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Israel condemned by NUJ for treatment of independent journalist, Ewa Jasiewicz

imc-solidarity | 17.08.2004 22:00 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Palestine | Repression | World

UPDATES:

Journalist Ewa Jasciewicz now held in detention for over 14 days as Israeli court fiasco continues.

19 AUGUST: Ewa is to be released from jail, but has still been forbidden by the IDF from entering Palestine.
20 AUGUST: Ewa remains locked up until at least Sunday, following an appeal by the Israeli Government [reports: 1 | 2 ]

The National Union of Journalists has condemned the Israeli Government for its treatment of journalist Ewa Jasiewicz, who was detained whilst entering Israel last week and remains in prison.

Ewa's appeal against deportation from Israel will be heard on Thursday, August 19th.

[ Telephone call from Ewa | Background on Baha | Ewa on Iraq | The "Intifada of the Empty Stomach"]



Journalist Ewa Jasciewicz now held in detention for over 14 days as Israeli court fiasco continues.

Ewa’s lawyer Yael Barda is currently trying to get the court protocols translated from Hebrew into English including the court interrogation of the secret service official. The next court decision will be heard on Wednesday at 08.30 Israeli time, following 14 days of Ewa being held in detention.

Ewa’s appeal was made on technical grounds, as the Supreme Court judges didn’t hear the case or the secret information.

The secret information was only seen by the first judge, at the district court hearing, who ruled that Ewa was no threat to Israeli security.

During the interrogation of the secret service official, who testified from behind a curtain, and entered court with his head covered, Yael Barda questioned him about allegations that activists drive Palestinians around in cars during curfews, and asked him what Ewa’s connection to this was, he replied that he could only show the judge. Ewa doesn’t have a driver’s license and cannot drive.

Yael Barda went on to ask about Israeli activists being interrogated for protesting against the separation wall, the secret service official claimed he knew nothing about these interrogations. Lawyer Yael Barda personally knows of a journalist and copywriter that has been interrogated by this specific official, and points out that the official has directly lied to the court.

For the appeal at the Supreme Court on Wednesday Yael Barda has called for Avigdor Feldman to represent Ewa. She says “he is one of the greatest human rights and criminal lawyers. I believe he will help out for a modest fee ($1000)”

She goes on to say that only public and press pressure will effect the judge’s decisions. She told the court, “that if the secret service decide which journalists enter Israel, then foreign journalists will fear for their jobs and write in accordance will official positions, if not immediately, than as time goes by.”

p>Ewa spoke of her views about wanting to show the position of the Israeli left which is invisible to the international press who often see only soldiers and Palestinians and are unaware of the vibrant protests against the occupation and the Apartheid wall.

As Ewa, herself, recognises:

"I'm a witness to Israeli war crimes, one being an extra judicial killing of Baha Al Bahesh [see image], a 14 year old boy from Nablus who was shot 2 years ago. He was unarmed, in a non combat, non public order situation. I also witnessed other violations of the Geneva convention such as collective punishment, the demolition of houses and wanton destruction of people's livelihoods... Democracy needs a plurality of opinion, a plurality of positions and voices. Attempts to homogenise public opinion or to constrict political expression sows the seeds of dictatorship. When what can be said or read is decided by and censored by the state and where the dominant narrative becomes that which serves those in power and their vision and their opinions, not only profoundly dillusional and totally anti democratic, but is destructive to any society."


Ewa landed at Tel Aviv airport last Wednesday and was immediately detained by the authorities, who claim she is a political activist and that her reporting would not be objective. She was interrogated by Defence Ministry Officials for seven hours and they then told her she would be deported on Sunday morning, but she decided to appeal against this. She is now being detained in prison pending an appeal hearing.

NUJ Freelance Organiser John Toner said: “Ewa Jasiewicz is a bona fide journalist who has travelled to Israeli to research a story. She holds an NUJ Press Card and an IFJ International Press Card, and it is outrageous that she should be treated in this way. It is not acceptable that a supposedly democratic country should refuse entry to a journalist because they find her work objectionable. This amounts to state censorship, and we call on the UK Government to intervene."

Ewa Jasiewicz, who is currently a correspondent for the British left-wing magazine Red Pepper, has written widely before about her experiences in the Middle East including writing for Indymedia-UK. She also went on a speaking tour earlier this year following her return from Iraq.

imc-solidarity

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Update

19.08.2004 13:17

Alice


Bailed!

19.08.2004 18:33

Alice


Bail posted, but Ewa stays in jail

20.08.2004 10:45

Just spoke to Ewa's the lawyer. An hour after a comrade
posted the ILS 30,000 bail, the state appealed yesterday's
decision to release Ewa.

"This is absolutely horrendous," says the lawyer. "A judge says
there's not enough evidence to hold Ewa - and then they *appeal it*?"

The appeal is to the Supreme Court, on fact and on law. It will
probably be heard in two or three days (can't be sooner 'cos
of Sabbath.)

