Al-Jazeera Crews Repeatedly Detained In Israel
U.S. News' Orly Halpern spoke to "Yehezkel" at the military censor's office, who told Halpern that "we are flexible." He added: "If it happened on a city street where people were killed, it's impossible to stop [the media]."
Perhaps. But while people like Amir Bar Shalom, chief military correspondent for Israel's Channel 1 television, vow to report whatever they want (while also trying not to help Hezbollah), Al-Jazeera crews were detained four times in two days by Israeli police.
"They said there were claims that our broadcasts are helping Hezbollah," Al-Jazeera bureau chief Walid al-Omary told Halpern. "That's ridiculous. My work doesn't help Hezbollah. What about the Israeli stations that even name the address of the house [that was hit]? I want them to tell me, what are we broadcasting which is different from the others?" Al-Omary explained what he characterized as harassment by saying "it's easy to bother the Arabs."
It's understandable that Israeli authorities would be more distrustful of Al-Jazeera than their homegrown press, but it makes for an uneven playing field when it comes to covering the conflict. As Channel 1's Bar Shalom noted, "the [authorities] suspect them immediately. They never suspect me."