Date sent: Sun, 02 Aug 1998 17:17:21 -0400 To: eretz-yisrael@shamash.org From: Murray Kahl Subject: Palestine Union Bars Israel Contact Palestine Union Bars Israel Contact The Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) - The Palestinian Journalists Association has forbidden its members from engaging in non-professional contact with Israelis and has threatened to blacklist journalists who break the rules, an official from the organization said Sunday. The decision was taken after the association participated in a larger meeting of Arab press groups last week in Egypt. ``We will form a blacklist of the names of all Palestinian and Arab journalists,'' who normalize relations with Israel, said Tawfiq Abu Khousa, vice-president of the Palestinian Journalists Association in Gaza. Abu Khousa said last week's conference of the Arab Journalist Associations voted unanimously to ``confront and stop all forms of normalization of relations with Israel.'' Abu Khousa said Palestinian journalists who ignore the ban and meet with Israelis outside the professional sphere, would have their names circulated throughout the Arab world and access to high officials would be cut off. He also said the journalists would be forbidden to participate in academic forums with their Israeli counterparts. But officials in Yasser Arafat's palestinian Authority said they would not lend a hand to enforcing the rules of the quasi-governmental journalists association. ``No Palestinian journalist should worry about the threats of the officials of the Palestinians Journalists's Association,'' said Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Israeli and Palestinian journalists have worked together for years, often forming friendships despite tensions between the two peoples and a current 17-month stalemate in Mideast peace talks. Khaled Abu Aker, a Palestinian reporter who works for several U.S. newspapers including The New York Times scoffed at Abu Khousa's threats and said the comments would alienate members. ``Our meetings with Israelis are not normalization. Normalization means accepting the other's world view, and we would never accept Israel's world view,'' he said.