Of course Israeli journalists should be allowed to cover Gaza. It has gradually become clear that the legal basis for this particular prohibition is a Israeli administrative decision put into place after Israel’s 2005 “disengagement” from Gaza — after which it Israel forbade Israelis to be in Gaza.
This administrative decision is apparently the legal basis for the two arrests of Amira Hass, an Israeli journalist working for Haaretz and living in Ramallah (after previously living in Gaza), who been back to Gaza three times over the past two years. However, she was arrested upon her return to Israel twice — the first time when Hamas considerately deported her via Erez terminal out of a stated concern for her safety, despite the fact that she had intended to depart via a Free Gaza return by sea to Cyprus, and then fly back to Ben Gurion Airport, which would have spared her from that arrest. Her second arrest was also when she departed from Erez. (She returned to Gaza around New Year’s Day. via Rafah, with international activists, and she left via Rafah — Israel has put in place another administrative decision about a year ago forbidding anybody who enters Gaza from Rafah, from leaving Gaza via Erez terminal to Israel.)
There are two other Israelis — who are not journalists — who went to Gaza. One was arrested, one was not, and here^’s the apparent reason why:
Israeli + American activist Jeff Halper, head of ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition visited Gaza by sailing in the first Free Gaza expedition from Cyprus, then left via Erez, and he was arrested too. He later said that his jail time in Israel was far more scary than any of his experiences inside Gaza. After spending more than a day in jail, he was asked to post a small bond, and has never been asked to appear in court.
ISM activist Huweida Arraf, who has Israeli citizenship, was an organizer and participant in the first Free Gaza expedition. She sailed back to Cyprus by ship, then flew into Ben Gurion, without any problem…