Israel’s Deputy State Prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into a website that allegedly published a picture of an Israeli soldier with the word “Murderer” over his photograph.
Indymedia Israel, a leftist news outlet, accused the soldier of killing a Palestinian protester with a gas canister during a clash in the West Bank village of Bilin in April. The website told its readers to forward the photograph, and asked if anyone knew more information about the soldier.
The caption on the site reads, “The soldier in the picture had murdered Abdallah Abu Rahma by direct shooting of a gas canister in Bilin on April 17. Do you know his name or any other details?”
However, the Israeli Deputy State Prosecutor claims that the soldier in the photograph was not responsible for the man’s death, and released a statement saying, “It seems that the shooting that caused the death of [the Palestinian protester] was not carried out by the soldier in the picture.”
The Prosecutor intends to pursue the website for the criminal charges of insulting a public officer and invasion of privacy.
“The law prohibits publishing a person’s photo in the public sphere in circumstances in which the publication could degrade him or humiliate him,” the statement read. “For these reasons, the publication requires opening a criminal investigation.”
Pro-Palestinian organizations are in outcry over the Justice Department’s allegations, claiming the crackdown is a violation of free speech.
“I think the type of legal action they are threatening to take is against the principals of free speech and independent journalism,” activist Andrew Muncie of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian advocacy organization, told The Media Line.
Muncie claims that the criminal investigation is part of a wider Israeli government initiative to crack down on media sympathetic to Palestinians.
“The Israeli government has a particular official department that employs a number of people, and their job is to trawl the internet and forums like YouTube to complain about any material which is critical of Israel,” he said.
The Prosecutor’s office said that this wasn’t the first time IndyMedia had acted offensively. Previously, however, the website took down any inflammatory material before legal action could be carried out.
“There has already been a criminal investigation of IndyMedia in the past for suspicion of incitement of violence and insulting a public official,” the press release explained. “However, it was shelved because the moderators removed the website.”
At a later date the site was brought back, but no charges were filed.
Philip Rizk, 27, a freelance journalist and blogger who has been reporting from Gaza since 2005, was arrested by Egyptian security forces after a pro-Palestinian rally in Cairo on February 6.
He was released a few days later without being charged.
While in Gaza, he filmed The Palestinian Life, a documentary highlighting non-violent means of resistance against the Israeli occupation.
The film is premiering at the London International Documentary Festival on April 4. Here are excerpts from an interview Rizk gave to Al Jazeera shortly before the film’s debut.
Rizk says it takes one visit to Gaza to picture the kind of agony people endure daily [Gallo/ Getty]
Rizk: Gazans function with whatever they have available
Rizk says the line between the meaning of life and death becomes very thin in Gaza
Al Jazeera: Why were you detained and subsequently released by Egyptian authorities at the rally in Cairo?
Rizk: On February 6, I was part of a demonstration of 15 protesters against the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. We started from the outskirts of Cairo and walked in the direction toward Gaza. Some 12km later, we were stopped by security forces that singled me out from the rest. I was forced into their car; they blindfolded me and I had no idea where I was going. One of the protesters was a lawyer who had a car, so he and others followed the car which took me.
The police set up security checkpoints to slow them down and eventually they lost my trail.
The security men took me to three holding stations. By the time I arrived at the third destination, they gave me a number, 29, told me to forget my name and that’s where I stayed for four days. They interrogated me about everything I had ever done in my life: where I was born, who I knew … everything.
They didn’t charge me with anything, but while I was being interrogated, they accused me of being an Israeli spy. They also said I was dealing weapons to Hamas. So it seemed like they were trying to figure out what I was all about to put a file together on me.
You’ve been reporting from Gaza over the past couple of years and one of the first journalists allowed access through the tunnels. Are Palestinians still using them?
Rizk: Gazans function with whatever they have available
I lived in Gaza from 2005 to 2007 and worked there for an NGO called the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation.
Gaza wears a face of misery and the living conditions are unimaginable. Unless you visit, you wouldn’t be able to picture the kind of agony Gazans have to live through on a daily basis. They function with whatever is available.
I was completely shocked when I returned in the summer of 2008. I discovered these tunnels myself and I couldn’t believe how out in the open they were. In the past, I had heard the entrances were from inside people’s living rooms, under their beds, or underneath a table, making it hard to find if ever an Israeli soldier would search their homes.
