JEWISH WORLD

10 JEWISH WORLD • OCTOBER 16-22, 2020 By BEN COHEN T here is no role in journalism that is more mentally and physically punishing than that of a war correspondent. Reporters and writers who cover wars are, in my experience, a spe- cial breed. Insofar as generalizations are possible, they tend to be individuals with an extraordinary mastery of detail, possessed by a mission to shine a light upon the human suffer- ing that wars necessarily entail, as well as the shadowy geopolitics that underlie them. They are ruthless in pursuit of a story, highly skilled at developing off-the-record sources, and astute when it comes to getting face-time with the key actors — from vicious warlords to smooth-talking diplo- mats. They stoically cope with all the hardships of being in the field, like contaminated food (or no food at all); lack of washing facilities; and exposure to the extremes of heat and cold. The mental stress- es are no less torturous — they risk their lives much of the time and scarcely sleep — but again, they cope. The best war corre- spondents of all are those whose writings are forged from their expertise and their quiet dedication to the task at hand, rather than those who push their personal experiences of war to the front of a story. A good example of the former is Jonathan Spyer, a British-Israeli journalist and author who has spent at least a decade reporting from the killing fields of Iraq and Syria. His dispatches — in publications like Foreign Polic y and The Wall Street Journal , as well as Israeli media outlets — have invariably been first-rate, packed with color, a com- mand of critical facts, and concise analysis. U p until last month the most critical adjective I’d heard applied to Spyer (whom I know per- sonally) was “crazy” — and that was the affectionate observation of someone who spoke admiringly of his writing and incredulously of his willingness to travel in the heart of the Arab world, despite being an Israeli citizen. If you ask Spyer about this, as The Times of Israel did, he responds, “Who wants to think that because of your citizen- ship, you can’t cover what you regard as the most important story of the 21st century?” But I never conceived that Jonathan Spyer would be labeled as a “terrorist” — and by the U.S. State Department to boot. I can’t imagine that anyone else familiar with his work dreamed that such a thing was possible either. Yet here we are. Recently, Spyer published an op- ed in The Wall Street Journal under the headline, “U.S. Bans Me for Committing Journalism.” “I am banned for life from enter- ing America,” he wrote. “According to the document I received in August 2019 at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, the State Department made this decision based on a pro- vision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that ‘prohibits issuance of a visa to a person who at any time engaged in terrorist activi- ties or was associated with a terror- ist organization. This is a permanent ineligibility.’ ” Spyer kept the news private for more than a year as he embarked on efforts to rescind the ban that were, unfortunately, fruitless. Now he is going public. H ow on earth did a journalist like Spyer — a citizen of two close American allies and a resi- dent of Israel who has frequently traveled to this country for profes- sional and family reasons — end up on the same blacklist as members of Hezbollah, the Population Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Russian Imperial Movement? In his Journal article, Spyer noted that his work had brought him into close contact with a range of Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, including Hamas and ISIS. But he suspects that his contact with one group in particular caused the prob- lem: the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has waged war against Turkey since the 1970s. “Although the specific basis of my exclusion from the U.S. … has- n’t been revealed to me, I suspect it may be my acquaintance with sen- ior PKK officials, and that Turkish influence may be behind it,” Spyer wrote. “This is speculation, but Ankara’s mistreatment of journal- ists and hostility to free media are well-documented.” The PKK is proscribed as a ter- rorist organization by both the United States and the European Union, though it is worth recalling that the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, which retains links with the PKK, has been an important American ally during that country’s horrendous civil war. In any case, Spyer stated that while he sympa- thizes with Kurdish national aspira- tions, he is “not a partisan” of the PKK. He is a journalist first of all. He Did His Job And Was Banned We must lift the U.S. ban on journalist Jonathan Spyer continued on page 13 War correspondents are, in my experience, individuals with an extraordinary mastery of detail. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Jonathan Spyer speaking at a Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies lecture in March 2019.