Silencing the Press

 A Report on Israeli Attacks against Journalists

November 20, 2000 – February 20, 2001

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists – Geneva

Affiliate of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Affiliate of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network 

 “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

(Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948)

 “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”

(Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966)

“Journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians … They shall be protected as such under the Conventions and this protocol, provided that they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians…”

Article 79 – Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (Protocol 1)

Introduction:

 This reports documents Israeli abuses against journalists of local and international press agencies during the period of November 21, 2000 – February 21, 2001.  This is the second report in a continuing series on Israeli attacks on the local and international press.  The first report covered Israeli abuses against journalists during the period of September 29 – November 20, 2000.  In the first report, PCHR documented 49 attacks on local and international journalists, including firing upon journalists, beating and humiliating journalists, preventing journalists from entering particular areas, destroying media equipment and shelling media centers and institutions. 

 During the period covered in the previous report, September 29- November 20, 2000, Israeli forces fired live and rubber-coated metal bullets at 22 journalists, wounding them all.  In addition, an additional five were fired upon without being wounded.  Furthermore, Israeli forces beat 12 journalists and arrested one.  Israeli forces also prevented journalists from entering particular areas of Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Israeli forces damaged journalists’ equipment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in five separate incidents and shelled three Palestinian media centers and institutions.

 During the period covered by the current report, November 21, 2000 – February 20, 2001, Israeli forces continued the practice of silencing the press through preventing members of the media from carrying out their duties.  Israeli forces opened fire on journalists, damaging their equipment, despite the fact that they wore clearly marked attire that identified them as media personnel.  Israeli also forces denied journalists entry into particular areas in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, preventing them from covering certain incidents.  Additionally, the forces shelled a number of Palestinian media outlets and institutions. 

 This period saw four incidents in which Israeli forces opened fire on journalists, wounding them.  Seven journalists and human rights workers were beaten and humiliated by the Israeli forces.  In addition, Israeli forces arrested and interrogated three journalists as a result of their work.  They also prevented the entry of Palestinian newspapers from the West Bank into the Gaza Strip.  Moreover, the Israeli forces destroyed four journalists’ equipment and shelled two media buildings.  Therefore the total number of Israeli attacks on journalists during the period covered in this report is 23, bringing to 72 the total number of attacks since outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada, on September 29, 2000. 

These attacks by Israeli forces violate all relevant covenants and conventions, especially Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.  This asserts the right to freedom of opinion and the right to receive an impart information through any media regardless of frontiers.  The forces are also in blatant violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, which states in its Article 19 that “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, or print, or through any other media of his choice.”  Article 79 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Protocol 1) offers guarantees when it states that “journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians,” and provides that “they shall be protected as such under the Conventions and this protocol, provided that they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians.”

 PCHR condemns Israeli forces’ practices against local and international journalists and reporters.  According to evidence and documentation gathered by PCHR, these attacks by on journalists were willful and intentional.  The attacks are part of a public relations conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinians with the later wishing to show the international community the reality of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Israeli attacks as part of the public relations conflict escalated following increased international criticism of Israeli forces’ practices, which has even started to penetrate Israel itself. 

 For the first time since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, a chorus of Israeli voices has emerged, calling an end to these practices because of their negative affect on Israel’s international image.  Shlomo Ben Ami, the Israeli Foreign Minister and a prominent leader of the Israeli Labor Party, has commented that Israeli practices against Palestinian civilians, especially the assassination of some Palestinians whom Israel considers a threat to security, remind him of the autocratic political systems in Europe in the Middle Ages.

 Despite increased pressure from international and local sources, Israeli forces have continued to close the Occupied Palestinian Territories off from the rest of the world, in order to hide their war crimes Palestinian civilians.  Israeli forces do not hesitate to fire upon or otherwise attack local and international journalists.  This has transpired even while the press was covering visits by several international commissions and envoys, including those of the United Nations, which were investigating Israeli abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

 The following is a list of attacks by the Israeli occupation forces on journalists and reporters of local and international press agencies during the period of November 21, 2000 – February 20, 2001:

       q          December 6, 2000

 Israeli forces attacked a number of Palestinian journalists who were accompanying the UN Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, Terje Rod-Larsen, during his visit to the area in Hebron under the Israeli control.  PCHR learnt that these forces violently beat and arrested Nasser El-Shioukhi, an Associated Press (AP) correspondent.  He was detained in an Israeli police station near Keriat Arba settlement in Hebron.

