Journalists Seeking to Cover Israeli Actions In Occupied Territories Often Thwarted


	An Israeli border policewoman prevents a photographer from taking pictures during a Jan. 1 demonstration by hundreds of protesters against the construction of the controversial Israeli “security fence” in the West Bank village of Budrus, some 10 miles west of Ramallah (photo credit AFP Photo/Jamal Aruri).

By Alex Ionides

ISRAEL'S FREQUENT military incursions into the occupied territories are often indiscriminate and unjustifiable, and almost always result in Palestinian deaths. Yet coverage of these operations by the mainstream American media essentially ignores the injustices perpetrated on the Palestinians by the Israeli military, and rarely questions the facts on the ground. The incursions are generally labeled as operations to filter out “militants” or “terrorists,” and many Western journalists are all too willing simply to rely on official statements by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The images chosen are very much one-sided, as well, with rock-throwing Palestinian teenagers or hooded Palestinian resistance fighters being flashed across television screens. Pictures and footage of IDF soldiers terrorizing innocents are at best scarce.

Media executives and editors, of course, play a large part in dictating a news organization’s political slant or how certain issues will be covered. But journalists on the ground also are guided by what they are able—or unable—to see. When reporting from Palestine, journalists at times find it difficult to get the real story, even as it is unfolding.

IDF operations into Palestine’s many refugee camps illustrate the difficulties journalists often face. Needless to say, there is no warning given prior to these invasions, so reporters arriving at the scene after an operation has begun are unable to get inside a camp if it has been completely surrounded and cordoned off by the Israeli military.

Israel’s Dec. 1 invasion of Ramallah—on the very day that backers of the Geneva Accord were meeting in Switzerland for a signing ceremony—provided a clear example of an operation that journalists were prevented from covering properly.

Israel’s target was the al-Ama’ri refugee camp and what the IDF charged was the Hamas infrastructure in the area. By the time Israeli troops pulled out in the evening, they had killed five Palestinians—including a 9-year-old boy, shot in the head—and dynamited a three-story building alleged to be a bomb-making lab.

The dozen or so reporters present, including this writer, were not allowed into the center of the camp where the IDF activity was taking place, and thus spent much of their time photographing young Palestinians stationed on the outskirts of the camp. Each time Israeli military trucks would drive in and out of al-Ama’ri, the youths, most in their mid-teens, would hurl a barrage of rocks and bottles at the vehicles, providing numerous photo opportunities. This, however, was not the real story—which was, of course, taking place inside the camp.

When several journalists tried to get near the bodies of two Palestinians lying on the side of the road closer to the IDF activity, Israeli soldiers threatened to confiscate their cameras. However, reporters were allowed close enough to the camp to film Israeli soldiers removing explosive devices from the three-story building the IDF subsequently dynamited.

It was clear how the news would be presented in America: “The IDF came into Ramallah, rounded up militants, and destroyed a bomb-making factory. During the operation a 9-year-old boy was killed. The IDF is investigating the incident.”

But who specifically were the “militants” arrested, and are they still being held? If so, have they been charged, and with what? What was the name of the 9-year-old child? And under what circumstances was he killed? Were the other four killed that day fighting when they died? If so, with what weapons? Where were the pictures of the bomb-making lab? Several of the neighbors said it was not a bomb-making lab at all, but an apartment building housing several different families.

Sam Bahour, a businessman and political writer living in Ramallah, recalls the first intifada, which lasted from 1987 to 1991. He used to bring eyewitness delegations from the U.S. to the occupied territories to view the situation firsthand. Restrictions on journalists were even greater back then, he recalls, and often included deliberate deception by the Israeli military. “The Israeli army would allow reporters to come into Ramallah, and lo and behold there would be no activity in Ramallah,” Bahour said. “Reporters were being steered away from the cities and villages where disastrous incursions were actually taking place.”

According to the Palestine Monitor—an organization committed to providing local and foreign press with developments taking place in Palestinian civil society—the Israeli army frequently blocks reporters from moving in and out of certain areas. In March 2002, during the month-long siege of Ramallah, journalists were entirely prevented from entering the city, while reporters already in the area were ordered to leave.

The Palestine Monitor also reports that, since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, there have been 94 attacks by Israeli forces on press and media establishments, with 46 incidents of media equipment damaged. And the Palestine Monitor’s statistics reveal that Israeli fire has killed 12 journalists in Palestine, with a further 167 having been attacked by Israeli soldiers.

At the end of the day, however, Israeli military restrictions placed on the movement of journalists probably are an insignificant part of the problem. If reporters are willing to go after the real story, there is little that can be done to prevent them from uncovering it. Thus the content of U.S. media coverage comes back to the question of executive control.

Few American viewers are aware that their favorite networks have little if any interest in presenting the Palestinian side of the story. They cannot know that what they are getting are stories filed by reporters being sent to Palestine with a previously written script, with blank spaces for date, place and numbers to be filled in by the IDF.

Alex Ionides is a Canadian journalist based in Cairo.