One year anniversary of Daniel Pearl's murder. Everybody, especially if you are in the LA area:
January 23, 2003 marked one year since the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. On February 20th, 2002 he was brutally murdered by his captors. In the hope that the values of humanity that guided Daniel Pearl in life will ultimately triumph over the forces of hate and religious bigotry that took his life and threaten world peace, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights agency, will observe Daniel’s yahrtzeit (annual memorial for a loved one) with a month long Internet campaign (www.wiesenthal.com) encouraging people of all faiths to send a message of solidarity to the Pearl Family and to light a virtual candle in Daniel’s memory. “Daniel Pearl was kidnapped because he was an American journalist, he was murdered because he was a Jew,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center. “It is our hope that at this pivotal time in history, people the world over will stand in solidarity with the pain of one family to remind them and all victims of terrorism that they are not forgotten.”
In addition, the weekend of February 21-23rd, the Center is also asking clergy and their congregations to remember Daniel in their services and to forward their sermons on the meaning of his life and death to the Wiesenthal Center, which will be then be forwarded directly to the Pearl family.
On Thursday evening, February 20, 2003, at 7:00pm the Center will host a community-wide memorial program at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Please call Lorraine Sais at 310 772-2452 for reservations.
On Monday, February 24th at Congregation Beit Tzedek in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Judah Pearl, Daniel’s father, will speak at both events.
For more information, contact the Wiesenthal Center's Communications department, 310-553-9036.
Additional information on organizing a local neighborhood memorial service can be found at The Daniel Pearl Foundation Web site www.danielpearl.org.
UPDATE:
Meryl comments on some online memorial essays in her own sweeping yet meticulous style.
Lynn B points to an article on how
Palestinians target Israeli reporters for assassination. Danny Seaman, director of the Government Press Office, confirms that the new phenomenon of threatening the lives of journalists is well known. "The past two years have seen the rules of the game change," says Seaman. "Only a week ago, the vehicle of the Al-Jazeera bureau chief inthe West Bank was blown up. The atmosphere in the territories is unfavorable towards anything that is incompatible with the media propaganda messages of the Palestinian Authority. I know that there are threats to the lives of journalists, the situation in the territories is terrible. As a result the IDF Spokesperson has had to limit entry of (Israeli) journalists. Luckily, Israeli journalists have an extraordinary talent for improvisation, and they succeed in relaying updates from there despite the limitations. This is a badge of honor for us. The Israeli journalists work under a regime of 'media terror,' but they pass the test in a praiseworthy fashion. Regrettably, the foreign press does not stand up and protest this. They feel no moral obligation towards their Israeli colleagues, and prefer to remain silent." [emphasis mine - JW]
A senior source in the GPO chooses to express severe criticism of the collegiality displayed by the foreign journalists in the territories: "We discovered that Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, employed by the foreign news agencies, confronted Israelis working there in order to prevent a particular story from being aired. We came across such cases more than once at Jerusalem Capital Studios. The PA succeeds, with the assistance of the foreign media, in creating a situation where the information relayed abroad is convenient for it. Those who remain isolated in this media arena are the Israeli journalists, and they are the ones who are now forced to deal with this massive pressure that is only worsening."
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