Last summer, I came across hundreds of tents, and underneath each of these tents were entrance points to hundreds of these tunnels. Egyptians and Israelis were well aware of them as these tunnels were all the people had as a means of transporting food and goods.
At least 85 per cent of the people are dependent on food aid. If the amount of aid was reduced, they would starve.
Refugee camps receive flour, oil and rice as aid and without these donations; they would not be able to survive.
They may be living but they’re not alive. There isn’t work to do; they’ve lost their dignity because of lack of work caused largely by the siege. Fathers have nothing to provide for their kids and in front of their wives they feel ashamed because there’s nothing for them to do; they can’t even provide their families with the most basic of needs.
The ironic thing is that the main providers for employment are the NGOs being funded by international organisations, which then serve to help keep the rest of the population alive. In the meanwhile, politicians don’t look for actual solutions to the conflict.
What doesn’t the media report on?
More than 1400 people died in Israel’s latest war on Gaza. But on a regular basis, Gazans die because of all sorts of causes that we don’t hear sufficiently about in the media. The sewage system is horrible, water is polluted and diseases are becoming an increasing phenomenon in Gaza.
Hospitals can’t cope because they face electricity shortages; a lot of Palestinians are in desperate need of kidney dialysis, the kinds of diseases that are out there are getting worse, it’s simply not a livable space.
The line between the meaning of life and death becomes very thin. As a student, you can spend your whole life trying to do well in school, get good grades – but all that effort goes to waste because there is no future for the class valedictorian.
Everyone alike is left completely powerless without hope and potential future. I’m even shocked at how well kids can even perform in these schools, considering how they live in a constant state of war.
There have been reports of tensions between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in Hebron. Is this a potentially explosive situation?
Rizk says the line between the meaning of life and death becomes very thin in Gaza
What happens in Gaza really stays in Gaza because some things aren’t reported. Israel has done so well at controlling the flow of information; they control everyone who goes in and out of the strip. It is easier for foreigners that are able to come in with NGOs working in Gaza. As far as the media goes, Israel hands out the permits and from mid November till the end of January or beginning of February, Israelis weren’t allowing anyone in, there was a blackout of information.
Another thing is how there isn’t so much of an interest from media organisations around the world to keep reporting on Gaza.
To them, there’s nothing new about the situation when in fact, the story there is constantly unfolding, breaking news is Gaza’s middle name. But because this breaking news always holds the same kind of information, no one cares to report on it.
So your documentary is to shed light on the situation in Gaza?
My documentary is a response to what I witnessed in Gaza and the West Bank and they are stories that don’t make it out in the media. Palestinians are so easily identified as terrorists, wearing balaclavas, holding a gun or firing a Qassam rocket.
But they’re really everyday people just trying to make the best of their lives, putting their kids through school, finding a job, doing well in their final exams.
One thing I’ve noticed in the media is that the theme of violence is always associated with stories coming out of Gaza.
Why not focus on stories of non-violent resistance? While some Palestinians return Israeli violence with further violence, the vast majority does not, and the Arabic word for such everyday acts of non-violent protest is sumoud, which means steadfastness, perseverance.
No matter what Israelis do to the people I met, they continued fighting for their right to remain on their land, their right to stay alive. Many of the people I filmed aren’t affiliated with political parties, they are normal people like you and I.
I needed to go to Palestine to understand what was going on there. Studying and reading about it didn’t make sense until I saw the wall, the settlements and physical occupation. After doing so, and going through the kinds of experiences I went through, I wanted to translate what I saw into the medium of film.
I’m also planning a film in West Africa, and then I’d like to focus on Egypt, which is a real police state. There’s red tape everywhere so it’s going to be a challenge.
10pm, 5th January 2009, Gaza City: A high-story building housing international media outlets in Gaza City has been targeted by the Israeli military. Seven rounds were fired from an apache helicopter into the building in which international media which houses international media outlets such as Reuters.
Canadian Human Rights Activist Eva Bartlett was inside the building as it was attacked;
“It felt like the building was about to collapse. The attack was a few floors above where we were, but it felt like the building was going to come down.
