Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to cause collapse of PA

From: David Frankfurter [mailto:david.frankfurter@iname.com]
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 2:48 PM
To: letters@haaretz.co.il
Subject: Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to cause collapse of PA - By Amira Hass - 19 February 2001

Dear Sir,

The above article reports accusations by the Palestinian Authority that closure of the territories and Israel's failure to transfer funds is a deliberate attemp to cause its collapse. Each of us is left to reach our own conclusions as to whether the demand to transfer money to support an enemy regime is reasonable or pragmatically advisable. No Israeli position is reported. No reference is made to the Arab countries' refusal to transfer promised aid from the Saudi bank in which it sits until the Palestinian Authority deal with its internal corruption - sums which exceed the held taxes as reported.

If this article were published outside Israel, the Journalists Code of Ethics would demand some balance to your article - requiring quotes from Israeli sources and referring to the Arab countries' witholding of support. An article which presents only one side (as yours does) would be unacceptable.

I understand that things need to be taken in context. Israeli sources are clearly quoted throughout the paper, that the paper published the Arab fund witholding issue just last week (11 February 2001). It may also rightly argue that the underlying issues are more than obvious to the Israelis who read the paper.

This is all true - but your paper is an occasional or reguar source of information and a barometer of Israeli opinion for many others - foreign newspapers, journalists and diplomats, Jewish and non-Jewish people who live overseas.

More importantly, who are we as a nation to demand that others stand before a test of a specific Code of Ethics which we ourselves fail?


David Frankfurter