UN-Truth

Despite an interim decision by the Israeli Supreme Court (or High Court of Justice) on Thursday morning that — when the Erez crossing to and from Gaza is open for passage of humanitarian cases — the IDF should allow small numbers of foreign (not Israeli) journalists, organized into reporting “pools” to distribute their reports to members of the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel, no journalists were allowed into Gaza again on Friday.

The FPA expressed dismay.

Since early November, foreign journalists who were previously given nearly unconditional access to the Gaza Strip, have found themselves barred from entry much more often than not — and the FPA petitioned the Supreme Court to restore press access.

Now, the conditions demanded by the IDF — and largely granted by the Israeli High Court which generally does tend to align itself with the country’s military and security decisions — would appear to some degree to make the journalists “embedded” in the on-going Israeli military operation [see our post from yesterday here .

In an UPDATE TO MEMBERS sent on Friday, the FPA reported that:
1. The court has ordered the state to allow entry for 8 (eight) foreign journalists per time with the proviso that if its possibie at any given time, they will allow in 12.
2. Since the original petition is to allow in the "foreign media", the State now insists they will take 6 from the FPA list and let in TWO of their choosing of the "foreigners who have come from abroad" - i.e. not FPA members.
3. The FPA will submit lists of 8 and 12 people every time, those who do not get in will be carried over to the next time.
4. If the army choses to let in other journalists from outside the FPA list, the FPA will not be responsible for pooling their material, which, following the court order, should be distributed to everyone. We see this as the responsiblity of the State.
5. Members who have registered to go in should please send their passport numbers, GPO cards and mobile phone numbers by return mail.
6. YOU WILL BE INFORMED BY PHONE AT SHORT NOTICE WHEN IT IS YOUR TURN TO GO IN.
7 . THE FPA PHONE HAS TO BE CLEAR FOR COORDINATION WITH THE AUTHORITIES - CONTACT ON e-mail ONLY.

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Separately, the FPA issued several statements on Friday:
1.) The Foreign Press Association while pleased with the decision of the Israeli High Court to allow limited access to Gaza for foreign journalists, expresses its serious concern about the requirements to use the mechanism of pools which themselves have now been scaled back. We believe the Israeli Government should ensure unfettered access for the world's media to Gaza during this crisis. The FPA declares that it will be responsible exclusively for pool material of its members as submitted on the FPA list.

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2.) The FPA expresses its dismay over the Israeli government's refusal to allow entry to the Gaza strip for foreign media on Friday, despite the Supreme Court decision requiring it to do so and despite the fact that the Erez crossing was open for humanitarian traffic for most of the day. The authorities' position that there was not enough time to coordinate and allow the journalists to enter does not seem reasonable. We call on the Israeli government to immediately honor the will of the court and allow foreign journalists access to Gaza.

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3.) The FPA is appalled by the IDF attack on a Reuters photographer today in Hebron and by the PA police arresting journalists and cameramen covering a Hamas demonstration in Ramallah. The FPA insists that journalists be allowed free and unfettered access to cover newsworthy events at all times and under all circumstances.

The Foreign Press Association
www.fpa.org.il

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Meanwhile, the IDF is apparently quite pleased with the press coverage of Israel's unprecedented attacks on Gaza over the past week by air and sea -- a ground invasions may or may not be imminent.

The Jerusalem Post reported Friday that IDF officials "feel the coverage has been mostly fair".

Maj. Avital Leibovich, head of the foreign press department in the IDF Spokesman's Unit, told the JPost: "I'm surprised for the better. The coverage has been balanced on most channels, even on some outlets not known for being pro-Israel ... The world understands Israel has a right to defend itself, and has to respond to the rocket fire," she said.

Apparently, the IDF now regards blogs, the internet, and new media as important in their battle for public opinion, and, the JPost reports, "the IDF has been in regular contact with over 50 major American blogs covering the fighting".

Well, that's a start, but there are probably a few more, and there are probably blogs in other countries as well ...

In any case, the JPost report adds that "The IDF has spent the past six months learning to fight a different kind of media war, developing a capacity to take its message to the 'new media,' a general term for a wide variety of on-line social networking, user-generated news and personalized content sites. 'In terms of communicating our message, new media is the future', Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu, the IDF's spokesman, told The Jerusalem Post. Benayahu has overseen a new orientation in the spokesman's unit toward these on-line outlets, even taking his unit's senior officers to an intensive new media workshop at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya in mid-2008. This has translated into a profusion of new initiatives across the Internet. A YouTube channel established by the IDF a day after the fighting began has become the second-most popular channel on the popular global video-sharing site, drawing over 386,000 page views in the first half of Thursday alone ... 'The new media lets you present your content at all times on all existing platforms, so it's there when the consumer wants to see it', explains Lt.-Col. Dinor Shavit, commander of the Filming Unit in the IDF Spokesman's Unit [and] coordinator for the dissemination of the 23 videos and 48 still photos the IDF has released to the world so far”.

The JPost adds that “The coordination and dissemination of information to journalists and – through the internet – the wider world, has replaced the traditional wartime press conference held regularly by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Instead, IDF spokespeople are in direct real-time communication with journalists and offer quiet background briefings to Israeli officials, media and foreign reporters. ‘An army has to fight, not to spend its time in front of television cameras’, insists Benayahu”.

This article on the IDF and the new media can be seen in full here .

UPDATE: Another article in the JPost, written from Washington, reports in the same vein that “American pro-Israel advocacy groups say the Israeli government has done a better job in reaching out and being responsive to the foreign press during the current Gaza fighting than in other recent conflicts. With Israel’s attacks on Hamas featuring prominently on newspaper front pages and the 24-hour news cycle, the Foreign Ministry and its representatives in the US have made officials available for scores of interviews and briefings, as photographs and video clippings from the scene have been distributed. The government has also been trying to use new media to reach out to the American public, including Twitter and Youtube”. This can be read in full here .

UPDATE: Maybe some foreign correspondents will be allowed into Gaza on Sunday, when Erez crossing is due to re-open — and after enough time has passed for all the communication necessary between the IDF and the FPA. The JPost reported that “The Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip will be opened on Sunday for injured Palestinians to enter Israel for medical treatment, IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said Friday … Earlier in the week, a seven-year-old Gaza boy who suffered a serious head wound in IAF air strikes was rushed through the Erez Crossing and taken to Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The boy, whose transfer was facilitated by the Peres Peace Center, was in critical condition in the intensive care unit on Wednesday night. Three other wounded children were also transferred via the Erez Crossing, with help from UNRWA. Twenty Gazans suffering from serious illnesses unrelated to the fighting were allowed through on Wednesday for treatment in Israeli hospitals”. This article can be read in full
here .

UPDATE: Yes — there is now a mention of letting some journalists in on Sunday. AP has reported that an Israeli military spokesman said that on Friday, when Erez was open, the IDF was preoccupied with the nearly 300 persons holding foreign passports (many Russian or former Soviet Union nationals, a few Americans) who were allowed to leave Gaza. srael kept the journalists out because authorities at the crossing point were focused on processing the hundreds of Palestinians exiting Gaza. ‘The crossing today was overwhelmed dealing with the emergency evacuation of people’, said army spokesman Peter Lerner. He said journalists might be allowed to cross on Sunday, when Israel plans to open the crossing for injured Palestinians to enter Israel for medical treatment”. This report is posted here.

UPDATE: Then, the ground operation started on Saturday night – so the journalists could not go into Gaza due to the military situation, according to the military. The promises regarding humanitarian aid on Sunday might have been disinformation.

Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians