Harhash published an open letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in which she wrote: “Our lives are at stake and we are facing terrorism. I sincerely believed that the voice of the opposition was meant to strengthen any regime because, through differences of opinion, we would be able to identify our problems. I believed that differences of opinion would lead to accountability. There was an attempt to kill me and my family while we were sleeping. A terrorist set my car on fire. Were it not for the quick response of the police and fire-fighters, my family would have faced a real disaster.”
In her letter, Harhash pointed out that in the past few months she and other Palestinians have been facing increased threats because of their outspoken criticism of the PA and its government.
“We have no freedom of expression,” she lamented. “Anyone who criticizes the performance of the Palestinian Authority is subject to persecution. It appears as if all the institutions of the PA are mobilized to fight against freedom of expression.”
Abbas has not responded to the letter, Harhash told the Post.
“The silence of the PA speaks volumes,” she added. “The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has also remained silent over the torching of my car. If the syndicate can’t say anything, I don’t know what else it can do. I thought I was doing a service to the PA by criticizing them. I don’t belong to any political group. I’m an independent journalist who wants to see positive changes in the Palestinian institutions.
“Most of my writings aim to improve the performance of the government. I also write a lot about women’s rights. Indeed, there’s corruption and our institutions are rotten to the core. We saw many cases of administrative corruption even during the battle to curb the spread of the coronavirus. I’m not against the PA; I’m only against rampant corruption.”
Asked if she would now be more careful in her writings, Harhash replied: “I won’t allow anyone to intimidate me. If they sense I’m afraid, that means they won. The status of the Palestinian media is sad. We’ve reached the point where people and journalists are afraid to express their opinions.
“Sometimes I think to myself that we’ve become worse than some of the Arab regimes. The only thing that bothers me is that my daughters are still in a state of panic because of the attack on my car. But I’m determined to pursue my work because that’s my duty as a journalist who cares about good government and freedom of expression.”