Canadian activists are the subject of a lawsuit from one of the country’s largest media organisations, writes Mordecai Briemberg
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An Arab-Israeli publisher has been ordered to stop importing Arabic-language books from Syria and Lebanon. Salah Abassi gave an interview to Israeli public radio on 11 August in which he stated that the Trade and Industry Ministry had ‘warned’ him that his actions were illegal. Abassi claims that Arabic translations of certain books such as the Harry Potter series can only be sourced from Lebanon or Syria. The ban is based on a decree issued under the British mandate, which forbids the importing of books from hostile nations.
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Afaq TV, a Palestinian commercial TV station based in Nablus, was closed by Israeli soldiers yesterday for one year on the grounds that it was ‘terrorist’ media. ‘We are an independent media and, regardless of what the Israeli military says, we have never given our allegiance to any political movement,’ argued Afaq TV director, Issa Abu el Izz. The entrance to the station was sealed up, and the station has been forced to stop broadcasting.
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A recent French court decision leaves us no closer to the truth about footage that shook the Middle East, writes Natasha Lehrer
A seven-year debate over the authenticity of the footage of the death of Mohammed al Dura in the arms of his father Jamal reached a new stage on 21 May when the Paris Court of Appeal overturned a defamation verdict against blogger Philippe Karsenty.
In 2004 Karsenty joined the chorus voicing scepticism about the al Dura footage. He accused the veteran France 2 Middle East correspondent Charles Enderlin, who provided the voiceover for the report from Gaza, which was filmed by freelance cameraman Talal Abu Ramah, of knowingly having broadcast faked footage of the shooting at the Netzarim Junction on 30 September 2000. Enderlin and France 2 have consistently rebutted this accusation and have so far taken four bloggers, including Karsenty, to court. In the original court case, in 2006, the court did not demand that France 2 hand over the rushes. Karsenty was found guilty of defamation.
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