Arab TV Network Cancels Interview With Sharon

The Al Jazeera satellite television network announced Tuesday that it had canceled an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The Arab world’s best-known broadcaster cited Israeli “technical conditions” in announcing the cancellation.

The announcement coincided, however, with a protest outside Al Jazeera’s office at the Arab League summit, where demonstrating journalists presented a petition against the interview.

The petition, signed by 148 of the 2,300 accredited summit journalists, condemned Qatar-based Al Jazeera for planning to interview “the Zionist criminal Ariel Sharon, killer of Arab women, children and the elderly.”

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo wrote to Al Jazeera asking that the interview be canceled, saying Sharon did not deserve the honor of appearing on the well-respected network.

“We appreciate Al Jazeera’s role, and despite our consideration for the freedom of the press and freedom of opinion, it is not justified for a prominent Arab satellite channel to interview Sharon,” Abed-Rabbo said.

Sharon is reviled in Lebanon for his role in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during Israel’s occupation of Beirut.

An Israeli commission of inquiry later found him indirectly responsible, and he had to resign as defense minister.

“I don’t think it is appropriate that he, a war criminal, be given a chance to appear on an Arab media platform,” said Abdelsalam Akel, a Palestinian journalist among the group who put together the petition.

Lebanese journalist Zeinab Sharafeddine disagreed.

“As much as I hate Sharon, I don’t find it strange or wrong that he be on Al Jazeera,” she said.