Army opens official probe into assault on journalists

Military police on Wednesday opened an official criminal investigation into an incident last week in which soldiers from the Givati Brigade assaulted two foreign journalists in the West Bank, the army said.

The military stated that following the incident, a company commander who was the senior officer at the scene was suspended from duty, after superiors found his conduct unbecoming of his position. The commander, a lieutenant, was questioned for 10 hours Wednesday by army investigators.

The attack on the two AFP journalists was partly caught on camera.

“The preliminary review of the occurrences in Beit Furik revealed that the officer in charge did not conduct himself in accordance to professional expectations. Following the review, the commander was suspended from operational duty,” the IDF said in a statement Saturday.

“The IDF considers the incident grave, and in contravention of its code of ethics and professional standards,” the statement read, adding that the investigation was ongoing.

According to AFP, IDF soldiers seized and destroyed equipment belonging to two of its journalists near Nablus on Friday, and a video journalist with the agency, Italian Andrea Bernardi, was thrown to the ground and jabbed in the side with a weapon. The agency said Bernardi was held down on the ground by a soldier, one knee on his chest, until he managed to show his press card. Bernardi suffered bruised ribs and a facial injury.

AFP said the soldiers pointed their weapons at Bernardi and his colleague, Palestinian photographer Abbas Momani. They also allegedly smashed a video camera and a camera for photographs and took away another camera and a mobile phone. Some of the incident was caught in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeePKpeXbOw

At the time, both journalists were wearing body armor clearly marked “Press,” AFP said.

After the incident on Friday, army spokesman Colonel Peter Lerner told the agency that the highest levels of command were aware of the incident, including the head of IDF troops in the West Bank.

The Foreign Press Association condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the “deplorable” behavior of Israeli army troops who it said assaulted the two journalists.

The FPA, which works with foreign journalists based in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, said that while it welcomed the IDF probe, “our concern is that had this not been caught on camera, nothing would be done.”

In the statement, the association said the assault caused several thousand dollars worth of damage.

“Units of the IDF too frequently act with impunity and apparently outside of their orders in direct contradiction with the ideal of high morals Israel’s military says it adheres to. The Foreign Press Association has raised its concerns with the IDF on multiple occasions but seen no discernible change in behavior,” the FPA said.

“It is time for the IDF command to act, to show it respects the freedom of the press and that it has control over the behavior of soldiers on the ground,” it added.

The two journalists had been covering clashes between Palestinians and soldiers when some troops took them aside, swore at them in English and told them to stop recording events, AFP said.