The international press organisation "Reporters Sans Frontiers" (RSF)
recently lambasted Israel for abusing and harassing Palestinian and
foreign journalists covering the Intifada against Israeli occupation.

The Paris-based group did recognise that Israel generally respected
"the local (Jewish) media freedom of expression", but criticised
Israel for violating the international covenant on civil and political
rights, including press freedom, especially in the occupied
territories.

"Since the start of the Israeli army's incursions into Palestinian
towns and cities in March 2002, very many journalists have been
roughed up, threatened, arrested, banned from moving around, targeted
by gunfire, wounded or injured, had their press cards withdrawn or
been deported," it said.

Constant intimidation

Israeli troops have also killed at least 10 journalists since the
outbreak of the Intifada in late August, 2000, including two European
journalists covering Israeli raids into Palestinian population
centres.

Aljazeera.net has spoken to dozens of Palestinian and foreign
journalists in the West Bank and Israel.

Virtually all of them agreed that Israeli attacks on press freedom
have assumed unprecedented ferocity, especially in the past three
years.

"There is press freedom in Israel as long as you say and write good
things about Sharon, the settlers and the occupation army.

"However, as soon as you start reporting the ugly reality, the rough
treatment begins," says Nawwaf al-Amer, a Palestinian journalist from
Nablus who was imprisoned and tortured for eight months last year for
"incitement against Israel and the IDF".

Al-Amer, who spent 25 "nightmarish days" in Israel's most notorious
top-secret prison, known as Facility no 1391, said he lost all feeling
in the right side of his head and face as a result of "sustained abuse
and mistreatment".

"They only told me they wanted to teach me the difference between
journalism and incitement."

Palestinian spokespersons accuse Israel of deliberately "abusing,
intimidating and eventually killing journalists" in order to prevent
the Palestinian viewpoint from getting through to the international
public opinion.

Pressure tactics

"They use a variety of tactics to effect this goal, including opening
fire on reporters in the field and then claim that they were killed or
injured in ‘crossfire' or ‘mistaken for terrorists' or simply
‘operating in a closed military zone,'" says Yaqub Shahin, a
Palestinian Ministry of Information spokesman.

Shahin produced a prepared list of the names of 10 Palestinian and
foreign reporters, cameramen and photojournalists killed by the
Israeli army in the period between 19 October 2000 and 2 May 2003.

He charged that the killings were carried out "knowingly and
deliberately and without any rational justification".

"When it comes to journalists, I assure you that Israeli soldiers are
more than trigger-happy. They shoot first and then ask questions."

In several recorded cases, Israeli soldiers took aim at photographers
and cameramen following a mishap or an incident, or after sustaining
casualties.

For instance, on 11 July 2002, an Israeli armoured personnel carrier
(APC) operating in the northern West Bank of Jenin drove into an
electricity pole, knocking it down and subsequently causing the live
wires to land atop the military vehicle.

In response to the self-incurred blunder, soldiers in accompanying
tanks fired high-velocity bullets at Palestinian photographer Imad Abu
Zahra for taking a snapshot of the embarrassing incident.

Silenced voices

The large calibre bullets opened a grapefruit-size wound in his right
thigh, ravaging more than eight centimetres of his femoral artery.

Abu Zahra, prevented by the Israeli troops from reaching hospital
later died.

Likewise, an Israeli soldier mounting another APC shot and killed
Italian photojournalist Raffaele Cireillo on 13 March 2002, as the
Corriere della Sera photographer was taking snap shots of Israeli
tanks rumbling into Ram Allah.

On 2 May 2003, British film producer James Miller was killed in Gaza
by Israeli soldiers while preparing a documentary film on the effect
of Israeli violence on Palestinian children.

Seeking to win the "PR war," Israel sought from the very inception of
the Intifada to "silence Palestinian voices" by "whatever means
necessary".

Indeed, at the begining of the uprising, Israeli F-16 fighter jets
bombed and destroyed the Voice of Palestine (VOP) Radio in Ram Allah,
knocking it off the air.

Israeli officials then defended the bombing, claiming the station was
indulging "in incitement and propaganda".

Soon afterwards, the Israeli army began targeting some privately owned
FM radio stations, which began to function as substitutes for the VOP,
vandalising a number of these outlets, such as Radio Amwaj in Ram
Allah.

When the Israeli army re-occupied all population centres previously
run by the PA in 2002, troops acting under the pretext of fighting
human bombings, vandalised and ransacked several press offices,
studios and presses.

In addition, many Palestinian journalists were arrested, and some of
them are still in jail.

Incarcerations

In most cases, the detainees were kept in "administrative detention"
for a minimum of six months, indefinitely renewable, without even
knowing why they were being detained.

"I really don't know why I was imprisoned for six months. They didn't
talk to me at all," says Hussam Abu Allan, an AFP photographer from
Hebron who spent six months in the notorious desert detention camp
"Kitziot" near the Egyptian borders.

A similar testimony was given by Nizar Ramadan, a Hebron-based
journalist who was jailed for 15 months for "incitement and giving a
subversive lecture at Hebron University".

Palestinian journalists are normally denied Israeli press cards from
the Government Press Office (GPO) in West Jerusalem.

Not being able to obtain the card means not only the inability to
enter Israel proper, but East Jerusalem as well. It also prevents
journalists from passing through the ubiquitous Israeli army
roadblocks throughout the West Bank.

More recently, the GPO adopted harsher procedure in granting press
cards to all non-Israeli journalists.

According to the new procedure, a foreign journalist must obtain
security clearance from the Shin Beth, Israel's domestic intelligence
agency.

Selection criteria

Israeli officials are tight-lipped on what criteria the Shin Beth is
adopting in granting or denying applicants the GPO press card.

However, most Palestinian and foreign journalists have interpreted the
stringent measure as an intimidation tactic aimed at bullying them to
report pro-Israeli news and views.

When asked to respond to Palestinian journalists' grievances about
Israeli mistreatment, Israeli officials were less than charitable.

"We are under no obligation to help Palestinian journalists enter
Israel. We don't differentiate between ordinary Palestinians and
Palestinians who claim to be journalists," said Daniel Seaman, GPO
Director.

After Aljazeera.net reminded Seaman that Israel was the de facto
ruling power in the West Bank, Seaman said, "The Israeli army is only
conducting security operations there."

When further pressed to explain why the Israeli army is harassing
Palestinian journalists and preventing them from freely travelling
within the West Bank, Seaman said, "Israel is under no obligation to
help those who undermine her image."

Aljazeera
By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DBBDD979-5ECC-4159-B5B2-829320...