It’s been a while since I last wrote about BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza well over three weeks ago and hasn’t been heard from since. (Regular readers will recall that I started following the story of his abduction shortly after it began. See this category for the previous posts.)
Since early this week, when Palestinian journalists began a three-day strike—which means they stopped covering their own political leaders (including Nancy Pelosi’s meeting with PA president Abbas), and also that they have held loud demonstrations against the ineptitude and cowardice of their own leaders)—coverage has picked up considerably.
Here are the latest headlines from Google News:
IPI Calls for Releasing BBC Journalist Alan Johnston
WAFA - Palestine News Agency, Palestinian Territories - 18 hours ago
VIENNA, April 04, 2007, (WAFA)-The International Press Institute (IPI), expressed its grave concern about the fate of the BBC journalist Alan Johnston and …
Palestinian journalists on three-day strike for release of BBC … IFEX
Petitions for release of kidnapped BBC Gaza journalist Indiantelevision.com
BBC users urge reporter’s release BBC News
UNESCO (Communiqués de presse) - Arutz Sheva
all 259 news articles »Palestinian and International Organizations Call for Releasing BBC …
Al-Jazeerah.info, GA - 1 hour ago
The Palestinian people displayed their solidarity with the abducted journalist Alan Johnston in a series of activities and protests refusing such practices …Hopeless in Gaza
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 9 hours ago
Israel must reach a compromise that will ensure a peaceful future and the wellbeing of Israelis, Palestinians and dear friends such as Alan Johnston. …
Is Gaza the new Somalia? National Post
Olmert offer for Arab talks draws skeptical response Turkish Daily News (subscription)
Problems in Gaza are pushing Palestinian nationalism toward … National Post
all 21 news articles »Colleagues Protest Journalist’s Kidnapping
CBS News, NY - Apr 3, 2007
International and local journalists stepped up efforts Monday to win the release of Alan Johnston, a BBC reporter who was kidnapped from his car at gunpoint …
ARAB MEDIA WATCH, BBC National Review Online Blogs
all 2 news articles »
Johnston’s kidnapping—not only unsolved but mostly unaddressed by Palestinian leaders—has sparked an unprecedented number of complaints from Palestinians and their most vocal sympathizers, who normally keep such opinions to themselves. For example:
“What has come to pass in Gaza is embarrassing and shameful,” said Rashid Khalidi, director of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and a widely respected author of books on Palestinian history.
“You may be seeing the collapse of the Palestinian national movement. It might take us back an entire generation,” he said in an interview.
“There has been a failure of leadership and it is time that Palestinian leaders looked at their own weaknesses instead of blaming everything on Zionism, imperialism and other outside forces.”
Mr. Khalidi’s bleak assessment is gaining currency in Gaza and the West Bank as well as the far-flung Palestinian diaspora.
In his airy office in Gaza, Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said in a recent interview that “officials with the mindset of a banana republic are causing tremendous damage to the Palestinian cause.”
In an angry essay in the Palestine Chronicle, an online publication, author Ramzy Baroud complained the Palestinian leadership was permeated by ideological exclusivism, cronyism and corruption and therefore “as ineffective as ever before.”
Hani Habib, a political analyst in Gaza, said Palestinians had begun to doubt their ability to achieve statehood and “completely lost faith and trust in their leaders.”
Meanwhile, of course, there are also three Israeli hostages still being held—one by the Palestinians and two by Hezbollah: Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev.
