Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Haaretz Rumored to Have Fired Amira Hass and Meron Rapoport
I just heard rumors that two of Haaretz's best investigative journalists, Amira Hass and Meron Rapoport, will no longer be employed by the newspaper.
Amira Hass, Israel's prize-winning journalist, has been on sabbatical from Haaretz and will not be returning (according to the rumors.) I don't know anything more than that, including whether the decision was a mutual one.
The rumors about Rapoport are more disturbing. Hass is an established journalist and will land on her feet. Rapoport is not as well-known but has his finger on the pulse of events going on in the army and in the territories. He is an extraordinary and valuable resource on exposing the sins of the Occupation. From what I have heard, he was fired, pure and simple.
That's all I know, folks. I would love to get emails from Rapoport and Hass saying that the report of their firings has been greatly exaggerated. I will update you on this as the facts become known.
By the way, if you are wondering about Gideon Levy, I am told that as a member of Haaretz's editorial board, he has sufficient clout with the publisher. On the other hand, I would have said the same thing about the others.
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2 comments:
How dreadful! Both are terrific reporters. In some ways, I like Rapaport's work even more than Hass'.
It must be the new editorial regime at Haaretz. Who is this guy Dov Alfon who's the new editor? Never heard of him.
I, as an "right-wing Orthodox/religious supporter of Jewish settlement in Judea/Samaria" will miss Amira Hass, if it is true she is leaving Ha'aretz.
Firstly, she serves as sort of "Bilam the Prophet" at Ha'aretz. What I mean is that she writes "Oh dear, the situation is terrible, more and more Jews are living in Judea/Samaria, more and more settlements are being built, the Palestinian Authority is a big failure, etc". She comes to curse, but she ends up blessing, and I usually feel better after reading these things.
I do have to give her credit for being one of the few Israeli reporters who reports on what is actually going on in the Palestinian territories. Most coverage starts and ends with some statement by Abu Mazen that he wants "peace" or he is unhappy with what Israel is doing, but she tells stories about what life is actually like there. I recall her reporting a few years ago about a bunch of disgruntled armed Palestinians who wanted IIRC government jobs so they burst into a kindergarten and shot the place up in order to get the attention of the PA Authorities (I don't think they actually hit anyone but Hass mentioned how the kids were cowering under tables and the such).
She, as a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist (yes, that is what she called herself in an interview), originally fell in love with HAMAS because she felt it was a "clean, honest, ideological movement dedicated to
empowering the Palestinian people, etc, etc", (unlike the terrible corrupt FATAH and the Palestinian Authority) but she became disillusioned with them, particularly after the violence of their coup in Gaza.
She did point out what a filthy, corrupt bargain the Oslo Agreements were in which Rabin and Peres bought off a few old FATAH terrorists, gave them VIP cards enabling them to move around freely unlike everyone else, and told them they could rob and suppress the Palestinian population as much as they wanted, only they should keep them in line.
The PA people did keep part of the bargain...they did rob and suppress their people, but they did not stop terrorism as Rabin and Peres deluded themselves into thinking they would do at the start.
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