Khalid Amayreh
Conflict with the Palestinian Authority
Amayreh was barred from leaving the West Bank for many years; he was confined to his home village of Dura, near Hebron, by the Israeli military authorities.Sherine Bahaa, [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/931/re2.htm With friends like these] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815165530/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/931/re2.htm |date=2014-08-15 }}, Al-Aahram Weekly], 22–28 January 2009. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group issued various reports on the harassment of Amayreh by both Israel and Palestinian authorities.[http://www.phrmg.org/monitor1997/may97-8.htm Freedom of the Press, Publications, and Speech in the PA, May 1997] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129110603/http://www.phrmg.org/monitor1997/may97-8.htm |date=2011-11-29 }} and [http://www.phrmg.org/pressrelease/2000/21feb2000.htm Palestinian and Israeli intelligence cooperate to silence journalist, Press release, February 21, 2000] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129110603/http://www.phrmg.org/monitor1997/may97-8.htm |date=November 29, 2011 }} , published by Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.
On January 22, 2009, Amayreh was arrested by the police forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA). He was questioned and imprisoned in a blacked-out room for two days. The PA stated the reason for his arrest was not his reporting about financial corruption in the PA but suspicion of affiliation with Hamas. Others{{whom|date=November 2023}} state the reason for his arrest was his statements about the collaborationist nature of the PA during the 2008–2009 Gaza War.Sherine Bahaa, {{cite web|url=http://palestinethinktank.com/ |title=Details on the Arrest of Khalid Amayreh |accessdate=2008-07-19 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204025148/http://palestinethinktank.com/ |archivedate=February 4, 2009 }}, PTT, 25 January 2009.{{primary source inline|reason=This appears to be an employer or associate organization of the subject reporting on the event|date=January 2012}} He was ultimately released.
A few years later, he was once again harassed on several occasions by the PA, beginning in January 2012. The purpose of the continuous harassment is not totally clear, but it might have something to do with the PA's declared hostility against Hamas and its sympathizers.Khaled Amayreh, [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1080/re2.htm My latest episode with PA security] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115150829/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1080/re2.htm |date=2012-01-15 }}, Al Ahram, No. 1080, 12 January 2012.{{Primary source inline|date=January 2012|reason=WP:BLPSPS; incident, and speculation as to the PA third party motivations, should be supported by a third party cite}} [http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=252914&R=R3 PA forces summon critical Palestinian journalist] by Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, January 10, 2012.
Views and opinions
In 2008, in an article that was picked up and redistributed widely across various websites and listservs, he stated that:
"It is well known that Israel, through the numerous Zionist lobbies and pressure groups, more or less controls America's politics, media and financial institutions…. But America doesn't lack the brain power to know the facts and find out the truth about the umbilical connection between the Israeli factor and the ravaging financial crisis now facing the US… I am afraid there will be more bad news in this regard if America doesn't reclaim its liberty from the Zionist Robber Barons who have come to tightly control the American financial establishment."[http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/Financial_Crisis.htm Reaction to the Financial Crisis in the Arab World Anti-Semitic Stereotypes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125175218/http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/Financial_Crisis.htm |date=2012-01-25 }}, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), November 4, 2008.[https://archive.today/20120911235735/http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/10/04/when_will_america_wake_up_from_her_slumb When Will America wake up from her slumber? Israel is destroying America financially] by Khalid Amayreh .Amayreh believes that antisemitism in Arab societies originates in "Israel's murderous oppression of the Palestinian people."Webman, Esther. “The Challenge of Assessing Arab/Islamic Antisemitism.” Middle Eastern Studies 46, no. 5 (2010): 677–97. Page 690.
In 2010, Amayreh described Helen Thomas and Fidel Castro as the "elderly targets" of "Zionist supremacists from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles", supporting calls for Jewish "invaders" to return to Poland and their "native homelands".{{cite web |url=http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/06/24/khalid-amayreh-castro-is-right-so-is-helen-thomas/ |title=Khalid Amayreh – Castro is right, so is Helen Thomas {{!}} Sabbah Report |website=sabbah.biz |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100628134403/http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/06/24/khalid-amayreh-castro-is-right-so-is-helen-thomas/ |archive-date=2010-06-28}}
In March 2011, he wrote that Israelis are "pathological liars and colonialist invaders from Eastern Europe" and that Jerusalem has been "violated and raped by Zionist Jews for many years". He described Zionism as a "genocidal, racist, rapacious, covetous, and of course utterly mendacious… a malignant cancer" and claimed that Israel wishes to erect a "Hebrew empire" encompassing "Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, northern Saudi Arabia, northern Egypt and the islands of Crete and Cyprus".[http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/46760/paper-wrapped-extremism Paper-wrapped extremism] by Michael Weiss, The Jewish Chronicle, March 17, 2011.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110513064121/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelweiss/100087135/amnesty-international-memo-and-the-palestinian-writer-who-calls-jews-kikes/ Amnesty International, MEMO and the Palestinian writer who calls Jews 'kikes'] by Michael Weiss, The Daily Telegraph, May 10, 2011.[http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/analysis/49513/amnesty-cant-get-hook Amnesty can't get off this hook] by Richard Millett, The Jewish Chronicle, May 26, 2011.[http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/middle-east/2133-netanyahus-lebensraum Netanyahu's lebensraum] by Khalid Amayreh, Middle East Monitor (MEMO), Thursday, 10 March 2011.
Amayreh has been accused of distorting the historical record regarding the nature of Arab nationalism.[http://islamophiliawatch.blogspot.com/2018/03/how-islamists-distort-history.html How Islamists distort history] by Zenobia van Dongen, Islamophilia Watch, 25 March 2018
Death
Books
- Journalism and Mass Communication, Theory and Practice (Arabic, 1996)
- Refutation of Western Myths and Misconceptions About Islam and the Palestinian Question (Arabic, 1988)
- Living Under the Israeli Occupation (Arabic, 2007)
- My Story with the Shiites: Major Contradictions in the Shiite Imami Religion (Arabic, 2016; English, 2017){{fact|date=November 2023}}
References
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120114150337/http://www.xpis.ps/ www.xpis.ps] Amayreh's webpage
- List of articles at [http://www.esinislam.com/Articles_Index/Khalid_Amayreh_Index.htm EsinIslam]
- List of articles in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718225957/http://www.corkpsc.org/db.php?auid=84 English]
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Category:20th-century Palestinian journalists
Category:21st-century Palestinian journalists
Category:Palestinian anti-Zionists