Nabi Saleh and a Photographer’s Charge Against the IDF
Israeli border police officers stand next to a detained Palestinian protester during clashes at a weekly protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, May 27, 2011 REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
The West Bank village of Nabi Saleh has become the focal point for what Palestinian activists there are calling the start of “something big…Like a third intifada.” The initial cause of the weekly protests was the seizure of a spring, and while Palestinians acknowledge that Israel’s Civil Administration “was ready to offer the spring back to the village in exchange for an end to the demonstrations,” they refused, escalating the confrontations and adopting a much more ambitious goal — “to bring down the occupation.” (See “Nabi Salih, A Growing Movement“)
Photographers gather every week in Nabi Saleh to record the clashes and B’Tselem has equipped Palestinian activists with cameras to document alleged abuses on the part of Israeli soldiers in the area. CAMERA has highlighted one instance in which a B’Tselem photographer abused the project, staging a scene in Nabi Saleh.
Now, an American-Israeli photographer charges Israeli soldiers with deliberately targeting him and other photographers in Nabi Saleh with tear gas and stun grenades. He accuses the soldiers of directing a sustained attack against the photographers for 3-5 minutes. No one was hurt, and no photographs or videos of the incident have been released. The IDF Spokesman’s Office claims that “full information on this incident was not submitted” making it impossible to examine the complaint. Meanwhile, an organization called the International News Safety Institute is lumping together this complaint against Israeli soldiers with one against NATO forces in Libya which carried out an airstrike on the Tripoli headquarters of the state television station, killing three members of the press and wounding 21.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim
September 10, 2019
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]
CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’
July 24, 2019
Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]
NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence
July 9, 2019
The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]
CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi
June 9, 2019
Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]
In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism
May 29, 2019
Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]