The interrogation of the anonymous blogger was conducted due to a series of posts he published, examining who exactly are the 126 soldiers who “died while protecting their country” between April 2011-2012, as officially pronounced on Memorial Day. Following thorough research and thanks to a leak from within the system, Eiston exposed that only three soldiers were actually killed in the line of duty, while others committed suicide, were involved in accidents or died of illness, and in many cases – did not even die in the year in question but several years before.

Following the interrogation and the journalistic interest it attracted, and after army spokespeople declared that information was out in the open, Eishton published a challenge to authorities last night on his Facebook account:

I keep being interrogated for minor technical felonies, and even if you don’t agree with the way I worked you must see the difference between the ‘felony’ I allegedly committed and the outrage and lack of information on the side of the state.

It is now Monday, 24.12.12, 21:30, seven months after Memorial Day, when you declared there were 126 fallen soldiers. Take 24 hours. If by tomorrow evening you release a list with 126 names, dates and causes of death, commit to releasing the lists regarding the fallen since 1948 within a week and release a statement by the Ministry of Defense saying that from now on you will release all lists – I shall admit to the charges brought against me and sit in prison without filing an appeal (although I am not guilty). I swear by my word.

I shall go to prison, the information goes free – seems like a fair price to me.

Update, 25.12, 23:00: So far authorities have not responded to Eishton’s offer and did not publish the full list of names and causes of death of the 126 fallen soldiers, thus failing to meet his deadline. Eishton says on his Facebook page that he continues calling upon the army to publish the lists

Update 2, 27.12.: The army on Wednesday published figures on the numbers of IDF suicides that took place in recent years. Eishton emphasized in a response that it wasn’t figures he demanded, but rather the identities of the 126 fallen soldiers, and their causes of death. It could be said that the response of the army, and their reception by the media as a victory for Eishton, are effectively a distraction from the blogger’s main questions mourning and commemoration in Israel.

Read also:
Blogger interrogated, asked to give up army source

By Mati Milstein

Nearly five months ago, on July 29, Israeli reserve infantrymen and Border Police officers opened fire on a group of photojournalists and television cameramen during a non-violent protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Troops from the Alexandroni Brigade then – totally unprovoked – arbitrarily threatened me and fellow press photographers with arrest. Days later, I filed a formal complaint with the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Border Police and the Israeli Government Press Office, with all relevant details required for an investigation of the attack.

The GPO kindly forwarded my complaint – adding a cover letter from GPO Director Oren Helman requesting a timely examination of and response to my claims – to key officials in the Border Police and the IDF, as well as to the Foreign Press Association.

The Border Police ignored the query entirely. The IDF Spokesperson Unit failed to acknowledge receipt of both my original complaint and the GPO’s subsequent request for a response. However, via periodic telephone queries to the IDF Spokesperson, I was made to understand that the incident was under investigation and that – due to its complex nature and the multiple military units involved – this investigation would take time. I was assured that at its conclusion I would receive a formal response.

Five months passed. Only in the final week of 2011 did I finally receive a formal response from the Israeli army. With excited anticipation, I opened the response from Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich, of the IDF Spokesperson Unit’s North America Desk.

Leibovich’s letter was a general – and quite inaccurate – proclamation purportedly describing the “violent and illegal demonstrations” and consistent rock-throwing attacks faced by Israeli soldiers in Nabi Saleh.

In a blatant show of disrespect of the very media she is meant to be assisting, Leibovich ignored the details of the July 29 incident, which I had so meticulously provided to her. She instead unilaterally justified the use of force and violence by Israeli security forces against both protesters and media personnel.

Given that Leibovich’s letter made no reference whatsoever to an investigation, it seems clear that the army never did carry out any examination of the violence and threats against members of the media.

Leibovich actually took it upon herself to make sweeping value judgments on the news coverage of the protests, stating that “though the weekly frequency of the demonstrations has removed from them all news value, journalists and photographers frequently come to [cover] these demonstrations,” adding that “members of the media are sometimes caught in the eye of the storm.”

Clearly, conflict photographers face certain risks when carrying out their professional duties – indeed, they are sometimes caught in the eye of the storm – and they consciously accept these risks. Photojournalists, who must be physically close to their subjects, knowingly place themselves in the crossfire. My colleagues and I – Israeli, Palestinian and foreign – have in the past been inadvertently hurt while covering such events, hit by rocks, rubber bullets and tear gas grenades. This is, simply put, part and parcel of the job. No one complains.

