An ARD group was detained and threatened by Israeli Army (IDF) soldiers in the Palestinian West Bank. According to the ARD Tel Aviv studio operated by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), reporter Jan-Christoph Kitzler was already returning from an interview with a Palestinian employee and a German employee when he left the Israeli soldiers on Saturday, November 4. They were stationed south of the Palestinian city of Hebron.
Soldiers probably conscripted the castaways
As Kitzler reports and the team’s cell phone videos show, the players were very aggressive toward the ARD team and several times had weapons in the team vehicle.
Soldiers repeatedly shot the ART team at close range. For Kitzler and the team, this was a clear attempt at intimidation. According to the group, the soldiers were probably migrants from the area, who are now called outcastes. They were traveling in a private vehicle wearing civilian helmets.
Journalists were threatened with weapons
“The soldiers brandished their weapons and threatened us, asking us if we were Jews. Our colleague was insulted as a traitor,” reports Jan-Christoph Kitzler.
An ARD team was there to report on radical settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It increased significantly with the start of the war and many cases have been documented.
ARD Studio Manager Tel Aviv: The approach is unacceptable
For Christian Limbert, head of the ARD Tel Aviv studio, these are attempts to largely block reporting from the Palestinian West Bank; Other international media have also been affected. “For us, this is the second incident within a week. Our team clearly identified themselves as accredited press representatives and stayed far away from military security areas. We cannot accept the actions of the Israeli army.”
Legal procedures should be examined
It was only after more than an hour that Israeli soldiers and police forces were called in that the situation stabilized. The IDF’s “Foreign Desk”, responsible for foreign correspondents, mediated by telephone.
BR considers this incident a serious violation of press freedom. According to BR’s Editor-in-Chief Christian Nitsche, repeatedly pointing a weapon is completely unacceptable. The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel has announced that it will take action on the matter. The ARD Tel Aviv studio will appoint a lawyer to investigate the legal process of the incident.
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