This very disturbing Associated Press news item from the New York Times appeared in my mailbox this morning. An expanded version of the story is, here, from the Star Tribune (Minneapolis).
The U.S.-funded Alhurra network said Thursday that one of its cameramen was interrogated and strip-searched by Israeli security men while covering a July 4 party at the U.S. ambassador’s residence near Tel Aviv….
…when cameraman Samer Jallad arrived, he said he was detained for questioning, ordered to remove his shoes and sit in the sun for more than half an hour, and then taken to a room where he was forced to remove his pants for a body inspection. He said he was held for more than 90 minutes before he was permitted to enter.
It was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli security have used heavy-handed tactics against Arab journalists, a practice Israel has defended as necessary for security….
The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel, called on the U.S. Embassy to condemn the incident….
…The embassy and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.
It is bad enough that the U.S. sends a partisan Jewish Zionist like Ambassador Daniel Shapiro, whose background raises questions about his ability to represent U.S. interests in Tel Aviv, but he is not the first pro-Israel advocate to hold this post and undoubtedly will not be the last.
However, I think the American people have a right to know if the U.S. Ambassador to Israel believes that it is appropriate for him to sit around the American embassy with the Israeli Prime Minister on the Fourth of July while Israeli security grossly and publicly violates the human rights of a Palestinian cameraman – a transgression that had absolutely no possible security justification. It is plainly another demonstration of Israeli racism.
Given the lack of response of the U.S. embassy to the Foreign Press Association request to condemn the incident, I think it is appropriate to ask if being a proper host for Shapiro means tolerating or maybe even participating in this vile deployment of Israeli security.
Maybe the next thing we will learn about this Fourth of July party at the embassy is that it included Shapiro and the embassy staff eating barbecue while meekly listening to Netanyahu tell Palestinian jokes.
The whole thing is astonishing, and not a peep from Kerry’s State Dept! I’ve been checking since the AP put it out yesterday.
From your cite, this blew me away yesterday as well:
“It was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli security have used heavy-handed tactics against Arab journalists, a practice Israel has defended as necessary for security. Jallad, who said he has covered Netanyahu on many occasions, is a Palestinian from east Jerusalem who holds full Israeli residency rights and has a government-issued press card.”
Democracy??????
Ira– I promise you they would not be listening “meekly” during jokes.
Thanks for writing about this blatant and apparently US endorsed racism.
With respect, Ira, I think the right question has to be asked here: Was this reporter singled out for such treatment or is it applied to non-Palestinians as well? We can’t tell from what we have.
It’s like the IRS “scandal.” The right wing-nuts blew up b/c the IRS was searching on the term “Tea Party” for phony applications for 501(c)(4) status. But that was not the proper question. If the IRS was searching on all reasonable terms — right and left — and “Tea Party” was one of those terms, which it should have been, then there was no foul.
Discrimination does not occur when one side has been treated badly unless the other side has not. We don’t know that is the case here, however likely it may be.
Perhaps they were celebrating the Fourth of July by talking about the high ideals of America’s original documents. Inspired by the 18th Century attitudes of our Founding Fathers, if Israel ever gets around to writing a Constitution, would it define Palestinians as 3/5 human or only 1/5? When Netanyahu was visiting the US, they even strip-searched a pregnant Arab American reporter who had been invited to an event for him.
Do not appoint anyone with a confirmed zionist background to any US position.
There will always be a conflict of interest.
Even if there is no question of disloyalty to the US there will still be their emotional attachment to Israel that will affect how they carry out their job in many ways. And in the case of Ambassadors, how they represent the US to the world and in this case in partcular, what Shapiro says to Israelis behind closed doors and how he chooses to ‘frame”what he passes on to the US from Israel.
It doesnt work 99 x out of 100…doesnt matter how otherwise ethical or loyal they may be, it’s not worth the risk for the US…..just like the otherwise respected Goldstone, the pressure to cave to Israel on something critical will always occur and few would be able to stand up to it.
well, at least you’re “retired”.