Amanpour asks a besieged Arafat to 'stop the violence'
What planet is CNN on?
By Leslie Feinberg
Even the phrase "blaming the victim" can't convey the
arrogance of CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour's March 29
telephone interview with Yasser Arafat. Speaking by phone to
the Palestinian leader in his besieged compound, as several of
his closest aides were being assassinated by Israeli troops,
Amanpour sounded like a reporter from the antebellum South
asking slave rebellion leader Nat Turner or Abolitionist John
Brown if they would "rein in the violence."
Arafat was literally being held captive inside his Ramallah
headquarters by Israeli settler military might. Tanks circled
and shelled his compound. Bulldozers and tank turrets were
tearing down the fences and walls around him. Explosions and
gunfire crackled and boomed from all directions. Israeli
snipers poised on nearby rooftops fired right into the
headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.
In the midst of this all-out siege by the generals of Tel
Aviv, the highest-paid foreign correspondent in the world asked
the Palestinian leader, "What are the conditions like at your
compound right now?"
Arafat was used to the Western press personalizing and
trivializing the news. "Still you are not following this
aggression against the Palestinian people in all of the West
Bank and Gaza," he replied. "They have divided Gaza into three
parts, completely separated it. And also the aggression and the
attack in Ramallah against my headquarters and against the
Palestinian people ... all around. At the same time, they are
increasing their forces, their military activities to follow up
their aggression against many other places, many other towns,
many other cities, many other areas in our Palestinian
liberated areas."
Amanpour sounded surprised. "Are you under direct physical
threat right now?"
Arafat answered, "It seems that you are not following the
TVs all over the world. They have destroyed completely seven of
our buildings, completely around my office and pounded my
office with all their armaments. ... Israel is the real
terrorist of the occupation. And especially they are using now
all the American weapons against us--F-15s and F-16s and ...
rockets and bombers and artillery and everything."
Then Amanpour bared the real role of the imperialist media
in times of political and military crisis--to refashion the
oppressed into the oppressor. Secretary of State Colin Powell,
she said, "called on you to rein in the violence. What do you
make of that statement, and can you and will you rein in that
violence?"
Arafat could not contain his anger. "Are you asking me while
I am under complete siege?"
The CNN star reporter repeated the monstrously loaded
question: "Are you able to rein in the violence?"
Arafat blew up. "You are covering, with such questions, the
terrorist activities of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli
crimes."
He hung up. Amanpour, for once, was at a loss for words.
Reprinted from the April 11, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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