Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 journalist based in Dura

Dura, Hebron

Dura is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers southwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 28,268 in 2007...

, near Hebron

Hebron

Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...

. Amayreh has experienced years of restrictions on his activities and travel, including imprisonment.

Life and work

Amayreh received university degrees in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

: a BA in Journalism at the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

, 1981 and an MA in Journalism from the University of Southern Illinois, 1983.

Amayreh has been a correspondent with numerous newspapers and news outlets including:

• Sharja TV, correspondent, 1994–2001
• Iranian News Agency
  Islamic Republic News Agency
  The Islamic Republic News Agency , or IRNA, is the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is government-funded and controlled under the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The agency also publishes the newspaper Iran. , the Managing Director of IRNA is Ali Akbar...
  
   (IRNA), 1995–2006
• Middle East International (London) 1995-2003
• Al Ahram Weekly (English) 1997–present
• Al Jazeera English (aljazeera.net): 2003-2006suspicion of affiliation with Hamas
  Hamas
  Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
  
   and Islamic Jihad
  Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
  The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad , is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel...
  
  . Others state the reason for his arrest was his statements about the collaborationist nature of the PA during the 2008-2009 Gaza War. He was released due to a mass outcry and protest at his arrest.

In an interview with Iran's Press TV, which aired on October 8, 2010 (as translated by MEMRI), Amayreh alleged:

"The Israelis are trying to divert the attention of the world from the Nazi-like crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, by inventing an imaginary threat called Islamism. The people who are trying to take over the world, including superpowers... you know... are Zionism, not Muslims. Muslims are being persecuted all over the world. In Palestine, in Lebanon, and everywhere, Muslims are persecuted. The only people who are taking over Europe and the United States – they do that by lying and by mendacity – are the Zionist Jews."