- NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) -
Israeli border police beat two Palestinian photographers for international
news agencies as they tried to take pictures of police driving with two
youths strapped to the front of their jeep.
-
- Jaafar Ashtiyeh of Agence France-Presse and Nasser Ashtiyeh
of the Associated Press (AP) were punched by the policemen, one of whom
threatened to shoot them if the photos were published, said the two men,
both from the same family.
-
- The photographers, who were not seriously hurt, did not
manage to get a shot of the jeep in the West Bank town of Nablus as it
was moving too fast, they said.
-
- As they tried to take the picture, the police stopped,
put the youths inside the jeep and then hit the photographers in the stomach
and legs.
-
- Jaafar Ashtiyeh said one of the policemen had already
beaten him and threatened his life on December 19 when he was stopped just
outside Nablus.
-
- Last year, an AFP photographer in the southern West Bank
city of Hebron, Hossam Abu Alan, was held for six months in an Israeli
jail and released on October 23 without trial or explanation.
-
- In August, AFP's photographer in the northern West Bank
town of Jenin, Seif Shauki Dahlah, charged that Israeli soldiers stole
2,000 dollars worth of jewelery and three mobile phones during a search
of his house.
-
- He was also advised to change jobs because he was running
the risk of "ending up like Imad Abu Zahra," another Palestinian
photographer in Jenin who was killed in June.
-
- An Israeli military spokesman said the army would investigate
the Nablus incident.
|
