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TechnoratiHaaretz Reporter Amira Hass Arrested Upon Leaving Gaza
Israel Police on Tuesday detained Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass upon her exit from the Gaza Strip, where she had been living and reporting over the last few months.
Hass was arrested and taken in for questioning immediately after crossing the border, for violating a law which forbids residence in an enemy state. She was released on bail after promising not to enter the Gaza Strip over the next 30 days.
Hass is the first Israeli journalist to enter the Gaza Strip in more than two years, since the Israel Defense Forces issued an entry ban following the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in a 2006 cross-border raid by Palestinian militants.
Last December, Hass was arrested by soldiers at the Erez Checkpoint as she tried to cross into Israel after having entered the Gaza Strip aboard a ship run by peace activists from Europe.
Upon discovering that she had no permit to be in Gaza, the soldiers transferred her to the Sderot police.
When questioned, Hass pointed out that no one had stopped her from entering the Strip, which she did for work purposes.
Hass was released then under restriction, and Nahmani said her case would be sent to court.
Israel Press Council chairwoman Dalia Dorner, a former Supreme Court justice, commented then that even journalists are subject to the law and the council cannot defend a reporter who breaks the law. Instead, she said, local journalists ought to petition the High Court of Justice against the army's order.
13 Comments so far
Show AllIsrael is turning into a paranoid country! Dictatorship hiding behind a democratic mask.
Israel is a democracy? And we are supporting it? Doesn't it give you pause?
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WHAT IS THE ISRAELI ARMY AFRAID OF ????????
Answer:.....the T R U T H >.........
One of the best discussions I was part of took place during a visit with some close friends. We talked mainly about the world situation, the Near East, especially Israel's actions in Gaza. One of the persons present had recommended some years ago that if I wanted to hear another side from Israel, I should read Haaretz and therefore Ms Hass. I am grateful for that evening, that person, that paper, and Ms Hass for letting me in on what is happening in a country born out of the idealistic fervor of the UN, and what is happening in the major country supporting the new Jewish homeland. What I see happening moves me to sadness, and sometimes lightning flashes of anger. These two countries had so much promise to lead the world to a coherent understanding in friendship and peace after so much planetary death and devastation.
They have failed the opportunity; indeed they both joined an exclusive club preparing to destroy any "enemy" they perceive as a threat to their place of power--and now, adding to that failure, that "enemy" can include the democratic ideals both seemed to support at their births, represented recently by Haaretz and Ms Hass in Israel, and the Constitution in the United States.
And what is the difference between this journalist and the American one that Iran detained for reporting without official press credentials?
So much ado about her but nothing about this in the mainstream media.
Amira Hass is one of the the greatest and bravest journalists in the world. I read all of her articles. Here they are:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/tags/index.jhtml?tag=Amira+Hass
She surely is all of that. Also she's been there for a long time, really paid her dues. also wrote a great book, Drinking the Sea in Gaza.
thanks for the link
Vive la liberte!
What a great democracy they've got in Israel...just like the one we've got here in the US! And these are the superior race, the Chosen People, the rulers of the universe...oy!
yet one more sad story out of israel -- the country that as a young jewish person i so much wanted to visit
now?
please...don't ask
by the way, how is it that npr, bbc, and certainly all the other corp news outlets continually get away with interviewing and quoting the 'official sources' from israel--respecting their credibility-- when israel has no respect for any and all journalists and seeks to disallow them entirely??!!
please...don't answer
Between this latest arrest, Israel's terrorist attack upon Gaza, their refusal to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes committe, Israel's refusal to join the IAEA, sign a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and allow inspections of their nuclear facilities, a decades long violation of international law and illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, there is no need for further evidence of Israel's fascism. Israel and her supporters are the 21st century equivalent of the National Socialist Party.
She actually visited Death Camp Gaza? Amazing! Now she's in Occupied Palestine, eh?
Well, this is a bit of good news, and no mistake!
That the IDF didn't "accidently" take her head off with a high-velocity tear gas canister, that is.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Official suppression of news reporting. Is anyone in the least bit surprised?
Of course, we here in the US are much more sophisticated. Our government doesn't control the presd; corporations do.
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