2003
Israel attacks the Press
By Arjan El Fassed
The Electronic
Intifada
31 December 2003
"To
be a journalist and cameraman in a city of lost hope like Hebron requires
great sacrifices," Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana said as he
accepted an International Press Freedom Award two years ago for his
efforts to report the news. "Gunfire, humiliation, beatings, prison,
rocks and the destruction of journalists' equipment are just some of
the hardships." On August 17, Dana was killed by American occupation
troops in Iraq. He was filming the Abou Ghraib prison in a suburb of
Baghdad. US officials said the soldier mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled
grenade launcher. Dana had worked for the British news agency Reuters
for ten years. Almost every journalist who covered the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict knew him. When he won the Press Freedom Award, Dana said that
he had been shot in the leg, hit by rubber coated metal bullets and
beaten by Israeli soldiers scores of times and had his hand broken twice.
"It's not easy to have a picture," he said, "and a picture
maybe will cost you your life."
Looking back at
journalists in danger in 2003, the words of Dana are unfortunately still
true. Two journalists, a Palestinian cameraman and a British documentary
filmmaker were killed by the Israeli army. Media watchdogs counted attacks
and harrassment of journalists and the increasing restrictions imposed
on foreign and Palestinian journalists.
On April 19, while
filming clashes between Palestinian youngsters and Israeli armed forces
in Nablus, Nazeh Darwazeh, a cameraman for APTN, was shot and killed
by an Israeli soldier. Palestinian journalists witnessed the events
and their eyewitness accounts are supported by video footage of the
killing. Darwazeh had been filming an Israeli tank stranded at the corner
of an alleyway. A few minutes before Darwazeh was killed, Reuters cameraman
Hassan Titi filmed a group of Palestinian youths running down the alley
away from the stranded tank. Titi and Reuters photographer Abed Qusini,
who were standing near Darwazeh, said that an Israeli soldier took a
position near the tank and fired a single shot at the journalists. The
shot shattered Darwazeh's camera, entering his head above the eye. He
was killed instantly. Darwazeh was wearing a fluorescent jacket marked
"Press," and before the shooting, the journalists said they
shouted loudly in both English and Hebrew indicating that they were
with the media.
On May 2, British
cameraman James Miller, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, was
fatally shot by Israeli forces in Rafah. Miller and his crew were in
a Palestinian home filming the demolition of Palestinian homes in the
area. As the crew was leaving the home, Miller, his producer Saira Shah,
and translator Abdul Rahman Abdullah attempted to identify themselves
to Israeli soldiers in armored personnel carriers. They were about 150
meters away from the home where they had been filming. All the journalists
were wearing jackets marked "TV," as well as helmets. Abdul
Rahman Abdullah waved a white flag while Miller used a flashlight to
illuminate their marked jackets and the flag. As they approached the
soldiers, the journalists shouted in English and Arabic that they were
members of the press. Three shots were fired in their direction, followed
by a burst of gunfire. Miller was hit once in the neck. APTN footage
showed the crew waving a white flag and yelling that they were British
journalists as they approached an armored bulldozer conducting the operation.
In 2003, Israeli
forces attacked and harassed a number of Palestinian journalists. On
January 21, AP photographer Nasser Ishtayeh and AFP photographer Jaafar
Ishtayeh were attacked by Israeli border police after they tried to
take a picture of their army jeep. They were trying to photograph two
Palestinian youths who were on the hood of the moving jeep and who the
journalists believed were being used as human shields as the troops
advanced on Palestinians throwing stones in the area. The Israeli army
jeep drove in their direction, stopped, and three Israeli soldiers approached
them. The soldiers immediately began to punch the two photographers
and insulted them. Both journalists said that their clothing and camera
equipment were clearly marked "Press." Afterwards they were
dragged a few meters by their camera straps to the army jeep's driver,
who had remained in the car while the beatings occurred. The driver
inspected the cameras, which, because they were digital, allowed him
to view recent images. He then threatened the journalists and told them
that if he saw any of their pictures in the newspaper, he would kill
them. Nasser Ishtayeh suffered light wounds on his face, and Jaafar
Ishtayeh was injured slightly on his hand.
On March 6, Shams
Odeh, a Reuters cameraman, and Ahmad Jadallah, a Reuters photographer,
were injured in Gaza during an Israeli army raid on the Jabalya refugee
camp. They were both injured by shrapnel from an explosion in the camp.
Israeli forces were leaving the refugee camp at the end of the raid
when an Israeli tank fired two rounds. The first round set a building
on fire, and crowds of people poured into the streets to watch firefighters
douse the blaze. The journalists, who were among the people in the street,
were covering the aftermath of the raid. Witnesses claim that the tank's
second round was fired at the group who had gathered, injuring the two
journalists. Both of Jadallah's legs were broken, and one artery in
his leg was severed after being hit by shrapnel. He underwent surgery
in a Gaza hospital before being moved to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem.
Odeh suffered moderate injuries to his foot. He underwent surgery in
Gaza.
On May 20, Shaaban
Qandil, an ANN cameraman, and Jospeh Handal, a cameraman with France
2, were brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem. Qandil
and Handal had just left Handal's residence in Bethlehem a little after
midnight when several Israeli troops in jeeps stopped Handal's carm
which was marked "TV". Two of the Israeli soldiers ordered
Handal to leave his car. He complied but told the Israeli soldiers that
he is a journalist. Within moments, they began to beat Handal and he
fell to the ground. Right before Handal had left the car, he gave Qandil
his mobile phone. When some of the Israeli soldiers noticed he was about
to make a call as Handal was being beaten, he was pulled out of the
car and beaten as well. Both journalists sustained fractures to their
right hands. Friends took them to a local hospital for treatment soon
after the Israeli soldiers left the area.
On October 21, Israeli
forces in Ramallah raided the office of Al-Jazeera. Israeli forces had
entered the office in nearby El-Bireh and asked the staff and journalists
to close the doors and remain inside. The station broadcast live footage
of an Israeli officer arguing with correspondents and staff members.
As journalists working
in the occupied Palestinian territories remain in danger, more restrictions
on the press are expected for 2004. On November 2, the Israeli Government
Press Office announced new administrative guidelines for press accreditation
that set to take effect this week. The guidelines include a provision
requiring Israel's security service, Shin Bet, to vet candidates seeking
accreditation. The guidelines will give the GPO and Shin Bet means to
prevent accreditation to anyone they don't like reporting events on
the ground. In the past this has been used against Palestinian journalists.
The new guidelines
will directly affect foreign correspondents and Israeli reporters who
cover the occupied territories. They follow other restrictive measures
adopted by the GPO in recent years, which have resulted in complaints
from the international media. In 2002, GPO froze the accreditation of
most Palestinian journalists from the occupied territories who work
with foreign media. The Foreign Press Association (FPA) stated that
the new measures provide the authorities "unreasonable veto power
over who can serve as a foreign correspondent."