"We didn't know he was a journalist" + "There was no security concern" — so why detention pending deporation?

This story gets better and better [do I have to say, “irony alert“?].

“There was no security concern”, an Israeli official said about the detention since Tuesday in difficult and uncertain conditions of an American journalist who is awaiting a deportation hearing on Sunday — and the deportation that was carried out already of his girlfriend.

So, these actions must be a form of disciplinary measure…

A spokeswoman for what the Jerusalem Post calls the “Immigration Authority” [is this part of the Ministry of Interior, or the Ministry of Transportation, or the Israel Airport Authority, or a branch of the security services?? In Israel, the bureaucracy is often opaque, especially to those who don’t speak Hebrew well] said that Jared Malsin, an American (who happens to be eligible to apply for Israeli citizenship due to his Jewish ancestry) who is working in Bethlehem as editor of the English-language website of the private Palestinian-owned Ma’an (Together) News Agency, “was barred entry into Israel because he refused to answer questions put to him at border control after arriving from Prague on Tuesday. ‘We didn’t know he was a journalist. He refused to answer the questions, saying he was entitled not to answer them’, the spokeswoman said. ‘He was asked about his place of residence. He said he rented an apartment with a friend, but refused to give details about his friend, which would have allowed us to verify the information. There is no security concern. We are allowed to ask questions of foreign citizens before letting them into the country. Since he refused to cooperate, he was denied entry’, the spokeswoman said”. This news item was posted here.

The reason the Immigration Authority spokesperson did not know that Jared was a journalist is because the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) refused to give him [or, for that matter, anyone applying from Ma’an News Agency in Bethlehem — in the Israeli-occupied and militarily-controlled West Bank] an Israeli-issued press card.

The Israeli military does not recognize Palestinian Authority press cards — certainly not for purposes of moving in and out of Israel.

See our post here, of yesterday, just below on this blog.

The only way in and out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank — including the city of Bethlehem (where Jesus is believed to have been born, and where Jared and his girlfriend as well were working, she on a volunteer basis for the Lutheran Church, he as a salaried employee of Ma’an News Agency) — is via an Israeli military-controlled checkpoint, with Israeli permission.

Only Palestinians with Israeli-military-issued permits, or internationals with a valid visa (and a form of Israeli identification such as a press card is additionally extremely helpful) are allowed, by the Israeli military, to enter the West Bank.

[At the moment, only international, and not Israel, journalists are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip and leave without restrictions — except (1) the Erez terminal must be open, and (2) they should have an Israeli-issued press card].

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The complexity of the Israeli bureaucracy and administration is part-style, part-deliberate.

It took a while for Israel’s undeclared policy towards the occupied West Bank (Israel apparently disputes this, and considers the West Bank to be “administered” rather than “occupied” territory, but most of the rest of the world disagrees) to become clear — if indeed it can be called clear — but here are the facts as understood today:

(1) Israeli citizens can enter the West Bank if they are going to IDF-protected Jewish settlements, which are all over the place. Signs on the main West Bank highways (constructed and maintained by Israel) point to Tel Aviv and to all the Israeli settlements, but only at lengthy intervals to the Palestinian cities.

(2) However, Israeli citizens are not allowed to enter Area A (a demarcation that was defined in the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization), which is supposed to be — but is not — under total Palestinian control: the truth is that the Israeli military roams and operates freely in Area A, but Israeli civilians are not allowed to do the same. Any violation of this Israeli military prohibition on Israeli citizens entering the West Bank is punishable by a fine of 5000 N.I.S (shekels). Recent “liberalization” measures have permitted some Israeli Arab-Palestinians to enter some major Palestinian cities in the West Bank, according to a fixed schedule. There have been some interesting violations or exceptions, such as instances of Israelis who got lost when going to visit friends in the Jewish settlements because the Israeli GPS systems installed in their cars gave them the wrong directions — the Israeli GPS systems do not bother to cover the Palestinian areas.

(3) Now we come to the one of the most relevant exceptions: Israeli citizen or resident journalists (working for Israeli or for international media) can go to some parts of Area A — IN THE WEST BANK ONLY — if they have dual passports, or if they don’t have Israeli passports, and if they sign a waiver composed by the IDF which exempts the IDF of any form of liability for any harm that may befall them while in the Palestinian areas. However, Israeli citizen of resident journalists are not allowed, under current Israeli military administrative procedures, to enter Gaza at all — the legal basis for this is a 2005 prohibition against the presence of any Israelis in Gaza, and this prohibition was issued after Ariel Sharon’s unilateral “Disengagement” of some 8,000 Israeli settlers and the soldiers protecting them from Gaza.

• Case A:  A Latin American employee who does not have Israeli citizenship and who has retained the passport of her native country but who is a resident of Israel for many years, even after her divorce from her husband whose family’s decision to “make aliyah” or emmigrate to Israel, working for years for one of the major U.S. broadcasters, and with Israeli GPO press credentials, was prevented from entering Gaza with her colleagues last year — because she is an Israeli resident. It took some time to sort this out at the Erez terminal, or “border crossing” as Israeli officials often imprecisely call it, but she stayed behind and did not enter Gaza. Some months later, when she travelled to her country of birth for an annual vacation, and then flew back to return to her home in Israel, she was stopped by Israeli security at Ben Gurion airport and asked to explain at some length why she had been trying to enter Gaza.

