4 Av 5768, 05 August 08 08:06
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Chezki Ezra(IsraelNN.com) A correspondent for Israel National News'
Hebrew-language news, Chezki Ezra, was beaten, detained and questioned by police on Monday night after filming a policeman hitting a young protestor near the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Ezra's camera was smashed. He was later released, with apologies. MKs and legal rights organizations consider the incident another serious attack on freedom of the media.
Ezra had been covering the protest by several dozen Land of Israel activists seeking unfettered access to the tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The demonstration was forcibly halted by the Border Police. At one point in the ensuing scuffle, Ezra captured images of a police officer hitting a young civilian. It was then that Ezra also came under blows from the same officer.
The demonstration was broken up and Ezra and three others found themselves detained by police. After a police interrogation, the IsraelNN reporter's irreparably damaged camera was returned to him and he was released. The officer who attacked Ezra offered his apologies, but no explanations.
MKs, Legal Rights Forum Respond
The incident drew immediate reactions from several Knesset Members, as well as a demand for an investigation from a legal rights organization.
The incident drew immediate reactions from several Knesset Members, as well as a demand for an investigation from a legal rights organization.
The same night Ezra was detained, MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) wrote an urgent letter to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, demanding his immediate intervention. It was his obligation, Eldad wrote, "to fight without compromise against police brutality and to prosecute police officers who try to interfere with investigations and destroy evidence."
According to MK Eldad, "Police brutality against protesters has crossed all boundaries, and tonight, at a demonstration near the route to Bethlehem, it again included an attempt to hide evidence in order to prevent law enforcement authorities from charging violent police officers and lawbreakers."
MK Uri Ariel, chairman of the National Union-National Religious Party Knesset faction, also condemned the police actions at the Rachel's Tomb protest. "It is no surprise that the police smashes journalists' cameras and shuts voices as a matter of course. It is the result of the indulgent attitude by the the Internal Affairs Department in the case of similar crimes by ranking police officers," Ariel charged. %ad%
The Land of Israel Legal Forum, a legal rights watchdog group, sent an urgent letter to the Chief of Police, to the Judea and Samaria District commander and to the head of the police's Internal Affairs Department, demanding an immediate investigation of the Monday night incident.
"In the event that the information is accurate," the letter stated, "this is the third case in recent days in which a cameraman was arrested at events or during protest activities by Land of Israel loyalists, and in which a camera was confiscated or broken. It must be emphasized that the purpose of cameramen is to film the events in an effort to prevent expressions of violence, under the assumption that the presence of cameras moderates the forces operating in the area.
"The arrest of and violence against a journalist crosses all red lines and represents a danger of descent into dark regimes," the Forum letter warned.
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