Israel August 3, 2004

 

His Excellency Ariel Sharon
Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem, Israel

Via facsimile: 011 972 2 566-9425

The Overseas Press Club of America writes to express its deep concern with recent news from Israel, and to ask your assistance in clearing up extremely serious allegations, or to assure us that proper measures are being taken.

According to news reports, the IDF openly announced that on June 29 it attacked “the headquarters of a body that incites hatred (and is) in constant contact with terrorists.” The IDF was referring to the missile attack it ordered against the al-Shawa and Husari building in al-Whida Street, Gaza. The structure houses BBC, al-Jazeera, ARD, CNN, NBC, Kuwait TV, some Arab-language outlets and other journalistic entities. According to press reports, the IDF never alleged that it was taking any fire from the building. It appears to us that the assault was literally an attack on the press.

Several missiles destroyed the al-Jeel press center owned by Palestinian journalist Mustapha al-Sawaf, who works for Islam-on-line, MBC television, the Palestinian website Saberon and Jordanian newspaper Sabil.

We are aware that the strike was ordered just a few hours after a rocket attack, claimed by Hamas, left two dead, including a four-year-old child, in the Israeli town of Sderot, near the Gaza Strip. However, the IDF has produced no evidence that al-Jeel was contributing to the Sderot killings.

We join our colleagues in the Israeli Foreign Press Association in condemning the attack, which clearly violates internationally recognized protections for journalists, including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

In addition, again according news reports and information from our colleagues, two Israeli helicopters attacked Radio al-Aqsa on May 2, and on May 16, an air raid hit the weekly al-Rissala, both in Gaza.

We are also concerned about violent attacks by the Israeli Army against Palestinian journalists in the Nablus area during June.

Palestinian photographer Alaa Badarneh of the European Press Agency (EPA) reported that IDF soldiers fired a tear gas canister directly at him while he was covering a demonstration in al-Zawiyeh village, 30 kms south of Nablus on June 10. A similar attack injured Palestinian photographer Jaafar Ishtayeh, working for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the same village three days later.

According to Associated Press photographer Nasser Ishtayeh, he was threatened by soldiers in the same village. He reported that one of them said to him, “Watch out, we have already injured two of your friends. You better take care if you don@quot;t want to be the third.”

Although it is difficult to verify the word of one man, Reuters photographer Abed Qusini said that within the same week not only had Israeli troops threatened, him but they also used loudhailers to insult journalists and threatened to destroy their equipment unless they left the area of the village.

Nor have we seen any public explanation of the shooting of Agence France-Presse photographer Mahmoud Hams, 25, who was wounded on 5 May 2004 in the Gaza Strip. Perhaps we have missed your comments, in which case we would be very much interested in seeing them.

Our attention has also been drawn to the banning of Peter Hounam of the Sunday Times. We firmly believe that banning of journalists for their activities pursuant of their journalist roles is both unwise for a democratic country and contrary to international law. We are aware that the Supreme Court has approved the ban, but believe a democracy should not have ordered it in the first place. This is why we write to ask your comments or your assurances that measures are being taken against persons responsible for these incidents.

Thank you for your attention to these important matters. We await your response.

Respectfully yours,

Robert E. Sullivan Larry Martz
Freedom of the Press Committee
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Cc: Daniel Gillerman
UN Representative
State of Israel
800 Second Ave.
New York, NY 10017

Ambassador Daniel Ayalon
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer
Embassy of the United States
71 Hayarkon Street
Tel Aviv PSC 98
Israel
Fax: 011-972-3-517-3227