[iwar] Israel declares war on media

From: televr (yangyun@metacrawler.com)
Date: 2002-04-04 12:46:01
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Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 20:46:01 -0000
Subject: [iwar] Israel declares war on media
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Israel declares war on media   
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/734009.asp>

Reporters threatened with deportation   
[Image: Soldier confronts journalist]  
Palestinian photo-journalist Atta Oweisat, working for the biggest
Israeli daily, Yedioth Aharonoth, is ordered by an Israeli soldier to
put his hands up after he was stripped of his flak jacket, helmet and
cameras in the West Bank city of Ramallah this week.

By Dana Lewis
NBC NEWS
RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 4 —   The Israeli army has declared war on
the media covering its campaign in the West Bank, employing harsh
measures to keep journalists away from its largest offensive in a
generation. Reporters have been strip searched, deported from the
battle zone and threatened with permanent expulsion from Israel.
  IN THE LATEST move against journalists, Israeli forces detained a
French reporter on Wednesday, forcing him to strip to his underwear at
the side of a road. Later, a crew from an Arab-language television
channel was deported.
       The measures are part of a larger plan, Israeli officials say,
to lock the media out of a military operation that has caused
apprehension among some Israelis and provoked rage in the Arab world.
Since Friday, the military has taken over several West Bank towns and
kept Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a virtual captive in his
compound in Ramallah.
       "This is no game," an Israeli government source said, speaking
on condition of anonymity. "You people are in a war zone. The army has
no time for journalists to get in its way."
       Earlier this week, NBC's armored car was fired on 15 times as
it moved down a Ramallah street. Although the vehicle was well marked
as a press car, an Israeli soldier fired directly into the windshield.

       Such incidents are becoming routine in the streets of this West
Bank town. Other American television networks and print journalists
also have been fired upon.
       
MEDIA LOCKDOWN
       The result has been a virtual lockdown for journalists in
Ramallah — not unlike the curfew confining the city's residents to
their homes. Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers rumble down
streets, stopping to raid apartment blocks where Palestinian militants
are believed to be hiding.


     Israeli officials say the military was moved to act against the
media after being stung by a weekend incident in which 40 peace
activists, followed by journalists, managed to enter Arafat's compound
even while surrounded by Israeli commandos. After that embarrassing
episode, the military banned journalists from entering Ramallah.

       On the streets of the city, journalists encounter all sorts of
intimidation. On Thursday, an Israeli armored personnel carrier and
jeep pulled up in front of a hotel housing foreign journalists. An
officer pulled out a map and appeared to mark the building's location
on a military grid. The hotel's water supply was cut — and Israeli
soldiers riddled reserve water tanks with gunfire.
       

OLD ARMY TACTIC
       The army has also revived an old tactic from the days of the
first Palestinian intifada — the 1987-1992 uprising — by designating
Ramallah and other West Bank regions "closed military areas."
       But unlike the days of the first intifada — when soldiers were
required to display an official order closing an area to the media —
Israeli troops this time around simply fire first.

       Foreign journalists are not the only casualties of Israel's war
on the media. Notably absent from the war zone are Israeli
journalists. Once able to travel with the military on missions,
Israeli reporters have been told by the army to stay away from the
West Bank.
       "We have been warned to stay away, not to come in under any
circumstances," said Ron Benishai, a veteran correspondent for
Israel's Channel 1. "This is a very frustrating situation."


       The Israeli media ban derives from a report that aired on
Israel's Channel 2 three weeks ago in which Israeli soldiers openly
expressed doubt over their deployment in Palestinian areas.
       The interviews, accompanied by video of Israeli forces blowing
down a wall that killed a Palestinian woman, were distributed to
several television outlets as pool material. Later, the government
sought to keep the video from being broadcast.
       Channel 2 was the only station that did not comply with the
government's request. Its editors said they were committed to showing
both the good and the bad in times of war.
       
       NBC's Dana Lewis is on assignment in Ramallah.
       


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