Israel has denied the international media access to Gaza, now they are targeting those who are attempting to tell the world what is happening here. Israel does not want the world to see it’s crimes.” Eva Bartlett – International Solidarity Movement
Israel has maintained it’s ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip, despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling stating that they should be permitted.
International Solidarity Movement and Free Gaza Movement volunteers have been working to document the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Crowd-control devices like stun grenades and tear gas have injured a number of journalists in recent weeks, including two television crewmen covering a women’s protest Thursday — and reporters are charging they’ve been targeted by Israeli security forces.
Over the last three months, at least five journalists were injured — including an AP photographer whose leg was broken by a stun grenade — while covering protests or Israeli military operations. In one incident, an AP photographer said a stun grenade was thrown at reporters as they talked to soldiers.
The army denied any targeting of journalists, and said it would investigate the incidents.
The military “does not intentionally harm journalists, and any such claims on this matter are baseless,” a military statement said, adding that there are “inherent risks to journalists” covering combat operations.
The casualties were caused by non-lethal means the Israelis use to break up demonstrations and riots. However, stun grenades, which make a loud noise can cause serious injuries when their canisters fly through the air, and tear gas can also cause injury in high concentrations.
On Thursday, paramilitary border police fired stun grenades from a distance of about 10 meters to break up a demonstration of women at the Qalandia checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Associated Press Television cameraman Eyad Moghrabi was hit on the leg by a flying piece of metal. TV footage showed a stun grenade exploding among the reporters, who were several meters away from the demonstrators. The pictures show the reporters scattering, with one clutching her leg.
“This was not the first time they fire where the journalists are located,” Moghrabi said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the officers warned everyone, including journalists, that their presence was illegal, before firing the stun grenades, denying that reporters were targeted.
In its statement, the military said it “strives to ensure that the press is not hindered,” but said that when soldiers declare an area closed, reporters are expected to leave.
While agreeing that the military did not have a deliberate policy, Daniel Blumenthal, vice chairman of the Foreign Press Association, said there are numerous complaints. “We assume some soldiers act on their own initiative because of their idea about where a journalist should be (during) an event.”
Thursday’s casualties were only the most recent.
On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera technician Maamoun Othman was wounded when Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades during the arrest of a radical Islamic leader.
“A stun grenade was fired at me directly. It landed on my stomach,” Othman said.
On Feb. 27, journalists say they were hit as they talked to soldiers about covering an army operation in Nablus.
AP photographer Emilio Morenatti said soldiers approached them in jeeps, asking them to leave.
As they were talking with the soldiers “one hand appeared from the (army) car, and threw a stun grenade at us,” he said. No one was hurt.
The FPA protested the Nablus incident, calling it “obstruction and ill treatment of journalists.” Morenatti suffered a broken leg from a fragment of a stun grenade, thrown from a distance of about two meters while he was covering a protest in the West Bank village of Bilin in January.
On Feb. 16, AP photographer Nasser Shiyoukhi was hurt when soldiers fired a tear gas grenade that exploded next to a group of reporters near Hebron.
The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association on Thursday accused the IDF of “unprovoked violence against journalists” after two Palestinian journalists were beaten up and one of them detained in the West Bank.
“In both cases there is no evidence that either colleague was doing anything other than pursuing their journalistic duties,” the FPA said in a statement.
Emad Borat, a freelance cameraman for Reuters news agency and other groups, has remained in custody since he was detained while filming soldiers entering the Palestinian village of Bil’in on Oct. 6, said Shai Carmeli-Pollak, an [Israeli] film maker.
Bilin, located near the boundary with Israel, is the scene of weekly protests against the West Bank security barrier. Pollak said Borat was beaten up inside a military jeep after his detention and needed six stitches for a gash on his face.
A military judge has ordered Borat to be released, but he remains in custody while prosecutors appeal the order. The IDF has accused Borat of throwing stones at border police while filming, Pollak said.
Borat was the main photographer for Pollak’s documentary, “Bilin My Love,” which won best documentary at the recent Jerusalem Film Festival.
The FPA complaint also cited the case of Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a photographer for Agence France Presse. Ashtiyeh, 38, said an Israeli soldier chased and kicked him after he tried to take photographs of an Israeli checkpoint next to the West Bank city of Nablus.
The FPA, which represents foreign journalists in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said both cases raised “serious concerns about the treatment of journalists by members of the Israeli armed services.”