However, Leibovich proceeded in her letter to transfer responsibility for harm to media personnel from the heavily-armed and heavily-protected security forces to the journalists themselves: “It is important to note that journalists who enter areas in which there is consistent violent and illegal disorder, such as Nabi Saleh – the responsibility is theirs, as is accepted in other areas of conflict around the world.”

Leibovich fails to understand a critical distinction: There is a fundamental difference between: 1) journalists voluntarily placing themselves in areas where, during the course of their work, they might face potential and inadvertent harm; and 2) soldiers voluntarily opening fire on a group of clearly-marked journalists, even when no protesters or other perceived threats are located in the vicinity of said journalists.

Lieutenant Colonel Leibovich, with all due respect, did you really think no one would notice if you abdicated your responsibilities and ignored both a legitimate complaint filed by an accredited member of the Israeli press corps, as well as the Israeli GPO’s own request for a proper investigation of the attack?

Rather than carrying out your duties, you exploited the circumstances of an unforgivable violent attack on the media to further propagate a propaganda that ignores all – very verifiable – facts on the ground.

Meanwhile, the protests in Nabi Saleh continue, as does the press coverage of these protests, despite Leibovich’s firm belief that this coverage has no journalistic value.

The soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade have long since returned home, but Israeli military units subsequently deployed to Nabi Saleh continue to open fire on both non-violent protestors and members of the media, making illegal use of the weapons at their disposal. In the interceding five months, one man was killed in the village and numerous individuals have been wounded seriously enough to require hospitalization.

Leibovich failed completely to respond to my charge of an Israeli military attack on press freedom and, furthermore, has provided tacit systemic approval for future direct, tactically-unjustified – and potentially deadly – attacks on journalists.

No lessons have been learned here. The blood – when it comes again, as it surely will – will also be on your hands, Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich.

Mati Milstein’s photography and writing have appeared in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Bild, Le Monde, Monocle, Daily Mirror, National Geographic News, The Forward and other publications.

A small radio station, “Kol Hashalom,” unique in that it was directed jointly by a Palestinian and a Jew, was abruptly shut down by the Israeli police on Thursday.

Kol Hashalom, which roughly means “All for Peace,” had been active for the last seven years. It was a joint venture of the Palestinian NGO Biladi and the Israeli NGO Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, and was directed by former Meretz MK Mossi Raz and Meissa Bransie-Senyura. The station broadcast from Ramallah, under a license granted by the Palestinian Authority to the Biladi company. (Full disclosure: I participated as a co-host in a Kol Hashalom broadcasts about a year ago).

Naturally, the very idea of a Jewish-Palestinian radio was anathema to the Jewish right (can you seriously call it “Israeli” anymore, when its essence is the eradication of Israeli identity?).  So, in September, one of the leaders of the campaign for the destruction of Israeli democracy, Likud MK and Sarah Palin fan Danny Danon, demanded (Hebrew) that the station be shut down. Danon claimed the station was “inciting against Israel,” specifically that it was calling upon people “to reject political decisions arrived at democratically.” To wit, to support Palestinian statehood.

On November 4^th, the Ministry of Communication sent a letter to Kol Hashalom, saying it is acting illegally and must close down immediately. The managers, having consulted their legal counsel, sent a letter last week denying all those claims. On Thursday, a day later – unheard-of speed for the Israeli police – Raz was summoned for a police interrogation, where he was informed that he was suspected of managing an illegal radio station, and that if he does not order it to shut down immediately, he would be arrested and the police would raid the station’s Jerusalem offices.

In a phone conversation with Raz today, he noted that a threat of detainment over the claim of running an illegal radio station is unprecedented. As far as I recall, in all of the years of the saga surrounding settler radio Channel 7, never were any of its managers arrested – even though its broadcasting interfered with the radio frequencies of the Ben Gurion Airport, and even though it never even claimed to be legal or  licensed.

Kol Hashalom, again, is based in Ramallah (the Jerusalem offices serve for its internet broadcast) and has a Palestinian license. Raz says the interrogators presented him with two arguments. One, that the station broadcasts in Hebrew, for a Hebrew-speaking public, which means it is an Israeli station which bypasses the law. Really? I guess the police don’t know that bypassing the law is, by definition, not breaking it. Raz, sarcastically, suggests the police should immediately arrest the anchors of the Persian Voice of Israel: According to the logic of the police, it is an Iranian radio station and the anchors are obviously Iranian spies.

