By Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem

Khalid Amayreh

The Palestinian Authority (PA) doesn’t stop surprising us with its boundless stupidity and foolish behaviors.

On 4 August, I, like many other journalists, decided to travel to Bethlehem to cover Fatah’s much-heralded and long-awaited Sixth conference. Security was tight and thousands of policemen had been deployed all over the traditional birthplace of Jesus. This generated a lot of consternation among the locals who had to walk long distances to reach their homes and businesses.

Some of the policemen I encountered on the way to the conference venue were nice and kind, but others were exceptionally onerous.

When I arrived at the conference hall at the Tera Santa (Holy Land) School in downtown Bethlehem , I was told that only people with a special press card issued by the President’s office in Ramallah were allowed to get in.

A few days earlier, it seemed that the President’s office had contacted via email a “selected few” journalists and cameramen, asking them to go to Ramallah to obtain a special press card.

I was not one of these for reasons I still don’t know, hence I didn’t possess the special card.

And it was not for lack of trying. I had contacted the local offices of the PA information ministry in Hebron and Bethlehem who informed me that they didn’t know what was going on. Their only terse reply was always “you can phone us tomorrow and we hope will be able to help you.”

As I stood outside the Tera Santa school, along with many “unprivileged journalists,” a security officer called my name. He took my laptop, camera and berated me for taking a picture of the entrance to the conference hall.

Then a few minutes later, two plain-cloth agents of the Preventive Security Force (PSF) asked me to go with them “for a few minutes” to the force’s local headquarters.

There I was confronted (maybe the right word is affronted) with one PSF agent after the other who asked me the same questions over and over again, mainly over personal details and which media outlet I was working for.

One of them said that I was not a real journalist because I didn’t have “a license to practice the profession of journalism.”

Another took my Identity card and two press cards, telling me to wait until he received further instructions from the “security authorities.”

As I began to sense that the matter was more than just an misunderstanding, and that the harassment was deliberate and had first and foremost to do with PA dislike of my articles, one PSF arrived, telling me that I would be detained until the evening.

I asked him what the matter was and why I was singled out for this “benevolent treatment,” he suggested that my presence in Bethlehem constituted a security risk.

I was not particularly maltreated at the PSF headquarters, but the totally unjustified detention for six hours underscored the haphazard nature and moodiness of the way the PA operates.

Eventually, another officer came to the room where I was “kept” telling me that I was barred from entering Bethlehem for eight days and that my name was circulated to all checkpoints and roadblocks in the area.

When I pressed him to tell me why this was being done and what violation of the law I was guilty of, he said “I don’t know, I am a security official, and I just carry out orders from above.”

This was not the first time I had an encounter with PSF and other PA security agencies. This is why I did realize from the outset that I was dealing with a security apparatus that operates not only outside the rule of law, but also outside the circle of logic. This convinced me that I shouldn’t try to challenge them.

At around 3:30 pm, I was allowed to leave, but not before I was given a written summon to the Preventive Security office in Hebron .

I believe that the behavior of the PA security agencies in this particular instance is both stupid and counterproductive.

I happen to be one of a few Palestinian journalists who write mostly in English to a foreign audience. We seek to communicate to the outside world Israel’s criminal violations of the Palestinian people’s human rights as well as Jewish settler savagery and terror against unprotected Palestinian civilians.

However, instead of receiving praise from the PA, we receive harassment and persecution.

This episode on the part of PA security apparatus is not an expression of malicious ill will on the part of security officials. It is rather an expression of ignorance and stupidity. But ignorance is no excuse as Palestinian national interests won’t be served by ignorant security officials who erroneously think that persecuting and humiliating journalists enhance security and makes “the state!!” more feared and respected. In fact, a state that is feared is usually not respected. Respect is often the anti-thesis of fear.

Of course, I am not going to be intimidated by this childish conduct on the part of the PA security apparatus. Our mission as journalists is more paramount than wasting time and energy dealing with stupid distractions.

But I do hope that PA officials, particularly those who understand the importance of press freedom and the role of the media in serving the just cause of the Palestinian people, will see to it that such foolish theatrics are not repeated.

We must respect ourselves, otherwise no one will respect us or take us seriously.

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By Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem