MADA condemns 'attacks' on Palestinian journalists

Ma'an
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) on Tuesday strongly condemned what it termed Israeli attacks against a group of journalists in the West Bank and Jerusalem in recent days.

...MADA stressed the need for Palestinian journalists to exercise their right to free expression and coverage, and called on the international community and human rights organizations to intervene.

Police prevented journalists from covering clashes in the town of Al-Esawiya, near Jerusalem, on Tuesday and used force against Palestine TV cameraman Nader Pabers and Pal Media cameraman Hamza Naaji the same day, MADA said.

...Israeli forces detained the Palestine TV crew (correspondent Haroon Amayreh, cameramen Samer Habash and Najib Sharoneh) at the Atarah checkpoint near Birzeit on Tuesday.

According to photographer Mahfouz Abu Turk of the AP, Israeli forces prevented all journalists and photographers from covering the confrontations in Al-Esawiya, where a group of press crews from Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, CNN, and others attempted to film. They were prevented from filming, MADA said, while the Israeli army ordered them to stay away from the area, Abu Turk said.

Pabers said that he and a colleague were injured by tear gas shortly after arriving at the Al-Asbat Gate area in Jerusalem on Monday to film clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police. Cameraman Hamza Naaji was also injured, he said.

"If you get hurt, we are not responsible," Papers quoted an approaching police officer as saying.

In the West Bank, Amayreh said he was detained for an hour and a half at the Atarah checkpoint near Birzeit, where he had arrived to cover protests led by university students. Israeli forces ordered a group of journalists to leave the area, Amayreh said. 

[If Americans Knew director Alison Weir was once detained by over an hour while filming a nonviolent demonstration in Bil'in. An Israeli soldier first attempted to take her camera. When he failed to wrest it from her, he detained her.]  Full story