Mossi Raz, who is sure that the closing of the station is part of an assault on the media. (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

The second argument of the police was dubbed by Raz as the “I’ve murdered my parents, have pity on an orphan” argument: They said that Israel has never granted the Palestinian Authority any frequencies, even though it was obligated to do so in the Oslo Accords. This argument suffers from two problems: Raz noted that the Accords grant the PA the right to grab their own frequencies if Israel doesn’t allocate them within a certain time frame. Secondly, and more importantly, this argument basically says that ALL Palestinians radio stations are, without exception, illegal – yet strangely enough the Israeli police only bother itself with the Jewish-Palestinian one. This can be seen as even more proof of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank: Israel claims the right to shut down a radio station licensed by the so-called autonomous PA.

This stinks to high heaven, and looks suspiciously like – as Raz says openly – a part of the continuing effort of Netanyahu and his right-wing allies to overtake the media and silence their political rivals. Raz, fearing a raid on the Jerusalem offices, ordered the broadcasts to be shut down on Thursday, and now Kol Hashalom is preparing an appeal to the High Court of Justice. Developing.

If you seek to obtain a truly comprehensive picture of the state of press freedom and freedom of expression in territories under Israeli control, come watch Israeli soldiers shoot at journalists in the West Bank.

On Friday, 29 July, at the start of the weekly Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, Israeli army infantry reservists opened fire with riot-control weapons on a group of some 10 press photographers.

An Israeli Border Police officer aims a tear gas grenade launcher at news photographers while advancing on Palestinian protesters in the West Bank (photo: Mati Milstein)

This attack crossed a red line.

The troops had just repelled a march of several dozen Palestinian, Israeli and foreign protesters with a few rounds of tear gas grenades and forced them back towards the village’s central square and out of view. The only individuals on the street visible to the soldiers at this time were photographers. They carried multiple still and video cameras and tripods and they wore unique blue flak jackets and helmets marked with “PRESS” or “TV.” The distance between the journalists and soldiers was less than 100 meters and visibility was clear.

Nevertheless, soldiers began firing riot-control weapons (primarily rifle-fired tear gas canisters and gas grenades) directly at journalists. The sustained attack on the journalists, who work for Israeli, Palestinian and foreign media outlets, lasted between three and five minutes.

Photojournalists working in the West Bank are used to being caught in the cross-fire, and are sometimes hit by rocks thrown by Palestinians or by various types of ammunition fired by Israeli troops. This is part and parcel of the job and rarely does anyone make an issue of it.

This is the first time I am speaking publicly about any perceived abuse of the media by any side involved in this conflict.

When once punched in the face by a Fatah activist a number of years back, I kept my cool and simply resumed working. I also kept my mouth shut earlier in July, when a Border Police officer in Nabi Saleh fired a tear gas grenade directly at me, hitting my camera and left hand at a time when I stood alone in the street while Palestinian protesters were located behind the rise of a hill at a distance of several hundred meters.

But here is the difference: the attack of 29 July was intentional and sustained and the troops were fully aware of what they were doing. I had never before come under a sustained, direct and intentional attack by an Israeli military force aimed directly at me and at fellow journalists.

Following the barrage of gas grenades that afternoon, I walked down the street towards the Israeli forces and demanded to know why they had opened fire for a sustained period of time on a large group of clearly-marked journalists. In response, officers from the Alexandroni Brigade threatened me with arrest and demanded I stand against a wall, preventing me from carrying out my duties as a press photographer.

Other television and still photographers were also sequestered – under threat of arrest – to a location behind military lines from which it was virtually impossible to photograph the events.

The use of firearms in a direct attack on members of the media was preceded slightly earlier in the day by the harassment, arrest and reported beating by Alexandroni Brigade reservists of Muheeb Barghouthi, a Palestinian photographer working for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper. I did not witness this incident, but I saw the harassment and arrest later on video (below):

I have been working in Nabi Saleh for more than one-and-a-half years. I have seen different military units rotate in and out and I have observed the varying approaches to dealing with the weekly protests taken by different army and Border Police commanders in the village.

In early 2011, the overall nature of military activity in the village started to change:

In an effort to deal with the continuing demonstrations, the IDF’s Central Command began to issue orders on an almost weekly basis declaring Nabi Saleh a closed military zone. This order is designed to prevent Palestinian and other activists from reinforcing local resident protesters and it also allows the military to control press coverage by blocking the media’s entry into the village.

With press cameras out of the way, army and Border Police forces operating in Nabi Saleh began to employ increasingly violent tactics against protesters and local residents – both during the weekly demonstrations and in arrest raids and incursions during the course of the week.

Incidents of physical and verbal intimidation of journalists by Border Police officers in Nabi Saleh have occurred periodically over the past 18 or so months, but a red line was crossed at the end of July when Israeli troops deliberately targeted media personnel with firearms.

