Israeli border police forces verbally and physically assaulted an unarmed, female AP TV producer during last weekend’s protests in the West Bank village of Burin, pushing her onto a pile of rocks and insulting her. When colleagues tried to help her off the ground, forces prevented them from reaching her and then blocked them from taking her to an ambulance. It is important to note that the incident occurred before the military declared the area a closed zone. While the producer did not suffer any broken bones, she is in great pain and has been unable to work since the incident.
Also in Burin, an officer threatened AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiye as he documented the events, warning him he would be arrested at his home, in front of his children, during the night if he did not stop taking pictures. A military spokesman has agreed that the soldier’s remarks were inappropriate and promised the incident would be investigated, but AFP has heard nothing further on this.
The FPA condemns the security force’s behavior in both incidents the strongest terms and urges prompt investigations.
It should be noted that both the military and the military police have poor records when it comes to investigating such incidents.
In the past year alone, Israeli authorities have promised to investigate at least five FPA complaints of inappropriate violence against journalists, some of which were captured on film. As far as we know, all of these investigations remain open, and authorities have never provided any update on the status of any of them.
This lack of transparency questions about the military authority’s stated commitment to protecting freedom of the press. With this in mind, we appeal to the Military Advocate General and the Justice Ministry’s internal police investigation unit to take over the investigations, promptly complete them and take all appropriate disciplinary action.
In order to assist the government with this task, we are attaching three photos of the incident involving the AP producer, as well as a fourth picture of the same border policeman spraying pepper spray on protesters. We have also attached two videos: The first shows parts of the incident in which the producer was beaten. The second shows whom we believe to be the same border policeman hitting a protester with his rifle.
We hope that the relevant authorities will consider our request and take incidents like these more seriously than the security forces.http://www.raya.ps/ar/raya-tube/817407-.html http://www.raya.ps/ar/raya-tube/817406-.html