The lawyer says we should all make as much noise as possible...

laptop
- Homepage: http://www.londonfreelance.org


Hearing at 9am on Sunday 22/8

20.08.2004 20:03

at the Supreme Court, Jerusalem

freethepeeps


Update Sunday 22/08

22.08.2004 12:29

Today the supreme court has thrown the case back to the intermediate tribunal. This system of 'intermediate' tribunals has been going only a couple of months, in an attempt to crack down on ISM and other solidarity volunteers and prevent them entering Israel/Palestine. The case for the Israeli state is based on maniplulating these technicalities, but the effect is to keep anyone out of the Occupied Territories who is sympathetic to the Palsetinians, while media that take the side of the occupation are still allowed in to report and comment.

The next (and hopefully final) hearing will be held on Monday at 8am Israeli time. Ewa has written an article on her situation -- please email me if you are able to publish it or any similar information.

Arcady
mail e-mail: saddleback@union.org.za


haaretz article

22.08.2004 12:51

alice


Haaretz report

22.08.2004 12:52

laptop
- Homepage: http://www.londonfreelance.org


Back to District Court...

23.08.2004 10:13

Ewa is back in the District Court as I write.

Apparently the judge there made an error in referring to
the order to release her as an "interim judgement", which
is why she had to go to the Supreme Court yesterday.

laptop
- Homepage: http://www.londonfreelance.org


Ewa dtained until Wednesday at least

23.08.2004 11:14

Have added up date from Ewa's lawyer yael to cental column


The Supreme Court referred Ewa's case back to the District Court.

Ewa had another hearing in the District Court this morning.
It's not going to produce its judgement until Wednesday
at 08:30 Tel Aviv time.

Devlish
- Homepage: http://www.londonfreelance.org


Ewa Jasiewicz update

25.08.2004 10:29

 http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&edition=uk&ie=UTF-8&q=ewa+jasiewicz&scoring=d

A lot of news sites are now carrying this:
British journalist ordered out of Israel
25/08/2004 - 11:04:57

An Israeli court today ordered a British journalist with links to a pro-Palestinian group to leave the country, citing security concerns.

Ewa Jasiewicz was refused entry into Israel on August 11 and has been detained since then at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport. Her lawyer pledged to appeal today’s expulsion order to the Supreme Court.

Israeli authorities claimed that Jasiewicz is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led group that leads protests in the West Bank and Gaza.

The 26-year-old freelance journalist writes for a left-wing monthly and has worked with the group in the past.

ISM activists have sometimes disrupted Israeli military operations by placing themselves between soldiers and Palestinians. Israel has recently detained a number of its activists as they tried to enter the country.

In her expulsion order today, Tel Aviv District Court judge Drora Pilpel said that although Jasiewicz did not pose a direct threat to Israeli security, Palestinians could manipulate her “naiveté”.

Israeli authorities have paid extra attention to the ISM since an April 2003 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed three people. The attackers had briefly visited ISM activists in Gaza before the attack, although the group denied any involvement in the bombing.

In an earlier decision, the district court last week had said Jasiewicz could enter Israel, but could not travel to the West Bank. The Supreme Court ordered the lower court to reconsider its decision.

Jasiewicz’s lawyer, Yael Berda, called the decision ”a total blow to the freedom of speech and freedom of the press”.

The court granted a 48-hour injunction on the expulsion, allowing Berda to appeal the expulsion to the Supreme Court.

 http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&edition=uk&ie=UTF-8&q=ewa+jasiewicz&scoring=d

Alice


Guardian editorial on Ewa

25.08.2004 20:38

Wednesday's Guardian had an editorial commenting on Ewa's case. Tomorrow's Guardian should have a piece by Ewa herself.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1290027,00.html

Reporting for duty

Leader
Wednesday August 25, 2004
The Guardian

It is two weeks since a British journalist was detained on arrival in Israel and told she would be deported as a political activist whose reports would "not be objective". Last week, Ewa Jasiewicz, who went to Israel to report for the left-wing magazine Red Pepper, briefly won her appeal and was allowed to enter the country, on condition she did not enter the occupied West Bank or Gaza. Within hours, the Israeli government appealed against even that, and Ms Jasiewicz was once more detained. The supreme court then ruled that her case must be reheard in the district court. Ms Jasiewicz will be back in the dock again today.
The Israeli case against Ms Jasiewicz centres on her links with the International Solidarity Movement, the pro-Palestinian group whose members try to block Israeli forces carrying out security operations in the occupied territories. Two ISM supporters, one of them the Briton Tom Hurndall, who was shot by an Israeli soldier in Gaza last year, have been killed in the past two years, and more than 60 others have been deported.

Ms Jasiewicz is indisputably a critic of Israeli policy. She is not alone in that. But she is also a working journalist, who holds a UK and an international press card. She was commissioned by a bona fide publication to report from Israel. Israel is a democracy and is committed to free speech. It stands out among its neighbours for these freedoms, and it rightly takes pride in them. It has a good past record of allowing foreign journalists to travel within the country and the occupied territories and to report what they see, even in very difficult circumstances. But the arrest of foreign journalists like Ms Jasiewicz and the limiting of their journalistic work causes damage to Israel's freedoms and reputation.

That damage is worse than the damage done by inaccurate or even hostile reporting. These are not our words but those of the National Federation of Israeli Journalists in a letter last week to Ariel Sharon. The British government should press Ms Jasiewicz's case to report freely. So, even more importantly, should the Israelis themselves.

Arcady
mail e-mail: saddleback@union.org.za


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