Where did Tel Aviv Tribune go wrong? Is it not our duty to search for an answer to this question, if we want to discuss the decision to close it taken by the Palestinian Authority?
The principle is that the decision itself should provide an answer to the question without ambiguity or ambiguity, and without using vague expressions that carry many possibilities and are subject to interpretation and interpretation, especially when it comes to a media outlet that pumps huge amounts of news, pictures, reports and analysis through its various screens and platforms, which makes it difficult to Any follower of it should discover the correct connotations of the expressions carried by the decision to close Tel Aviv Tribune in Ramallah.
Text of the resolution
The decision – according to the official Wafa Agency – stipulates stopping the broadcast and freezing all the work of Al-Jazeera TV, its employees, and its office in Palestine, based on the decision of the competent ministerial committee consisting of the ministries of Culture, Interior, and Communications, and temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, its employees, crews, and its affiliated channels. Until its legal status is corrected, this is because Tel Aviv Tribune TV violates the laws and regulations in force in Palestine.
This decision came – according to Wafa – as a result of Tel Aviv Tribune’s insistence on broadcasting inflammatory materials and reports characterized by misleading, sedition, tampering and interference in Palestinian internal affairs.
Intentional blurring
Aside from the legal aspect and the validity of the allegation that Tel Aviv Tribune violated the laws and regulations, the accusation of broadcasting inflammatory materials without specification, broadcasting reports characterized by misleading, sedition, and absurdity without detail, and then interfering in Palestinian internal affairs without clarifying the type and manner of intervention, gives the decision a form other than the legal form.
The legal charge is usually related to a specific violation or violations, and its merits, the person or persons who committed it, the place, time, etc., are stated. As for these texts, they are texts that give a political dimension to the decision, and involve a hasty assessment or general judgment, and not supported by evidence of Tel Aviv Tribune’s coverage and follow-up of the Palestinian issue.
What the channel offers is many, abundant, and diverse. Some of it is news, some of it is analytical, documentary, or dialogue, some of it is presented by Tel Aviv Tribune journalists, and some of it is expressed by its guests and those the channel interviews.
I wish the authority’s decision had identified the source of the error so that it could be corrected and the work that had been facing great difficulties for several months could resume after the Israeli military commander for the occupied West Bank region made a similar decision, and his heavily armed soldiers stormed Ramallah to deliver a copy of it to Tel Aviv Tribune’s bureau chief, Walid Al-Omari.
It was strange that the Authority did nothing in the face of the occupation army’s storming of Ramallah at the time, and did nothing to confront the Israeli decision, which appeared in form and content to deny its existence, and ignore its jurisdiction and sovereignty and the decision of its three ministries to grant Tel Aviv Tribune a license to operate in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Wrong timing
The Authority’s decision to stop Tel Aviv Tribune comes at a very sensitive time, as the West Bank is exposed to successive violations by the occupation and its soldiers, as well as by Jewish settlers who are supported by Minister of National Security Ben Gvir, Minister of Finance Smotrich and other ministers, and give them the green light to move and attack Palestinian citizens, especially in the villages adjacent to the settlements or settlement roads; For the purpose of intimidating them, displacing them, seizing their land, and annexing it to their settlements in order to fatten them.
As for the occupation army, its attacks on cities and camps do not stop, under the pretext of the presence of armed resistance. It has assassinated hundreds of Palestinians over the past months and arrested thousands in a desperate attempt to eliminate resistance groups and brigades.
All of this coincides with repeated statements from the highest levels of Israeli politics against the Palestinian Authority, against the agreements with it, and the desire to get rid of that and annex the occupied West Bank.
At the same time, the war of extermination continues in the Gaza Strip for the fifteenth month in a row, and the massacres, systematic destruction and ethnic cleansing of the northern Strip continue, and the besieging and destruction of hospitals, the latest of which is Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the arrest of doctors, led by the hospital director, Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, and the bombing of tents and places of displacement continues. And destroyed homes. All of this is in light of the worsening humanitarian suffering of Palestinian citizens who suffer from the stifling siege, lack of food, drink, medicine, and loss of safe shelter.
All of this makes the presence of strong media and professional journalists a necessity that cannot be delayed. In light of the complete absence of international media and foreign journalists from the Gaza Strip and the war of extermination, Tel Aviv Tribune and its journalists had a great role that could not be ignored. Among them were martyrs and injured, and they were subjected to threats and attacks on homes, families, and relatives. The injured Al-Jazeera photographer, Fadi Al-Wahidi, is still prevented from going out to obtain treatment abroad when he desperately needs it.
Tel Aviv Tribune is a friend of the truth
Tel Aviv Tribune’s screen and platforms bore all the suffering of the Palestinian people, and were the closest to what they were facing in terms of Israeli aggression and torture. The world transmitted these news and pictures from them, and many international institutions defending human rights relied on them. It also formed an important part of the documents of the international courts that began procedures to try the leaders of the Israeli occupation, and includes among its evidence to convict them what was documented and reported by Tel Aviv Tribune and its journalists and photographers.
The entire coverage that Tel Aviv Tribune provides of the Palestinian issue is considered fair or – perhaps – biased towards the Palestinian people and their just cause, and scandalous of the crimes committed by the occupation. This is what prompted the occupation to close the channel and prevent it from operating internally on successive occasions since the beginning of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, and then He took a decision to close its office with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which was a very provocative step and had indications of the occupation’s thinking and view of the authority, and considered the areas under its control to be incomplete. Sovereignty, and perhaps he sees it as permissible and forbidden.
There is no punishment without crime
The authority’s position could have been accepted despite all this if there had been a specific crime or error committed by Tel Aviv Tribune, whether it was an editorial professional or otherwise. However, the justifications provided by the authority do not provide any evidence of the existence of such a mistake or crime that requires freezing the work of Tel Aviv Tribune journalists and stopping its broadcast, in an attempt to silence its voice and stop or disrupt its distinguished coverage, which the occupation sees as a great burden on it, and does not stop criticizing and threatening it as well because of That coverage.
The Palestinian national duty requires giving Tel Aviv Tribune and its journalists all kinds of support and support, and facilitating their work to carry out the best coverage and follow-up of what is happening in all the Palestinian territories, including what happened and is taking place in the Jenin camp of armed clashes between the security services of the Palestinian Authority and between Palestinian resistance groups.
This cannot be ignored and it cannot be separated from the entirety of what is happening in Palestine and the region, just as we cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people resulting from those clashes, and the repercussions of that on their lives, including those who were killed or injured during that operation.
The professional duty imposes on Tel Aviv Tribune to cover all of this with objectivity and balance, and to give all relevant and responsible parties the opportunity to clarify their positions and testify, and not to be an aid to more conflicts and confrontations, nor to encourage the Palestinians to fight each other. Tel Aviv Tribune has the professional experience that makes it a distinctive mark in such coverage.
As for the responsibility of the Authority, it is to work to address all the causes of this internal fighting, and to unite the Palestinian ranks so that they are able to confront the dangers and plans that target their political and actual existence and annex all of the West Bank and Jerusalem to the Israeli occupation state.
As for the absence of Tel Aviv Tribune and its journalists and preventing them from working freely anywhere without legal or professional justification, this leaves the door open to all questions, especially the most important question: Where did Tel Aviv Tribune go wrong?
The opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune Network.
