Tuesday, August 05, 2008

And When Will This Make the "Big" Media Outlets?

A correspondent for Israel National News' Hebrew-language news, Chezki Ezra, was beaten, detained and questioned by police on Monday night after filming a policeman hitting a protesting youth near the road to Rachel's Tomb. Ezra's camera was smashed. He was later released, with apologies. MKs and legal rights organizations
The officer who attacked Ezra offered his apologies, but no explanations.
consider the incident another serious attack on freedom of the media.

Ezra had been covering the protest by several dozen Land of Israel activists seeking unfettered access to Rachel's Tomb, recognized as the grave of the Biblical matriarch Rachel, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The demonstration was forcibly halted by the Border Police. At one point in the ensuing scuffle, Ezra captured images of a police officer hitting a young civilian. It was then that Ezra also came under blows from the same officer.

The demonstration was broken up and Ezra and three others found themselves detained by police. After a police interrogation, the INN reporter's irreparably damaged camera was returned to him and he was released. The officer who attacked Ezra offered his apologies, but no explanations.

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