Helen Thomas is Back!!

[I hear Helen Thomas will be one of the keynote speakers at the Awda Convention April 29, 2011 week-end in Anaheim?! :-) More details soon about the great line up of speakers, presentations and panels we have this year including Palestinian youth coming all the way from Palestinian refugee camps and who will take part in the program. Save the date!)


Helen Thomas Back: Returns To Journalism With Column In Virginia Paper
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/helen-thomas-back-column-virginia-paper_n_805239.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Helen Thomas is back at work--this time, with a column in a weekly Virginia
newspaper.

Thomas was forced to resign last summer from her job as a columnist for
Hearst after the controversy over her comments about Israel. But she has now
secured a home for her weekly column in the Falls Church News-Press, which
is located in Falls Church, Virginia.

In a statement, Nicholas Benton, owner and editor of the News-Press, said he
had spoken with Thomas for over eight hours before deciding to take her on.
He called her "progressive" and said that he is "firmly convinced that she
is neither bigoted, nor racist, nor anti-Semitic."

Benton called Thomas' comments about Israel "intemperate and inappropriate,"
but said that they were "in response to a question about Israel, not Jews,
and were intended to mean that in these times, Jewish people are free to
live wherever they wish, because the era of anti-Jewish persecution is
ended. That was not adequately expressed because of the impromptu nature of
the incident."

Thomas did not issue a statement. Her first column for the News-Press
focused on Social Security.