Int”l press freedom org. condemns Israeli acts against Palestinian journalists

By KUNA,

Paris : The international press freedom organization, Reporters Without Borders condemned here the “abusive behavior” by Israeli security agents towards Palestinian journalists moving around the Territories or returning from visits abroad. The worldwide press freedom organisation said it had recorded five incidents of “wrongful arrest” in the past ten days. One journalist is still being held, while another needed hospital treatment after being subjected to brutality and humiliation at an Israeli checkpoint by Israeli forces.


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Mohammed Omer Al-Mughaier, aged 24, who works for several foreign publications, was stopped by Shin Bet agents last week after crossing on the Allenby Bridge, one of the borders posts between Israel and Jordan. The Organization affirmed that the behavior of Israeli security services towards Al-Mughaier is “unacceptable.” It indicated that the journalist “obeyed every one of the Shin Bet agents’ orders. But despite that they had no hesitation in using violence against him and humiliating him.” “We urge the Israeli authorities to accept their responsibility for this abuse, because this type of harassment is never punished,” Reporters Without Borders said. The Organization also called for the release of Fouad Farukh, a film editor with a Palestinian news agency, who has been held without charge by Israeli police for over a week.

He was with a group of four journalists and technicians working for the agency who were arrested at the Zaatara crossing near Nablus on the West Bank as they were heading to Nablus in a vehicle marked TV. The soundman Nubul Nabil and journalist Mohammed Marbu were released after six hours in custody while cameraman Rami Jahajha was only freed on June 29. The four men had wrongly been accused of throwing stones at an Israeli settler, an allegation they immediately denied while they were held at the Ben Yamin police post, to which they were taken with their feet and wrists bound, the Organization indicated.

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