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Old 05-15-2005, 07:58 PM   #1
shamrock_uk
Dracolich
 

Join Date: January 24, 2004
Location: UK
Age: 42
Posts: 3,092
Link.

This is a PBS documentary about the risks facing journalists in the Occupied Territories.

I've only watched Part 1 so far, but these journalists have dug out their personal footage to show the American journalist, the stuff that doesn't make it to the news. They're mostly Palestinian journalists so the violence against them was by Israelis, this may change for the last two parts if she meets Israeli journalists.

So far I've seen two cases of journalists being attacked by Jewish settlers. In the first one it was just children throwing stones etc (remind you of Palestinian children anyone? [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) In the second case, the journalist was beaten unconcious by a mob of settlers when he tried to stop children taking his camera.

Oh, and there was the journalist who just lost his front teeth a few days earlier when an Israeli soldier punched him in the mouth.

The worst (and this is only in 6 minutes) was a journalist who was just filming at the side of the street. There had been a disturbance earlier when some gun-wielding Jewish settlers had tried to march down Palestinian streets and the Israeli army pushed them back (and kudos for it).

After all this was over (and the road is empty in the immediate area) the cameraman is waiting by the side of the road, deciding about going home. He's just got his camera idly filming, showing the wall on the other side of the street. We see two Israeli soldiers running up the far side of the street. Then they suddenly stop and shoot him in the head. The camera has been rolling for some time before this, so it is clear there is no provocation.

The cameraman is now lying on the ground, screaming, holding his head, blood on the ground. (the cameramen have a pact that if one gets attacked, the others film it, so a different cameraman takes over) This is not enough apparently, and about 10 seconds later he's shot in the stomach.

All the journalists are shouting and screaming (in both Hebrew and Arabic) that they are journalists and to stop shooting. The guy struggled to his knees for a moment, then collapses on the floor again.

About twenty seconds after the second bullet, he's shot again, this time in the back. At this point, he is dragged to safety.

The bullets are apparently nominally rubber ones, but the ones used by the Israeli army have a solid steel core, hence the blood and serious injuries.


I'm almost dreading watching the other two parts if all that was shown in just six minutes!
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