The Story Behind the Story Behind the Story

The real reason for the ABC's Middle East correspondent, David Hardaker leaving his post has now become apparent. (See my February post 'Confused & Confounded: David Hardaker Takes His Leave)

In ABC Walkley winner quits over driver, The Australian's Amanda Meade reported on 13/3/08 that "ABC managing director Mark Scott has ordered an investigation into the alleged dangerous and offensive conduct of the public broadcaster's driver in Jerusalem, following the sudden resignation of Walkley award-winning Middle East correspondent David Hardaker. Hardaker resigned after 15 years with the national broadcaster as he believed the ABC's head of international coverage, Tony Hill failed to act on a series of complaints Hardaker made about David Allul, the Israeli man employed by the ABC since 2000 to drive correspondents and their families around the region."

Driving under the influence was one of those complaints. Former ABC Middle East correspondent, Mark Willacy, has written about Allul in his 2007 memoir, The View from the Valley of Hell: Four Years in the Middle East: "Davo's love of a drink sometimes got in the way of his core function at the ABC - driving. He'd often take us somewhere after having downed a few beers and Scotches. Flying along the highway at 140 kms an hour, one finger guiding the wheel of his turbo Mercedes, Davo would twist his whole body around to face the back seat so he could include everyone in his mega-decibel conversation. From the back, I'd plead with him to turn around, slow down and shut up. Ironically, the only time his beloved Merc ever sustained any damage was when someone else was driving it. Too drunk to drive one winter's night, Davo handed the keys to a friend. Keen to kick on, they pulled up at another Jerusalem pub, Davo flinging open the passenger's door only to have it ripped off by a passing car."

There was, however, "a second explosive allegation made by Hardaker...that Alul, while intoxicated at the Jerusalem bureau's Christmas party, made an inappropriate sexual reference to a member of Hardaker's family....Hardaker reported the incident to Hill and agreed to remain in Jerusalem to see out his posting until the end of February...Hardaker claims Hill promised to speak to the driver after Hardaker had left...When Hill allegedly failed to act, Hardaker returned to Sydney and resigned in early February." ABC managing director, Mark Scott, has reportedly ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Hardaker's departure from the ABC.

That's the story behind Hardaker's resignation, but there's a far more fascinating story (of the kind never reported in The Australian) involving another of the ABC's fixers, the Palestinian, Richard Zananiri. You can find it in Willacy's book:-

"In early 2006 I was asked," writes Willacy, "by ABC Radio National's Correspondent's Report to file a behind-the-scenes story about how I covered the Palestinian parliamentary elections. The executive producer wanted me to explain how I negotiated the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, how I got the interviews I did, and how I communicated with ordinary Palestinians lining up to vote. As Richard was my chief fixer in the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem, I asked him if he wanted to be part of my report; after all, he was the one arranging the interviews and doing the translations for it, in Ramallah. He was keen....The story was a straightforward piece which plotted our course as we left Jerusalem, passed through an Israeli military checkpoint and drove into Ramallah. Once there we 'vox popped' some people casting their ballots. I wrapped up the report by pondering on the repercussions of the Hamas victory in the election.

"Once I'd filed the story I promptly forgot about it...But about a month later, The Review, a partisan magazine published by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), ran a short article about my story. On its website, AIJAC describes itself as 'the premier public affairs organisation for the Australian Jewish community'. It is certainly the country's most powerful Jewish lobby group. When AIJAC knocks, doors open. The group has extraordinary access to senior figures within the Labor Opposition and the Coalition Government, right up to PM John Howard himself. Writing in The Jerusalem Post after Mr Howard was re-elected in 2004, AIJAC's executive director Colin Rubenstein had positively gushed: 'The Australian people have spoken, and the verdict is in. And for Israel and her supporters in Australia...the news is good...The Howard win...ensures that Israel can continue to count on Australia's support at the UN and other international venues. We can also expect Australia to maintain its determined stance against terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and Hamas, both banned in Australia in the last year...The reelection of John Howard ensures that one of Israel's best friends will remain a force on the international scene for another 3 years'.

"While John Howard was a friend of Israel, Richard Zananiri was deemed to be an enemy of the state. In the March 2006 edition of The Review, AIJAC turned its sights on Richard: 'ABC Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy seemed to inadvertently hint at one reason why so much of the reporting from the West Bank and Gaza tends to favour the Palestinians. Like most international reporters, he uses a Palestinian fixer who apparently plays a major role in telling him what the news is and setting up the stories. He explained, 'On the way [to a job] I have to pick up my trusty fixer Richard Zananiri. He's my eyes and ears in the Palestinian territories - he lines up the interviews and he also does the translations, so without Richard, I'd be lost', ABC Radio 'Correspondent's Report' (Jan 29). According to our research, Richard Zananiri...is an Orthodox Christian who teaches...at the Anglican St Georges College in East Jerusalem, and was an unsuccessful independent candidate for the Palestinian Legislative Council in January. Unfortunately the Anglican Church in Jerusalem is a hotbed of some of the most extreme anti-Israel sentiments...If it is the same Richard Zananiri and Willacy is using a fixer from this venue, that might explain a lot about some of his reporting'.

"Employing innuendo and smear, AIJAC was attempting to discredit Richard and my journalism...the article failed the most basic tests of reportage and displayed an appalling ignorance of the situation on the ground in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. In an extraordinary piece of reverse logic, the unnamed author attacked me for using Palestinian fixers in the Palestinian territories. Who should I use? A Hebrew-speaking Israeli? For a start, Israel bars its citizens from travelling to many of the main centres in the West Bank out of fear for their safety...I mulled over tapping out a response to this slander at the time, but decided that it wasn't worth the trouble.

"However, AIJAC hadn't finished with Richard Zananiri. Some months later, the ABC's managing director Mark Scott travelled to Parliament House in Canberra for a routine interrogation from the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I had been criticised in this forum many times by Liberal Party senators, among them Santo Santoro, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Michael Ronaldson. Neither Santoro nor Fierravanti-Wells had been elected to the Senate - both had replaced retiring senators; at least Ronaldson had faced the voters. A former member of the House of Representatives, Michael Ronaldson devoted part of his maiden speech in the Senate to chiding the ABC: [Willacy goes on to quote the senator's whinge about the ABC's style guide, in particular its caution that 'one person's 'terrorist' is usually someone else's 'freedom fighter'.] Helping Senator Ronaldson wage his war against the ABC's terminological terrorism was AIJAC. With the ABC's managing director appearing before the Senate committee, Michael Ronaldson parroted the slander and innuendo first raised and then passed on by AIJAC to smear Richard Zananiri...It was a perfect example of how AIJAC works, and how federal politicians feed from its trough." (pp 52-58)

You can read Willacy's forthright response to AIJAC's "slander and innuendo" in his book. I've already posted on AIJAC's attacks on Fairfax's Middle East correspondent, Ed O'Loughlin. (See my February post, Danby's Drubbing in the AJN) Sadly, such treatment seems to be par for the course for any Middle East correspondent who doesn't get with the AIJAC program.