       q          December 8, 2000

 For the second time, Israeli forces violently beat journalist Nasser El-Shioukhi, destroying his camera.  At the time, he was covering an Israeli forces attempt to occupy a Palestinian house in Hebron.  They also expelled BBC personnel, who covered the same event.

       q          December 11, 2000

Israeli occupation forces attacked two field officers of the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW).  This incident took place near an Israeli military roadblock on the Nablus-Ramallah road where the two field officers were filming a Palestinian civilian car that had been stoned by settlers from Ofra settlement near Ramallah.  PCHR learnt that the two field officers, ‘Aamer El-‘Aarouri and Thoraya Alia, were injured and their videotapes confiscated by the Israeli forces.

       q          December 15, 2000

 Israeli soldiers attacked PCHR’s field officer Abdel-Halim Abu Samra.  This incident took place when Abu Samra was filming near Tal Al-Sultan roadblock, which separates Rafah from its Al-Mawasi (agricultural) area that is under Israeli control.  Abu Samra was threatened at gunpoint and his camera taken.  Israeli soldiers also damaged the videotapes and forced Abu Samra to leave the area.

       q          January 3, 2001

 Israeli forces prevented the entry of Palestinian newspapers published in the West Bank (including Jerusalem) into the Gaza Strip.  The major Palestinian newspapers, Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, are issued in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

       q          January 28, 2001

 Israeli soldiers positioned at a roadblock on Ein Qenia road, west of Ramallah, brutally beat Dhuha El-Shami, a Ramallah based al-Watan television channel camerawoman and confiscated her camera.  Furthermore, they detained Ashraf Kutkut, a cameraman, for half an hour and instructed him to go to the Israeli intelligence department in Hebron, his place of residence.  The two were covering Israeli treatment of Palestinian civilians at the roadblock.

       q          February 12, 2001

 James Longley, a freelance US journalist, and his producer Mohammed Mahanna, were fired at by the Israeli occupation forces from heavy machine guns near Al-Mentar (Karni) Outlet, to the east of Gaza City.  This incident took place when the two were attempting to film a group of Palestinian children playing near an Israeli tank.  Bernard asserted to PCHR that they were fired upon when they were approximately 40 feet from the Israeli tank.  He also asserted that they were willfully fired upon. They were not engaging in suspicious or threatening activity.  It was also clear from their attire and camera that they were journalists.  He added that the area was very quiet and no clashes were occurring between Palestinian civilians and the Israeli forces.

       q          February 13, 2001

 Israeli forces fired heavy and medium caliber bullets at Palestinian houses in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, wounding five Palestinian civilians, including three journalists, who were covering the incident.  The journalists were:

       1)         Ahmed Jadallah Hassan Jadallah, a 30-year-old Reuters photographer from Gaza, wounded with shrapnel in the head;

       2)         Shams El-Din Oudetallah, a 31-year-old Reuters photographer from Khan Yunis, wounded with shrapnel in the right foot; and

       3)         Abed Rabbo Abdel-Rahman Oudetallah, wounded with shrapnel in the head.

The shelling coincided with the presence of the UN Human Rights Inquiry Commission, established by the UN to investigate Israeli abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  The Commission was forced to abruptly end their field visit to Khan Yunis, where they had been viewing the damage caused by Israeli shelling.

 PCHR considers these practices against journalists part of ongoing Israeli abuses against Palestinian civilians.  PCHR also considers it evidence of Israeli disregard for international humanitarian, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.  PCHR asserts the following:

        1.         Most attacks by the Israeli forces against the local and international press agencies were willful and intentional, especially since members of the press wear clearly marked attire.  The attacks are designed to prevent the objective coverage of incidents in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

       2.         Israeli forces have equally targeted the local and international press, since many international journalists were attacked.  These attacks are part of a systematic Israeli policy of isolating the Occupied Palestinian Territories, so as to allow further abuses Palestinian civilians.

       3.         PCHR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet their obligations under the Convention and immediately provide international protection for the Palestinian people.

       4.         PCHR calls on all international media to intervene and exert pressure on Israel to stop its occupying forces’ attacks on journalists and to provide the proper climate for practice of the profession without restriction.