Media, International Community Ignore Palestinian Crimes Against Palestinians

by Bassam Tawil • January 9, 2025 at 5:00 am

"[M]edia freedoms" have never existed under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. For many years, the two parties have been imposing restrictions on Palestinian journalists, including a ban on criticizing PA and Hamas leaders. Palestinian journalists and activists who dared to speak out against the PA or Hamas found themselves incarcerated, and sometimes dead.
The silence of the international community and the so-called "pro-Palestinian" activists on the university campuses in the US and across the West has only encouraged the PA to dismiss launching an investigation into the killing of al-Sabbagh.
By turning a blind eye to violations committed by Palestinians against their own people, the international community, which appears to be solely obsessed with Israel, is displaying its hypocrisy, double standards and bigotry. Instead of helping the Palestinians, it is doing them a great, massive, gigantic disservice.

The family of a Palestinian female journalist has accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces of killing their daughter in Jenin Refugee Camp. "Media freedoms" have never existed under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. For many years, the two parties have imposed restrictions on Palestinian journalists, including a ban on criticizing PA and Hamas leaders. Pictured: Palestinian Authority security forces in Jenin Refugee Camp on December 17, 2024. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)

The family of a Palestinian female journalist has accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces of killing their daughter in Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern West Bank. Shatha al-Sabbagh, 22, was reportedly shot in the head by a PA sniper on December 29, 2024, as she walked out of her home. PA officials have denied the allegation and claimed that al-Sabbagh was killed by gunmen in the camp.

Anwar Rajab, spokesperson for the PA security forces, condemned the killing as a "despicable crime" and claimed that PA security forces were not present in the area. Rajab accused "outlaws" in the camp of shooting the journalist and vowed to pursue the "murderers."

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Trump's 'Crazy' Ideas Not So Crazy After All

by Lawrence Kadish • January 9, 2025 at 4:00 am

Pictured: President-elect Donald J. Trump speaks at a press conference in the Mar-a-Lago Club on January 7, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Why is it that people are always calling for someone to think "outside the box," then when someone does, say, "Aaaak! He thought outside the box!"

In that view, President-elect Donald J. Trump has already committed (at least) three heresies: Buy Greenland, stop China from controlling the Panama Canal and deepen America's affiliation with Canada.

All three ideas are neither crazy nor even new.

President Harry S. Truman looked at acquiring Greenland in 1946. Thomas Jefferson, after the Louisiana Purchase, proposed buying Cuba – just think how the Cubans would be prospering now, politically and economically, if that deal had gone through. Those acquisitions didn't take place but in 1917, the US did acquire Denmark's Virgin Islands for $25 million. As historian Stephen Press writes,

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