Pro-Hamas newspaper launched in Gaza

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Gaza, May 4: Palestinian supporters of the ruling Hamas movement launched their first newspaper today, opening a new front in the battle for political dominance with the rival Fatah faction.

''Palestine'' is the pro-Islamist answer to the three largest Palestinian newspapers which have longstanding ties to Fatah, the secular faction of President Mahmoud Abbas.

It is also the first Palestinian newspaper to be printed in the Gaza Strip. The other newspapers are produced in the occupied West Bank, which is dominated by Fatah.

''Palestine'' will initially print an estimated 10,000 copies, published separately in the West Bank and Gaza to avoid any possible Israeli restriction on its distribution.

Editor-in-chief Mustafa Assawaf said the paper's owners were close to Hamas, which heads a unity government with Fatah.

Despite the power-sharing deal, tensions remain high and a Western aid ban on the Palestinian Authority is still in place.

But Assawaf said the paper would not be a mouthpiece for the Islamist group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction.

''We say that the newspaper will be for all Palestinians and we will leave judgment to the readers,'' he told Reuters. ''It will not be a newspaper of one faction. It will be as its name suggests, 'Palestine' for all Palestinians.'' First editions of the paper went on sale in Gaza today, published in tabloid format, with a news section as well as culture and sports supplements.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, attended a ceremony to mark the newspaper's launch yesterday.

Haniyeh, who has sharply criticised pro-Fatah news coverage in the past, urged the owners of ''Palestine'' to ''maintain accuracy, neutrality and objectivity.'' ''I am full of hope that our Palestinian people can look into your newspapers and see themselves, see their hopes and their ambitions,'' Haniyeh said, calling the media a ''dangerous and effective weapon.'' Hamas, which has long complained about Fatah's domination of the Palestinian newspapers, radio and television networks, launched its own television network late last year in response.

Abbas controls the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, which includes television and radio.

Reuters>

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