Further, the IDF’s ongoing decision to declare Nabi Saleh a closed military zone on a weekly basis is a clear and unjustified move to suppress press freedom.

In the past, even when orders declared Nabi Saleh a closed military zone, commanders operating in the village have largely adhered to an unspoken agreement with the media: while not granting journalists easy entry into the village, accredited members of the press who did manage to infiltrate Nabi Saleh were largely ignored by troops and allowed to work freely and without restriction – as should be the case in any democratic state.

Last Friday, Alexandroni officers brutally and arbitrarily eliminated the possibility of relatively free and uncensored media coverage. As their use of tactically-unjustified violence increased, they chose to take steps to reduce the number of potential witnesses to their actions.

This move was designed with just one goal in mind: to block press coverage and allow Israeli troops free rein in the village without fear of witnesses and potential repercussions.

Blocked from entry by Israeli military order, under threat of arrest and direct physical attack, many journalists now choose not to risk covering events in Nabi Saleh. Attacks on the media lead to the media’s departure, which creates a vacuum in which military attacks on local villagers, protesters and “citizen journalists” flourish unhindered.

The Israeli military is blurring the lines between its declared “enemy” – in this case, Palestinian protesters – and the media, with the latter increasingly being categorized with the former. As we saw in the 29 July attack, this blurring is evolving from one of theoretical perception into what can be violent physical actions in the field. In other words, in the eyes of soldiers, journalists become targets as “legitimate” as are Palestinian protesters and may be dealt with in kind.

Why are orders declaring Nabi Saleh a closed military zone unjustified and unethical?

It is a contradiction of Israeli court rulings for the IDF to preemptively declare X village a closed military zone based solely on the assumption there might be violence there.

The Israeli High Court of Justice (MK Yitzhak Levy vs. State of Israel, 6893/05) ruled that the IDF may issue an order declaring a closed military zone only “in a location in which exists a near certainty that the actualization of the right [to gather or protest – M.M.] is liable to lead to harsh, serious and severe harm to public safety and the enforcement of public order.”

A military commander may declare a closed military zone based not just on the assumption that there will be riots, but rather that these riots will cause severe harm to public safety.

To preemptively prevent individuals from participating in the Nabi Saleh protests by blocking off the village is like a court assuming that a man may possibly commit an act of rape upon leaving his house and thus ruling that he may not ever leave his house.

The brutal decisions and actions taken by Israeli military forces in Nabi Saleh are a violation of Israeli court rulings and run contrary to the standards of a democratic state that claims to promote transparency and allow freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

The crossing of this red line sets a dangerous precedent.

NOTE: Formal complaints regarding the events in Nabi Saleh on 29 July will be filed presently with the Israeli Government Press Office, the Foreign Press Association in Israel and the IDF’s Spokesperson Unit. Mati Milstein’s photography and writing appeared in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Daily Mirror, National Geographic News, The Forward and other publications.

The Syrian-American author of one of the most important political blogs in Syria appears to have been apprehended by one of the Syrian security forces, according to a post on “A Gay Girl in Damascus”. The current situation and location of the blog’s regular author, Amina Abdallah Arraf, remains unclear.

According to the post, written by Arraf’s cousin, the blogger  was ambushed early Sunday evening on her way to an activist meeting.

One of the men then put his hand over Amina’s mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad. The witness did not get the tag number. She promptly went and found Amina’s father.

The men are assumed to be members of one of the security services or the Baath Party militia. Amina’s present location is unknown and it is unclear if she is in a jail or being held elsewhere in Damascus.

I have just spoken with her father who is trying to locate her. He has asked me to share this information with her contacts in the hope that someone may know her whereabouts and so that she might be shortly released.

Arraf narrowly escaped arrest in late April, when her father shamed her would-be captors into leaving her be. After the arrest attempt, she went underground, but continued posting several times a day. The last post before the arrest was a poem:

Bird Songs

The bird flies free
Knowing no boundaries
Borders mean nothing
When you have wings

My heart and my soul
Long to follow and soar
Out over mountains
And deserts and seas

I have no wings
And earth presses in
Wrapped in a sheet
Forever to lie

Weighed down by dirtclods
Never to feel
Wind on my wings
Sun on my back

Soaring and flying
Freedom is coming
Here am I wanting
To know it one day

A subsequent post reported that attempts to learn of her whereabouts had not yielded new information:

I have been on the telephone with both her parents and all that we can say right now is that she is missing. Her father is desperately trying to find out where she is and who has taken her.

Unfortunately, there are at least 18 different police formations in Syria as well as multiple different party militias and gangs. We do not know who took her so we do not know who to ask to get her back. It is possible that they are forcibly deporting her.