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occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Israeli bans on the usage of the word ‘Palestine’,
the display of the Palestinian flag, and the display of the colors of the Palestinian flag, were
finally rescinded in the late 1980s, i.e. after Israel had decided to opt for a Bantustan policy. 695
Moreover, journalists are now allowed to get closer to the action during small-scale military
operations, but not during large-scale operations. By the fall of 2004, the Israeli harnessing of
the media, foreign and domestic, was highlighted by at least 497 incidents of journalists being
shot, attacked, harassed or obstructed in other ways by Israelis (overwhelmingly by soldiers,
but also by some settlers and some civilians) during the first four years of the Second Intifada.
In this context, it should not be forgotten that the Palestinian Authorities (PA) also violate the
basic human right to freedom of expression, especially in order to silence radical anti-Israeli
journalists, columnists and publications. This, however, is mainly due to political pressure on
the PA from the Israelis and the Americans, who, of course, wish to silence radical Palestinian
voices. Still, 88.4 per cent of the press freedom violations in the Second Intifada were
perpetrated by Israelis. Aside from the targeting of journalists, including several shooting
deaths, this also comprises several targeted air force bombings, missile attacks and other kinds
of assaults on Palestinian media outlets, which are accused by the Israelis of spreading
propaganda and inciting violence. After several bombings of the Palestinian Authority-run
broadcaster, the Voice of Palestine, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
started to monitor the station’s broadcasts. It found no incitement to violence, no military uses
of the broadcaster, which of course defines it as a civilian institution. The Israeli military,
however, persisted with its attacks – in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention and other
pillars of international law. 696 There are no corresponding attacks on Israeli (or US, Canadian,
or UK!) media outlets or on other pro-Israeli propagandistic institutions perpetrated by
Palestinians, none at all. 697 Moreover, many foreign journalists in the region have reportedly
stated that: ‘they have never encountered such rough treatment as they are receiving from the
Israeli army’. 698
This is not a new development. Nine years prior to the Second Intifada, the following
assessment on the lack of press freedom in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories was made
by CPJ:
Wide-ranging restrictions on the media remain in place in Israel:
Palestinian journalists are detained, without charge or trial;
publications are closed down; newspapers are censored, and access to
the occupied territories is frequently restricted. Extremely severe
restrictions on the occupied territories after the outbreak in January of
war in the Persian Gulf offer little hope for improvement. Authorities
continue to administratively detain Palestinian journalists on the
assumption they are using their profession as a cover for the
involvement in the intifada, Censors often remove from Arabiclanguage
newspapers translations of stories that have appeared in the
Hebrew-language press on security grounds. The Hebrew-language
press is also subject to censorship, but in practice it is applied with
greater leniency. In March the authorities began to restrict reporting
695
Said 1992 (1979): xxvi
696
N.N.: Israel: IDF Troops Destroy Palestinian Broadcast Facilities in Gaza, February 21, 2002. See also
footnote 714.
697
Bathish, N. et al. 2004
698
Perlmutter: Spin Doctors in the Middle East, 2002. As we have seen in previous chapters, observers who are
not journalists, e.g. representatives of the United Nations and other intergovernmental, as well as nongovernmental
organizations, human rights activists, etc., are also hindered and in some cases even killed by the
Israelis. See N.N.: Amnesty Says Israel Shutting Out Foreign Scrutiny, May 9, 2003; Gershberg: Israel Steps Up
Crackdown on Foreign Activists, 2003.