[E-rundbrief] Info 939 - Media repression in Israel

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Sa Jul 24 17:25:13 CEST 2010


E-Rundbrief - Info 939 - Mel Frykberg (IPS): Israel Gets Brutal With Media.

Bad Ischl, 24.7.2010

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Israel Gets Brutal With Media

Mel Frykberg

NABI SALAH, Occupied West Bank, Jul 23  (IPS)  - Palestinian activists
are being jailed, Israeli activists are under surveillance, and the
Israeli military is increasingly targeting journalists who cover West
Bank protests.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel issued a statement
recently condemning what it sees as a change in Israel Defence Forces
(IDF) policy in their treatment of journalists covering the growing
number of West Bank protests against Israel's separation barrier,
illegal settlements and land expropriation.

”We would appreciate it were the authorities to remind the various
forces involved, that open, unhindered coverage of news events is a
widely acknowledged part of the essence of democracy.

”Generally speaking this would not include smashing the face of a
clearly marked photographer working for a known and accredited news
organisation with a stick, or for that matter aiming a stun grenade at
the head of a clearly marked news photographer or summarily arresting
cameramen, photographers and/or journalists,” said the FPA.

The release of the statement followed an attack on three journalists as
they covered a protest march near an Israeli settlement built illegally
on land belonging to the Palestinian village Beir Ummar in the southern
West Bank.

Several weeks ago in the village Nabi Salah, north of Ramallah, two
Israeli activists were roughed up and arrested after criticising Israeli
soldiers for shooting at Palestinian boys throwing stones.

One of the Israelis, Yonatan Shapira, 38, an ex-Israeli Air Force (AIF)
pilot and member of Combatants for Peace, (a group comprising former
Palestinian and Israeli fighters) earned the wrath of the Israeli
authorities when he authored a ”pilot's letter” in 2003 signed by 27
AIF pilots.

The pilots refused to fly over the Palestinian occupied territories and
take part in the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians,
particularly in Gaza.

Shapira was recently interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence
agency Shin Bet over his participation in anti-occupation protests and
his support for the BDS movement.

In what appeared to be a veiled threat the Israeli activist was warned
that his presence at anti-wall demonstrations was in defiance of the
areas being declared closed military-zones on Fridays.

Shapira believes his phone has been tapped. ”Nothing we are doing is
illegal and I'm not afraid, but I'm uncomfortable about my country
turning into a fascist state,” said Shapira.

”The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate Israelis who engage in
political dissent. We present no security threat.  But the line between
political activism and security is becoming increasingly blurred by the
authorities who are trying to criminalise dissent,” Shapira told IPS.

”Sometimes when we come to demonstrations we have been stopped en route
by the IDF who have taken down our details and appear to have prior
knowledge of our movements,” Israeli activist Shy Halatzi, 23, a physics
and astronomy student at Tel Aviv University who served in the Israeli
military told IPS.

Israel has become alarmed at growing international support for a boycott
campaign against the country as its right-wing government increasingly
tramples on civil liberties. Hundreds of Israeli college professors
signed a petition recently denouncing the threat by Israeli education
minister Gideon Saar (a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's Likud party) to punish any lecturer or institution which
supports a boycott of Israel.

Saar supports Im Tirtzu, a right-wing nationalist movement, which
demands that Israeli education professionals be required to prove their
commitment to Zionism.

Neve Gordon, professor of politics at Ben Gurion University in
Beersheva, received death threats after he wrote an editorial last
year in the Los Angeles Times explaining why he supported a boycott
on Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinian grassroots activists involved in non-military
popular committees, which organise non-violent activity against the
occupation, continue to be arrested and jailed on what they say are
trumped-
up charges involving forced confessions under duress.

The IDF carries out nightly raids in West Bank villages where
demonstrations take place regularly on a Friday and where villagers have
been particularly active.

Wael Al-Faqia from Nablus in the northern West Bank was recently
sentenced to a year's prison for ”belonging to an illegal organization.”
Al-Faqia was arrested with eight other activists in December last year.

Musa Salama, an activist with the Labour Committee of Medical Relief
Workers and associate of Al-Faqia, was sentenced last December to a
year's imprisonment on identical charges.

Abdullah Abu Rahme from the head of the Popular Committee Against the
Wall in Bili'in village near Ramallah continues to languish in detention
following his arrest in December last year.

Some of the allegations against him include incitement for planning the
peaceful protests and ”being in possession of arms.” The latter referred
to his collection of used teargas canisters and spent bullet cartridges,
fired by Israeli troops at unarmed protestors, into a peace sign.

”What we as Israeli activists endure is a fraction of what Palestinians
are subjected to. They are subjected to harsher and much more brutal
treatment than we are,” Shapira told IPS. (END/IPS/MM/IP/HD/PI/MF/SS/10)

  (END/IPS/MM/IP/HD/PI/MF/SS/10)

NNNN
with the compliments of

federico nier-fischer
fnf-comunicaciones

- editor ips-columnists service (german desk);
- consultant/project management intercultural communications;
- academic lectures on "Kulturindustrie", alternative media,
international news agencies,
the globalization of news and media, ...

fnf_comunicaciones at fastmail.fm

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
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