Walking in a land of mines
Sometimes being a journalist in the Palestinian territories seems like walking in a land of mines. You do not know when one will blow up in your face or when you will get away with what you’ve written.
In March this year, I wrote an article about a Palestinian court case, where some checks worth $60,000 were considered void. A citizen had issued the checks but had been forced to sign them by a brigadier, a high ranked police officer who was also the head of a police station. It could have been a normal article about a court case, but it was not so normal to me. The citizen had won the case and so I called him and his lawyer to know more details. I found out that the case had been pending in the courthouse for five years. That long ago the citizen had filed a lawsuit against a person who was an opponent of the citizen but a friend of the police chief and while the case was elaborating, the police chief had forced the citizen to sign the checks for the benefit of his friend.
What intrigued me most in the case was the fact that a brigadier, such a high ranked officer in the police, was involved. When I asked the PR officer in of police about this brigadier, he told me that this the man had retired two years ago. However, the PR officer gave my phone number to the brigadier, who called me later that night, threatening and interrogating me, while I was writing the article. He asked: “Why are you searching after me?”
I was shocked. Why would this PR officer give my phone number to the retired brigadier without my knowledge, or permission? It didn’t take me much time to realize that they wanted to intimidate me, and prevent me from writing my story. It took me one hour of tension, before I made up my mind, and wrote the story in details.
The next morning, the PR officer’s voice came shouting in my phone, saying that this article tarnishes the image of the police in front of the public. He claimed that he had received hundreds of phone calls asking for the police chief’s name.
At noon, the police issued a statement and published it online, saying that “the article that Naela Khalil had written was lacking some information that needed clarification.” They did not give any examples of what was missing in my article and they said nothing new. It was clear that they wanted to ruin my reputation as a journalist. But this was one of the few times when my newspaper stood up for me. The next day, the paper published a statement affirming that what I wrote was the truth.
Until today, I wonder why the PR officer gave my number to the brigadier at that specific time. I think his way of acting made it very clear that his work as a PR officer mainly serves his personal interest and his personal relations, not the interest of the citizens.
For me, this was one of few when times I decided to sacrifice one of my sources of information for the sake of the truth. I decided not to give in to my fear and the blackmail I was subjected to and I think I did the right thing. I am positive that this PR officer will never answer any of my phone calls again, but I do not regret.
By Naela Khalil
Al-Ayyam newspaper
Ramallah, Palestine