WJW Intern

Khaled Abu Toameh has many different sides. Born to a Palestinian mother and an Arab Israeli father in the then Jordanian-controlled West Bank, the Muslim journalist jokingly admits he "suffers from a crisis of identity."

But Toameh insists that his background does not make his reporting biased. "I don't have an agenda, I'm just pro-the truth. I'm just a reporter, a small one," he said.

Toameh addressed some 50 students, faculty and interested individuals at the American University Washington College of Law last Thursday. His swing through town was part of a two-week speaking tour of college campuses throughout the country that was organized by Hasbara Fellowships, a pro-Israel advocacy group.

Though The Jerusalem Post's Palestinian affairs writer is not devoid of criticism for Israeli policy, Toameh focuses on the Palestinians. That's his beat.

"I don't cover Israeli affairs," said Toameh. "I cover Palestinian issues, what's happening in the Palestinian Authority."

He saves his most vicious condemnation for the older generation of leaders inside P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization. "These people think that they are entitled to lead the Palestinians because they served in prison, they are revolutionaries, they've been there for many years so why should they give up," he said.

Using Abbas' nom de guerre, Toameh said, "Abu Mazen is not alone, he is surrounded by the same Arafat cronies. If it were up to Abu Mazen alone, he would have changed many things."

Of the younger generation, known as the Young Guard, Toameh says "they're being sidelined."

The journalist credits rampant corruption inside Fatah with bringing Hamas to power. Hamas, which ran under the banner of "Change and Reform," won elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council last January. Toameh said he has "never heard of one case of corruption in a Hamas institution."

He said that the results of these elections should have been encouraging to the international community; the Palestinians finally said "enough is enough" to Fatah corruption. Since then, overt international support for Fatah has been undermining the Western goal of forcing Hamas to choose between its government or its ideology.

"It's not your right to meddle in Palestinian affairs," he said of Western involvement. Openly siding with Fatah is "turning Mahmoud Abbas into a collaborator in the eyes of his own people," said Toameh.

Instead, Toameh said the correct way to proceed would require the West to be firm with Fatah. The international community needs to "go to Fatah and ... tell them, listen, start the process of reforming yourself," he said. "If Fatah runs in a new election, they are going to lose if they run with the same faces."

So far, that reform has not occurred. The recent Mecca Agreement between Hamas and Fatah also does not bode well for political progress, said Toameh. "What happened in Mecca showed that Abu Mazen moved closer to Hamas," he said. "Hamas did not make one concession."

Toameh, who self-identifies as an Israeli Arab, said that he often gets asked why he works for an Israeli newspaper. For 15 years the only Arab writing in Hebrew about the Palestinians, he said that he will work for an organization that gives him the independence to report the situation as he sees it. Toameh said he would not enjoy this freedom were he to work for a Palestinian publication.

"As a journalist, as a reporter, I have absolutely no problem working for a news organization that gives me a platform," he said.