Reporters Without Borders outraged at dismissal of case against Israeli army

Wafa- Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Wednesday said it was appalled by reports that a French judge had dismissed a French journalist’s complaint against the Israeli authorities on the grounds that the lack of Israeli cooperation prevented him from pursuing the investigation.

Jacques-Marie Bourget, former Paris-Match correspondent in Ramallah, was seriously injured while covering the second Intifada in October 2000. He sustained a gunshot injury that was operated on locally after the Israeli military refused to transfer him. He was subsequently repatriated to France with great difficulty and hospitalized there.

French doctors considered Bourget to be 45% permanently disabled.

Forensic examination of the bullet that was withdrawn from his lung on June 29, 2001 established that it was Israeli-made and had been fired from an M-16 assault rifle, a gun widely used by the Israel army.

“This finding supported Bourget’s claim that Israeli soldiers had deliberately fired on him, as did the murder of his interpreter, Abdel Hamid Khorti, a few days after his repatriation,” said an RSF release. Read more