If there was ever a Palestinian slapstick comedy scenario, this is it.
Ma’an, the Fatah’s mouthpiece disguised as free press, had its bureau in Gaza closed by Hamas, for publishing an article that supported the coup/revolution/devolution in Egypt, and blasted Hamas’ patrons, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The attorney-general in the Hamas-run government on Thursday ordered the closure of the Ma’an News Agency and Al-Arabiya satellite channel bureaus in Gaza.
The order was relayed to Ma’an by officials from the Hamas-run Ministry of Information and security forces.
Ministry officials accompanied by security forces questioned the Gaza bureau chief in his office on Thursday over a report published on Ma’an’s Arabic site that quoted information translated from a Hebrew news site.
The report said that six Muslim Brotherhood officials had smuggled themselves into Gaza to plan an uprising against the military in Cairo, after their Egyptian president was deposed.
A ministry official told Ma’an’s bureau chief that the report was false.
“Ma’an News agency insists that the Gaza Strip is involved in the Egyptian crisis seeking to intensify the incitement in Egypt against the Strip,” the ministry official said.
“Ma’an deliberately publishes false news reports seeking to incite against Gaza. It has become complicit with Egyptian media outlets in incitement against the Strip and making up lies to harm the image of Palestinian resistance,” the official continued.
Commenting on the accusations, Ma’an’s editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham said “some people in Gaza seemingly went mad after the Muslim Brotherhood rule was ousted in Egypt.
“They take any possible occasion to wage tough attacks against Ma’an News Agency for no reason. We have lodged official complaints to the office of the Gaza premier, to the former Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouthi, to the Ministry of Information and to the union of Palestinian journalists.”
Lahham added that Ma’an would also complain about threats to its staff to the Union of Arab Journalists and to the International Federation of Journalists.
Addressing the Hamas government, Lahham said: “We challenge them to prove that Ma’an tells lies in its reports“.
Well, this time, Hamas is telling the truth.
- Proving Ma’an tells lies in its reports: Check and double-check.
- Making up lies to harm the image of Palestinian resistance: See above point.
What is really vetting Hamas’ version is that “Hebrew site” Ma’an translated from:
Ma’an: We only translated #Debka story that MB leaders from #Egypt fled to Gaza. Closure of our office unjustified.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) July 25, 2013
Here’s the original Debka piece.
Debka is the Israeli version of the Doucheblogger. It is the brainchild aneurysm of two pensioners, Giora Shamis and his wife, who have their share of ripped off editorials, sensationalist headlines, hearsay, breaking censor laws to scoop the press, and just plain dumb writing, full of typos, falsehoods, and sheer stupidity. Like I said, Israeli Douchebloggers.
And just like their American counterpart, they too, are for some reason hailed as an accurate source, even being a Mossad outlet. Heck, even anti-Israel bloggers acknowledge that they’re propagandist crap.
Therefore, upon hearing that Hamas closed their office down with the Debka pretext, I couldn’t help but laugh at this incredible slapstick comedic moment, and the epic Ma’an fail.
