Israelis Strip-Search Arab Journalist at US Party
Source: Associated Press
JERUSALEM July 4, 2013 (AP)
The U.S.-funded Alhurra network said Thursday that one of its cameramen was interrogated and strip-searched by Israeli security men while covering a July 4 party at the U.S. ambassador's residence near Tel Aviv.
The Arab satellite channel had coordinated with the Israeli prime minister's office to cover the event on behalf of the international media. Ambassador Dan Shapiro, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other VIPs were in attendance. But when cameraman Samer Jallad arrived, he said he was detained for questioning, ordered to remove his shoes and sit in the sun for more than half an hour, and then taken to a room where he was forced to remove his pants for a body inspection. He said he was held for more than 90 minutes before he was permitted to enter.
It was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli security have used heavy-handed tactics against Arab journalists, a practice Israel has defended as necessary for security. Jallad, who said he has covered Netanyahu on many occasions, is a Palestinian from east Jerusalem who holds full Israeli residency rights and has a government-issued press card.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel, called on the U.S. Embassy to condemn the incident.
"We find it especially shameful that a staffer of a U.S.-funded network would be the victim of racial profiling at an official U.S. event celebrating American Independence Day," the FPA said. "Such treatment goes against the core values of freedom and equality that the U.S. seeks to uphold."
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israelis-strip-search-arab-journalist-us-party-19581321#.UdYTQztOZIA
IADEMO2004
(5,554 posts)You should have seen my wife with an implanted pain pump vs. TSA last weekend.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)i have a card saying i`m not to be wanded or walk through airport scanners. hell i can`t work on a running car engine.
there`s really no excuse for the israeli`s to do this.
chimpymustgo
(12,774 posts)Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)i am so glad it is easy to go through checkpoint charlie in china. Yes, China.
takes less than 30 seconds. metal detector, pat down, out you go. no cavity searches, no shoes removed, nothing invasive. and they do not have a 4th amendment.
well, neither do we anymore.
The Stranger
(11,297 posts)And I don't need the quotation marks.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)"Harb resigned in 2006. He said he left, in part, because Pattiz had stepped down, but also because he sensed the Broadcasting Board of Governors wanted al-Hurra to promote U.S. foreign policy instead of just reporting the news."
When even house-Arabs are strip-searched, you know it's bad.
mallard
(569 posts)He's an established and known journalist, not a pizza delivery guy.
The drawn-out, lopsided and policy-driven 'means' for racism to become a part of the Israeli national charter would be nowhere without violent conflict. Instead of coming to terms of respectful agreement with the Arab population (also called the Two State Solution) they manage comfortably enough by simply having the upper hand in a sustained-struggle relationship.
The point is the Israelis have increasingly over time 'demonstrated' to the world how Arabs and Muslims may or even should be automatically subject to suspicion of bad intention, be so profiled and so mistreated. Others have taken to this example as acceptable or even necessary, especially while standing by the official 9/11 hijacking story.
Truly enough, in the past 12 years, Israel has emerged from being about the most violent and dangerous country in the Middle East to being much farther down that list.
hate in flower