PLO Official Says Al-Jazeera Is an Accomplice to Crimes Committed by Hamas

June 17th, 2007 5:41 PM

Here’s something you don’t see every day: an Arab leader complaining about Al-Jazeera being biased.

Yet, that's what happened Sunday according to Agence France-Presse (emphasis added throughout, h/t Charles at LGF):

A senior Palestinian official on Sunday accused pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television of favouring Hamas in its coverage of the battles between the Islamists and rival Fatah.

Al-Jazeera favoring a terrorist organization in its coverage? Somebody pinch me:

"Al-Jazeera is an accomplice in the crimes committed by the (Hamas) militias... against our people," Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told Palestinian radio.

Seems safe to say that Al-Jazeera has been an accomplice to many crimes committed against Americans in Iraq. But I digress:

"It has become a mouthpiece for these militias and has remained silent about their crimes," said the close ally of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the leader of Fatah.

Abed Rabbo accused the Qatar-based satellite channel of "encouraging the putschists' crimes by covering these extreme terrorists and not covering their crimes."

He said the popular international broadcaster has given wide coverage to "isolated acts" committed by Fatah loyalists against Hamas in the West Bank and "marginal" coverage "to the atrocious crimes committed in the Gaza Strip."

We feel your pain, Abed.