PFUJ flays Palestinians massacre | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

PFUJ flays Palestinians massacre

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the massacre of Palestinians, majority of them civilians, by the Israeli forces in Ghaza, saying the naked aggression through ‘state terrorism’, and the soft stance of UN Security Council, would only help the extremist forces around the world.

PFUJ, in a statement, said that Israeli’s ground and air strikes in the name of targeting Hamas hideouts has so far resulted in the killing of over 500 Palestinians and over 2000 injured including women and children.

“The soft stance taken by the UN Security Council in a bid to save strong condemnation of state terrorism of Israeli forces would not help the world in the so-called war on terror. Rather such aggression would help the forces of extremism,” it said.

PFUJ has also condemned Israel for not allowing foreign journalists to visit Ghaza, despite the Isarel’s court ruling, which is a direct attack on freedom of the Press and an attempt to prevent world media to cover the massacre of Palestinians.

“Journalists must be allowed to cover one of the worst incidents in the recent years in Ghaza,” it said. PFUJ praised civil society organisations around the world for strong protest against the Israeli attack including demonstration in Israel, United States, and Engl and in the Muslim world.

“The massacre of civilians by the Israeli Zionists is a war crime and must be condemned for killing innocent civilians in the same manner in which the world condemned suicide bombings as these are heinous crimes,” PFUJ said.

“PFUJ has always condemned all kind of terrorism whether by the State or non-state actors as journalists too become their victims while covering such events as happened only on Sunday in D.I.Khan, where two local journalists were among 10 killed in suicide bombing, “ it said.

Whether it is Palestinian conflict, Iraqi or Afghanistan, journalist’s casualty had been pretty high. Even in Pakistan dozens of journalists were killed in the tribal areas since 2001, it added.

“Expansion of terrorism is not only threat to world peace but to journalism as well and it becomes greater threat if involved any State. Such aggression should not be condoning by the UN, when it comes to Israel or US. The policy of double standard had resulted in escalating terrorism around the world,” PFUJ said.

Pakistan is one of the biggest victims of terrorism since it joined the War on Terror in 2001. The terrorism was the result of following US policies on Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion in the 80s.

“It was because of such policies that the world had seen a highly “embarrassing incident,” for the US President George W. Bush, recently in Iraq, when a highly emotional and frustrated Iraqi journalist used his “shoes” as his expression to condemn US policy in Iraq,” PFUJ added.

Source: The Nation

Date:1/6/2009