A spokesman for the Israel Defense Force went on record before a Knesset committee Tuesday against barring the news media from the administered territories when disturbances are taking place.
Brig. Gen. Ephraim Lapid appeared before the Knesset Education Committee, which is considering a motion by the Tehiya party to close the territories to the media.
He was told that there are 350 permanent foreign correspondents posted to Israel, which may be proportionally more than to any other country, and that their number has increased to 800 since the Palestinian uprising began three months ago.
But Lapid said one reason the IDF opposed a media ban was that it would leave the territories open to pirate video clips of incidents and the reports by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s news agency.
Lapid said the IDF is trying to teach soldiers that the media is part of the modern battlefield. “The foreign correspondents appreciate our intentions and comply with the army’s instructions. But the balance is upset by the Israeli cameramen,” he said.
He said the IDF’s anger against media coverage was directed at their fellow countrymen employed by foreign networks, not the reporters on assignment from abroad.
ISRAELI CAMERAMEN BLAMED
“It is these Israeli cameramen who provoke our soldiers. They pay no attention to the orders of the officers in charge of a sector,” Lapid charged.
“Because of the way the cameramen behave, they spark off incidents whose coverage is out of all proportion to their significance. This, in turn, influences the soldiers to take an even more negative view than before,” he said.
It was an Israeli cameramen, employed by CBS television, who filmed the scene of four IDF soldiers beating and kicking two handcuffed Palestinian youths near Nablus last month which created a worldwide stir.
Foreign correspondents accredited to Israel are here on working visas, which can be withdrawn at any time along with their press credentials. Israeli members of the Foreign Press Association all are in the IDF reserves and know the workings of the military better than their foreign colleagues.
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