Israel to probe ‘regrettable’ detention of Washington Post reporters
Foreign Ministry seeking ‘clarifications’ from police who questioned journalists suspected of ‘incitement’
The Foreign Ministry said it would investigate the brief detention by Jerusalem police of The Washington Post Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth and a colleague on suspicion of “incitement” on Tuesday.
In what the ministry categorized as “the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding,” spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said the “MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) will ask the police for the necessary clarifications.”
“This is a regrettable incident, casting an unnecessary shadow over the work of an excellent journalist,” he added.
The police defended the initial detention, but apologized for any distress caused. “The clarification [of what happened] was required in light of the information given to the officers, which turned out to be false,” the police said in a statement.
“But if the incident caused any distress to those detained, we are sorry for that,” the statement read.
Eglash, speaking on behalf of her colleagues, said they wanted to “put the incident behind them and move on.”
The detention, she said, was clearly a mistake and a misunderstanding. “We don’t want to become the story, which we already have been for the past few hours,” she said Tuesday evening.
Booth, along with journalist Sufian Taha, the Post’s West Bank correspondent, and reporter Ruth Marks Eglash, had been trying to interview locals near the Damascus Gate next to the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesady afternoon, which has been the site of several attempted attacks in the last three days.
Just hours before, an Arab teen was caught by police with a knife hidden up his shirtsleeve.
An Arab woman allegedly told Booth that if he paid some of the bystanders, they would provoke the nearby police officers and start a violent demonstration, Jerusalem Police spokesperson Asi Aharoni told The Times of Israel.
A passerby complained to Border Police officers, who were standing a few feet away, the Jerusalem Police spokesperson said.
However, Eglash disputed that claim, nothing that neither Booth nor Taha is a photographer or even had a camera on them.
“In light of the complaint, officers detained a number of suspects to check the facts,” police spokesperson Luba Samri said.
In a democracy, journalists doing their jobs get harassed, accused of incitement #Israel pic.twitter.com/g40Xtp0fEl
— Ruth Marks Eglash (@reglash) February 16, 2016
Booth said after presenting their government-issued press cards and another ID card to an officer, he and his colleague were taken to a police station and held for half an hour before they were released. He said an officer told them they had been suspected of “incitement.”
Eglash asked why her colleauges were suspected of incitement, “[The officer] said, ‘I can tell you anything else,'” she relayed.
When she pressed the issue, the officer told her to “go away before we arrest you as well,” Eglash said.
All together, including the time they were being held at the Damascus Gate, the pair were detained for just short of an hour, Eglash said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Government Press Office were also quick to distance themselves from the incident.
“Freedom of the press is a supreme value in the Israeli democracy,” GPO director Nitzan Chen said. “Israel is doing its utmost to enable the foreign press to work freely, without any pressure.”
The GPO added it too would open a probe into the incident and called upon “security forces and journalists to act with restraint and to avoid confrontations during these tense times.”
@washingtonpost #Jerusalem bureau chief @BoothWilliam is harassed, accused of incitement by #Israeli border police pic.twitter.com/iCcqVEzDRh
— Ruth Marks Eglash (@reglash) February 16, 2016
Speaking in Berlin, Netanyahu also declared that Israel was committed to a free press.
“We do not arrest journalists. The press in Israel is very energetic and free to say anything it wants,” he said during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Tuesday’s incident came against the backdrop of a series of tense encounters between Israeli authorities and the international media. Jerusalem officials have accused the foreign media of anti-Israel bias in coverage of the past five months of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Last week, the Knesset, under the umbrella of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, held a hearing on alleged anti-Israel bias in foreign media reports. The sparsely attended session focused mostly on ways to improve government spokespeople’s efficiency in updating the foreign press. During the hearing, Foreign Press Associated head Luke Baker denied any bias against Israel.
In a statement Monday, the Foreign Press Association, which represents international media organizations operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, harshly protested the “absurd” detentions.
“We do not think it is coincidental that a baseless accusation of ‘incitement’ was made at a time when blanket accusations of bias are being leveled against the foreign press by Israeli officials and commentators,” it said.
Times of Israel staff and AP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.