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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 2, January 02-January 15, 2009

Foreign Journalists Still Banned from Gaza

The Israeli court ruled that the country should permit foreign press into Gaza, although only under strict regulations. The ruling specified that journalists should be allowed in groups of eight at a time and only on days when the Erez crossing is open. The journalists should also have to go through a security inspection before entering. As of press time, Israel has maintained its ban on foreign reporters entering Gaza despite the ruling.

The court's decision follows intense pressure from foreign correspondents that have been forced to rely on local and Arab press inside Gaza rather than on direct reporting. According to an Associated Press article, the ruling was a result of a petition from several international media sources, along with Reporters Without Borders, in opposition to Israel's claim that entrance into Gaza was too high of a security measure for the journalists.

The signatories of the petition included Germany's Der Spiegel, El Mundo and El Pais in Spain, US networks ABC, CBS and CNN, France's Le Figaro newspaper and RTL radio, Britain's Sky News and Guardian newspaper, and pan-Arab channel Al-Jazeera.

The Jerusalem Post also reported on the result of the Israeli court decision. The article quoted ABC News Middle East Correspondent Simon McGregor-Wood expressing his discontent with the court's verdict saying pools of eight were insufficient. He, along with others, will have to rely solely on Palestinian media sources, which according to McGregor-Wood, gives them a"monopoly" over the news in Gaza.

The article also noted that the Israeli Press Office preferred Arab and Gazan reporters. The head of the Government Press Office said Wednesday that he actually preferred Palestinian stringers and reporters covering the news from Gaza instead of foreign journalists, since international journalists were routinely used and exploited by the Islamic regime.

"Based on our experience from the war in Lebanon and the way the foreign press has conducted itself in Gaza, we know that Hamas is in complete control of the news, and that reports from Gaza are carried out under duress," GPO director Danny Seaman said.

The CNN bureau chief in Jerusalem remarked in a CNN Inside the Middle East Blogspot article that"this [the ban on entering Gaza] rings hollow to the ears of many journalists. We've reported out of Gaza during times of great conflict in the past. Also, how can it be safe for humanitarian aid workers to go in and not journalists?"

Meanwhile, local and Arab journalists have been arrested this week by Israeli Defense Forces. The Peninsula, a Qatar based news source, reported the arrest of eight Al-Jazeera journalists this week. The journalists were held for six hours, interrogated, and finally released only to have two discs of footage confiscated.

Another arrest was made this week when the IDF captured Khezir Shahin, an Arab-speaking journalist from Al-Alam News Network. According to a Press TV article, officials accused Shahin of violating censorship rules when he reported the launch of the Israeli ground attacks on the Gaza Strip.

While the Israeli court has made its decision and the names of the first group of foreign journalists to be allowed into Gaza have been chosen, their entrance has yet to take place.