JPA backs Jordan Times over 'anti-Semitic' article

The Jordan Press Association (JPA) on Saturday stood behind The Jordan Times’ Chief Editor, Samir Barhoum, who refused an Israeli request to publish an apology for an article, which it branded "anti-Semitic." In his article, titled "The big Zionist lie and the task ahead," published recently, former foreign minister Kamel Abu Jaber included what the JPA called "quotes and historical facts that had no anti-Semitic content, whatsoever, contrary to what Israel had contended." In the article, Abu Jaber referred to "the Zionist big lie about Palestine", "a land without a people", and also blamed Israel's intransigence for the impasse in peace efforts, led by U.S Secretary of State John Kerry, saying "so far, his efforts have been shattered against the rock of Israeli resistance." The JPA expressed its solidarity with "The Jordan Times, its chief editor and staff in rejecting an apology," adding that the article's content was "within the framework of free expression guaranteed by international conventions." The JPA said Israel, as an occupying entity, is in gross violation of human rights as it practiced "daily apartheid policies and vicious crimes against the Palestinian people, including evictions and land expropriations, while continuously denying their national rights