The New York Times · 1 December 1994

CP-1994-070

Palestinian Authority Holds Up Delivery of Newspapers in Gaza

By JOEL GREENBERG

Scan 910 × 1160 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, Nov. 30 — For a third straight day, the Palestinian Authority delayed distribution in the Gaza Strip today of the two main Palestinian newspapers in an apparent punishment for their reports on Hamas, the militant Muslim group that is challenging the authority.

Copies of Al Quds and An Nahar, dailies published in East Jerusalem, were confiscated by the Palestinian police when they arrived in Gaza at dawn, and were released several hours later. Similar measures were taken on Monday and Tuesday.

The delays began after the papers published reports on a large Hamas rally in Gaza on Saturday, citing a crowd estimate by the organizers of 70,000 participants. The Palestinian police had put the number at 5,000. Some Western news organizations used a figure of 20,000. “It’s a form of censorship, basically,” said Marwan Abu Zalaf, editor in chief of Al Quds.

“They are making a kind of clampdown because they want us to abide by their statements. Where is the democracy that the Palestinian Authority advocates? The police are supposed to enhance democracy, not abuse it.” Although it normally supports the Palestinian Authority, Al Quds has attacked the restrictions in editorial columns and cartoons.

On Tuesday it published a caricature of the Gaza police chief, Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali, showing him in an office equipped with a censor’s stamp and scissors, sitting next to a sign that said: “The distribution of papers in Gaza is forbidden because their news doesn’t suit my mood.”

General Jabali has attributed the delays to heavy rains in Gaza, difficulties at an Israeli checkpoint and “routine procedures.” He denied there were orders to hold up the newspapers. “There is no official decision to ban or confiscate the newspapers,” he said.

But Yasir Abed Rabbo, who holds the Information and Culture portfolio in the authority, told Palestinian journalists that the delays were “a decision by the authority at the highest level,” an apparent reference to Yasir Arafat. Mr. Abed Rabbo criticized the actions, however.

“We are against any measures that violate the freedom of the press, and they must be lifted quickly,” he said. “We will not allow, with all the means at our disposal, any such possibility. Palestinian mouths should not and will not be shut by Palestinian hands.” He said the issue would be discussed at the weekly meeting of the Palestinian Authority on Saturday.

The authority drew criticism from Palestinians when it banned the distribution of An Nahar last July, asserting that its pro-Jordanian stance ran counter to Palestinian interests. The paper was allowed to reappear five weeks later after it abandoned its pro-Jordanian line and declared its loyalty to the P.L.O.

How this transcription was made

One clipping, one scan: the story in two columns, complete, with a sliver of an advertisement at the right edge. — The running head is printed and partly cropped at both ends: “…W, YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, …”. The weekday, month and day are on the page; THE YEAR IS CUT OFF at the right edge of the scan. 1 December 1994 was a Thursday, and the content (the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Arafat, the Gaza police chief) can only be 1994, so Maria’s label is almost certainly right — but the year is not visible, so I am not marking it confirmed. LABEL ORDER: Maria’s slide label lists “Dec 1 1994 / May 21 1989”, the reverse of the scan order; this is the second scan and the December one.

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