In Gaza, colleagues boycott for missing BBC journalist

They're refusing to report on all official bodies of the Palestinian Authority in an attempt to force leaders to secure Alan Johnston's release.

from the April 3, 2007 edition

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"This group wants to be sponsored, and they're already a very powerful hamule [clan]," says a Palestinian source who asked not to be named. "They'll be on the side of whoever will join them. So they're now flashing to everyone, 'We're here!' They're one of the most powerful, they can kill anyone they want."

Critics say the kidnapping has come at a time when Palestinian politicians are absorbed with fast-moving events – the formation of the unity government, the visits of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, and the Arab Summit last week. "It's been silence since Alan's kidnap, and that kind of thing is worrying," says Simon McGregor-Wood, chairman of the Foreign Press Association, which held a protest rally Monday in Ramallah alongside the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate.

Monday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that officials were not taking the situation lightly, and would try to deal with those trying to achieve Johnston's release.

"The concern here," Mr. McGregor-Wood says, "is that for whatever reason, to do with the complex moment we're now in, Alan may be becoming part of the wider game, and that may point to a long-term detention."

The FPA has warned its members of information it has of militants' intentions to kidnap more foreigners, particularly journalists. Foreign aid organizations and the UN have drastically reduced their staff in Gaza. Two weeks ago, militants fired 11 shots at the armored car of John Ging, field director of the UN Relief and Works Agency in a failed attempt to kidnap him.

As a result, many aspects of Palestinian life go unreported. "People don't want to get kidnapped reporting 'just a feature,' but those are the kind of stories that really tell people what's happening," McGregor-Wood says.

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