• Case B: Amira Hass, the excellent and award-winning Israeli journalist (a “leftist” or even “extreme leftist” according to the Israeli political spectrum) who has worked for many years for Haaretz newspaper, lived in and reported from Gaza for some seven years, then she moved to Ramallah/El-Bireh in the West Bank (even before the “Disengagement”), for professional and perhaps also personal reasons, and continues reporting for Haaretz from here — I am not sure of the specific details, but perhaps she lives in an area that is in fact classified by Israel as Area C, under full Israeli control. However, Amira Hass travelled from Cyprus on one of the Free Gaza sailing expeditions and re-entered the Gaza Strip in late 2008. However, she had some trouble from the Hamas authorities who have been in control of the Gaza Strip since their military rout of Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security Forces in mid-June 2007, to the extent that despite Amira Hass’ intention to stay in Gaza until January 2009, Hamas kindly escorted her to (to her great dismay and anger) the Erez terminal (“border crossing”) where, like American-Israeli activist Jeff Halper who had travelled to Gaza from Cyprus on the very first Free Gaza sailing expedition, she was promptly arrested by Israeli authorities, put into jail for a short period (Halper stayed overnight and a bit longer), and charged with violating the Israeli ban on Israelis entering Gaza. {Come to think of it — I wonder if the Hamas authorities were responding to an Israeli request, or Israeli information, that the massive IDF military Operation Cast Lead (27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009) was imminent?}.

• Case C: There is one American journalist who is a long-time resident of Israel, whose husband made “aliyah” and is now an Israeli citizen, but she herself has not. So she — but not he — is therefore more-or-less free to enter the West Bank. She and I had a good time together one afternoon in Hebron. But, to my knowledge, however, she has not gone to Gaza.

• Case D: Israeli lawyers representing Palestinian clients do go to meet them in the West Bank — but they only go to Areas B + C, not to Area A, thus technically complying with the requirements of Israeli “law” (or administrative rules) , which are in fact not spelled out very clearly. {That is, if the lawyers know precisely where Area A is — signs at Qalandia checkpoint (“border crossing”) between Jerusalem and Ramallah warn Israelis in Hebrew that they are about to enter Area A.  There are neighborhoods after that sign that are still, legally and administratively, part of the Greater Jerusalem municipal area that was unilaterally declared (effectively, annexed — and thus, in the Israeli consideration, fully part of Israel) following Israel’s conquest in the June 1967 war.  And, of course, there are the Jewish settlements the West Bank on several of the hilltops right next to Ramallah: Givat Zeev, Psagot, and Beit El…}

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Coming back to Jared’s specific case:  Because Jared did not have an Israeli-issued press card, he could not get an Israeli-issued journalist visa (which is, in Israel, essentially a variety of Israeli tourist visa allowing a one-year residence period plus a work permit). So, he apparently had to go in and out of the country every three months to keep current his ordinary tourist visa (which does not have any provision for a work permit).

Though Jared could claim Israeli citizenship on the basis of the Israeli Basic Law allowing immediate entry and citizenship to any Jew in the world, this would not necessarily be in his interest if he is a journalist who intended to work  in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. And, it would be completely against his interest if he is a journalist who might wish to go to Gaza, if he should ever wish to do so.  (Israeli journalists have been challenging their ban, in legal proceedings that have dragged on through the Israeli court system for years, but have so far been unsuccessful.)

The Immigration Authority spokeswoman quoted by the JPost did not say — perhaps she was not asked — why Jared Malsin’s travelling companion and long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, was actually deported already. Did she refuse to answer questions, too?

Both Jared and Faith should have had the right, or the option, to challenge their deportation in front of an Israeli judge — as Jared will now apparently do on Sunday (he was supposed to have a hearing on Thursday, two days after his arrival at Ben Gurion, but for some unknown reason it was delayed until after the Israeli weekend and Jewish Sabbath…)

Did  Faith not have legal representation, as some media reports suggest?   Though Jared appears to be more strongly supported by his Palestinian employer, both Jared and Faith must have had equal support from the U.S. Embassy and Consular services.  Or did she simply opt to leave — perhaps on her own, or perhaps at the suggestion of the Lutheran Church, which might have preferred a quieter approach?

In any case, how is it possible to explain that, now, after all of the appropriate Israeli officials are aware about this situation (they’ve been contacted by many news media for comments and clarifications), and now that they know almost everything that it’s possible to know about Jared Malsin (– and it has been stated that “There was no security concern”, and that “We didn’t know he was a journalist” –) why is he still being held in detention?

Couldn’t there be a kinder, more dignified and more humane, and also more appropriate approach, while the legalities are being sorted out?

UPDATE ON SATURDAY: Jared has received a visit from his lawyer, and has been given the suitcase he had with him when returning from the Czech Republic, so he can at least change his clothes and maybe brush his teeth. His mobile telephone and his computer were not given back to him. A court hearing is scheduled for Sunday concerning Jared’s challenge to the deportation order issued to him on Wednesday, at which he and his lawyer, Castro Daoud of Jerusalem, will contest the reasons cited by Israel’s Ministry of the Interior and Intelligence agencies for Jared’s denial of entry, and will also argue that they are not grounds for deportation, which would — if carried out, in this case — challenge essential press freedoms. The judge for Sunday’s hearing will be Judge Kobi Vardi at the Tel Aviv Central District Court — not Judge Miriam Solokov, who would have heard the case on Thursday morning . It is unclear if anything other than scheduling had an impact on this change. If the Israeli authorities are still determined to go ahead with a deportation, the Israeli Attorney will present his case, and the Judge will either decide to call for a hearing (which may be held later the same day or on another date), or the judge could decide either to uphold the deportation recommendation or to authorize Jared’s release and entry into Israel. If the judge decides to deport Jared, there will still be a possibility of appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court. In this event, it is apparently rather unlikely that Jared would be let out on bail, and would face more time in difficult conditions in the detention facility, or elsewhere in the Israeli prison system.