Several cameramen and a correspondent working for NBC-TV News were detained in Jenin last Thursday for several hours after Israeli military authorities there ascertained that their presence sparked a large gathering of townspeople and the beginning of a "staged demonstration." The TV crew was instructed to leave and when they refused authorities detained them for three hours and the released them.
Israeli authorities have charged that the appearance of TV crews on the West Bank has encouraged local residents to stage demonstrations sometimes in exchange for payments from foreign newsmen. Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog told the UN Security Council last week, during its debate on Israeli practices on the West Bank, that an investigation is underway concerning the proposal by a West Bank resident to a foreign TV crew to organize incidents such as the burning of tires or setting up road blocks for a payment of $300.
Avram Zaritsky, NBC bureau chief one of those detained, said that no one had offered him or his crew any deal last Thursday to stage a demonstration. He accused the army for detaining him and his crew before telling him he was held for filming in an area closed to the press. Zaritsky said he would file a formal complaint with the Israeli Defense Ministry.
A spokesman for the Foreign Press Association here said the group would hold a special meeting in the next day or two to consider ways of countering "the unfounded charges of complicity in buying of demonstrations which have recently circulated in the Israeli press."
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