Dear Editor:
Since last March, there was a flurry of articles nd comments in your paper about the attempts y a local Grade 12 student at Burnaby South econdary, Elias Ishak, to publish an article in he school's newspaper about the situation in the iddle East, which was first rejected by the school principal, Gordon Li.
As it appears, the rejection has made waves in some circles, and the article was finally published in June, but, for some unknown reason, was again the subject of another story by Jennifer Moreau, four months later (Student wins his battle, Burnaby NOW, Oct. 5).
In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to mention that, while also in Grade 12, I started my career as a cub reporter at a large paper in my old country, followed by being a senior editor with a number of international media outfits overseas and a lecturer in "Ethics in Journalism," therefore I am quite familiar with the pains of rejection, at both ends of the equation, as a writer and as an editor.
The Burnaby NOW reports, however, are raising more questions about the whole affair, while offering very few answers, which is troubling.
Your reporter appears not to have done her homework, as every reporter should do, when mentioning again the support of a man called Mordecai Briemberg, who visited the school principal, insisting that the article be published, while according to Ms. Moreau, he did not act as a member of an "activist group."
Shouldn't the article have told its faithful readers that Briemberg is a founding member of the Canada-Palestine Support Network, CanPalNet and a lifelong fierce anti-Israel, anti-U.S. activist? The same Briemberg who has written and performed at different venues a song called Victory for Hamas, praising the terror group, designated by the European Union as well as by the U.K. and Canada, along with many other nations, as a "terrorist organization."
The mere fact that Briemberg applied relentless pressure to have this particular article printed, raises legitimate questions about his ulterior motives, surely not his love for "freedom of speech," which, under the rule of his beloved Hamas in Gaza, is considered treasonous, punished by imprisonment, or the death penalty.
Just read about the scores of foreign and local journalists who have often been kidnapped, tortured or killed over the past few years there, for trying to assert their freedom of speech, and wonder why is Briemberg fighting for Ishak and not for the hundreds of victims of the terrorists from Hamas? Then you will see Briemberg's efforts in a totally different light!
Jack Chivo, Burnaby
