http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/03/24/mideast.israel.journalists.reut/inde
x.html
Israeli soldiers hit, push journalists
March 24, 2001
Web posted at: 11:02 AM EST (1602 GMT)
HALHOUL, West Bank (Reuters) -- Israeli soldiers hit and pushed journalists
covering Palestinian demonstrations on Saturday at roadblocks near the West
Bank village of Halhoul and on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Witnesses said a cameraman for the U.S. network ABC was taken to hospital by
ambulance from Halhoul, near the West Bank city of Hebron, after a soldier
punched him in the nose.
A photographer working for the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP)
was struck by at least two soldiers and went to a hospital for checks, they
said.
Soldiers pushed Reuters cameraman Nael Shyoukhi against a jeep and shoved a
cameraman from The Associated Press.
In an incident at a peaceful demonstration at the Al-Ram checkpoint on the
outskirts of Jerusalem, a soldier hit a free-lance photographer for Reuters,
Mahfouz Abu-Turk, in the neck with a rifle.
The army said it was checking the report from Al-Ram.
It said Palestinian journalists in Halhoul were preventing the soldiers from
carrying out their duties and that one of the cameramen had pushed the army
commander.
"Cameramen at the scene were asked several times by the field commander to
stand in another place so they would not interfere with the dispersal of the
demonstration. The cameramen refused to leave and one of them shoved the
field commander," an army spokeswoman said.
"The army allows journalists to cover ongoing events without disruption, but
in this case ... Palestinian cameramen purposefully prevented the soldiers
from carrying out their duties and were not listening to instructions," she
said.
Shyoukhi said the journalists had been behind the soldiers and were not
interfering.
An Israeli officer at the Halhoul checkpoint told journalists to move away
and said: "I'll arrest you; all the journalists to the other side ... I'll
give you exactly one minute."
When they did not move, soldiers started to push the cameramen. Other
journalists intervened and one officer grabbed Shyoukhi by his jacket and
told him he was arrested. Several soldiers tried to put Shyoukhi in a nearby
army jeep and pushed him against it.
Palestinians later started hurling stones at the troops and the soldiers
fired in the air.
In other recent incidents, a soldier in an armored car fired a heavy machine
gun toward three Reuters journalists in the Gaza Strip on March 8. No one was
hurt.
Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was beaten by Jewish settlers when filming a
clash with Palestinians in Hebron on March 10.
