RAMALALH, West Bank: As part of its military censorship, Israel is maintaining its ban on foreign reporters entering the Gaza Strip.
The decision of the Defense Ministry to bar journalists from covering the ten-day-old military offensive from inside Gaza has forced them to report from the Gaza-Israel border and to rely on Palestinian stringers and reporters.
This week the matter reached the Israeli High Court of Justice. In a compromise, the parties agreed that a limited team of eight journalists would be allowed into Gaza as soon as the Erez crossing opens to send in humanitarian aid. But the crossing has not yet opened. The Israeli army’s coordinator of activities in the Palestinian territories, Maj. Peter Lerner, noted that in keeping with the guidelines set by the High Court, the journalists would only be allowed through when the crossing opens. But he said he could not say when that will happen.
“There are masses of requests,” says Noam Katz, director of public relations at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “A reporter from CNN stands there and protests the state’s decision on the air,” he said.
Glenys Sugarman, executive secretary of the Foreign Press Association (FPA), said, “It looks like there will be no immediate change in the situation. It’s a question of working out the logistics.”
FPA sources said there are currently 400 to 500 foreign journalists in Israel, and since the ground operation began, senior correspondents have begun to stream in. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour is at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, the producers of NBC television’s “Meet the Press” are here from the United States, as is Bob Simon of CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
The BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, is also here. Everyone will have to wait for the policy to change and for Israel to allow the media into Gaza to cover the events.
Catrin Ormestad, who writes for The Economist and a number of Swedish papers, said the Israeli policy was very tough and she did not have much of a chance of being a member of the group of eight because she was not as high-profile as Fox or CNN. Israel says it does not want the foreign press in Gaza due to concerns of journalists’ safety. But FPA sources say it is just an excuse. By keeping the world media away from Gaza, Israelis are allowing only their side of the story to release.
On Saturday night, Israeli Channel 2 television reported that a journalist from an Iranian television broke censorship rules and an arrest order was issued against him. According to Danny Seaman, the director of the Israel Government Press Office, the reporter had been refused a press card for security reasons. The approach is stricter in general, Seaman explained, because “too many times we have spoken in too many voices. This time it’s clear that the system is unified and serious. That was also one of the Winograd Committee’s conclusions, but this time there won’t be censorship violations that won’t be dealt with.”
The Winograd report on the Lebanon War found that the Israeli government misled the censorship, the media and secrecy.
Israeli officials have often voiced displeasure over the international media’s coverage of the events in Gaza, saying it inflates Palestinian suffering while not making clear that Israeli military actions were in response to Palestinian attacks. Officials have said they prefer Palestinians to do the reporting from Gaza.
Eli Yishai, leader of ultra-orthodox Shas party and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, has said that Israel should not let the foreign press into the Gaza Strip to cover the offensive, because they would only work in the service of Palestinian armed organizations.
Mohammed Mar’i
Arab News
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