IPS News / By Mel Frykberg

Israeli Handling of the Media Increasingly Brutal

"The line between political activism and security is becoming increasingly blurred by the authorities who are trying to criminalise dissent."

July 23, 2010 |

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector. Language en Duration 00:00:33 Products PRWINT CodeName MMV118710 FileName MMV118710_TEN 00:30 images of celebration procession, protestors SOURCE: AFPTV -------------------- JERUSALEM, May 12, 2010 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday that construction would continue unabated in all of Jerusalem, as he addressed a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of Israel's capture of the city's Arab eastern sector. "You can't flourish in a divided city and a flourishing city can't be divided or frozen," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to build and develop ourselves in Jerusalem." The Palestinians have warned that continued construction in Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem will torpedo newly launched indirect peace talks which are being brokered by the United States. They want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state but Israel, which captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and then annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, lays claim to the entire city as its "eternal, indivisible capital." Each year, Israelis celebrate the anniversary, known as "Jerusalem Day", with parties, parades and solemn ceremony. Festivities kicked off at sundown on Tuesday with an open-air concert by US funk band "Kool and the Gang" and continued through the night with prayers and gatherings. Security was tight, with thousands of police deployed across the city to ensure the festivities went off without a hitch. "Several thousands of police and border police have been mobilised, with the deployment of forces particularly high in the Old City," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. On Wednesday, thousands of people, mostly nationalist-religious Jews, marched through Jerusalem to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Netanyahu spoke in an evening memorial ceremony, attended by President Shimon Peres and other officials, at Ammunition Hill where Israeli troops fought a fierce battle with Jordanian forces in 1967. Tensions in and around Jerusalem have soared in recent months over the deeply controversial issue of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem. Despite US assurances to the Palestinians that Israel would freeze some settlement activity in the eastern sector for the next two years, Israel has denied making any such commitment. "There is no agreement about freezing building in east Jerusalem and normal life in Jerusalem will continue as in every other city in Israel," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists during a visit to Tokyo. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also insisted that there would be no halt to construction in the "united and undivided" Holy City. "The municipal borders of Jerusalem are not negotiable and building will continue across all of the city under Israeli sovereignty," Barkat told army radio. Israel marks Jerusalem Day in accordance with the Hebrew calendar. It captured east Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the third day of the Six-Day War, and unilaterally annexed it. In 1980, Israel passed a law declaring Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital. Israeli human rights groups say the Holy City is sharply divided and that Palestinian residents suffer from discrimination. Jewish settlements and the status of Jerusalem are among the thorniest issues in the Middle East peace process. bur-scw/kir

Photo Credit: AFP - Menahem Kahana

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NABI SALAH, Occupied West Bank, Jul 23 (IPS) - Palestinian activists are being jailed, Israeli activists are under surveillance, and the Israeli military is increasingly targeting journalists who cover West Bank protests.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel issued a statement recently condemning what it sees as a change in Israel Defence Forces (IDF) policy in their treatment of journalists covering the growing number of West Bank protests against Israel's separation barrier, illegal settlements and land expropriation.

"We would appreciate it were the authorities to remind the various forces involved, that open, unhindered coverage of news events is a widely acknowledged part of the essence of democracy.

"Generally speaking this would not include smashing the face of a clearly marked photographer working for a known and accredited news organisation with a stick, or for that matter aiming a stun grenade at the head of a clearly marked news photographer or summarily arresting cameramen, photographers and/or journalists," said the FPA.

The release of the statement followed an attack on three journalists as they covered a protest march near an Israeli settlement built illegally on land belonging to the Palestinian village Beir Ummar in the southern West Bank.

Several weeks ago in the village Nabi Salah, north of Ramallah, two Israeli activists were roughed up and arrested after criticising Israeli soldiers for shooting at Palestinian boys throwing stones.

One of the Israelis, Yonatan Shapira, 38, an ex-Israeli Air Force (AIF) pilot and member of Combatants for Peace, (a group comprising former Palestinian and Israeli fighters) earned the wrath of the Israeli authorities when he authored a "pilot's letter" in 2003 signed by 27 AIF pilots.

The pilots refused to fly over the Palestinian occupied territories and take part in the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, particularly in Gaza.

Shapira was recently interrogated by Israel's domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet over his participation in anti-occupation protests and his support for the BDS movement.

In what appeared to be a veiled threat the Israeli activist was warned that his presence at anti-wall demonstrations was in defiance of the areas being declared closed military-zones on Fridays.

Shapira believes his phone has been tapped. "Nothing we are doing is illegal and I'm not afraid, but I'm uncomfortable about my country turning into a fascist state," said Shapira.

"The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate Israelis who engage in political dissent. We present no security threat. But the line between political activism and security is becoming increasingly blurred by the authorities who are trying to criminalise dissent," Shapira told IPS.

"Sometimes when we come to demonstrations we have been stopped en route by the IDF who have taken down our details and appear to have prior knowledge of our movements," Israeli activist Shy Halatzi, 23, a physics and astronomy student at Tel Aviv University who served in the Israeli military told IPS.

Israel has become alarmed at growing international support for a boycott campaign against the country as its right-wing government increasingly tramples on civil liberties. Hundreds of Israeli college professors signed a petition recently denouncing the threat by Israeli education minister Gideon Saar (a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party) to punish any lecturer or institution which supports a boycott of Israel.

Saar supports Im Tirtzu, a right-wing nationalist movement, which demands that Israeli education professionals be required to prove their commitment to Zionism.

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