Israeli forces brutally assault, detain Al Jazeera journalist in Sheikh Jarrah
Israeli occupation forces have arrested an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent while covering a demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in the occupied East Jerusalem.
Givara Budeiri, the Doha-based media network’s Jerusalem correspondent, was brutally assaulted while being arrested on Saturday and her team’s equipment was also destroyed.
Budeiri was reporting on a sit-in marking the 54th anniversary of the al-Naksa, a term Palestinians use to describe the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in 1967.
Sheikh Jarrah has also been the site of demonstrations for weeks in support of Palestinian families facing forced expulsion to make way for Israeli settlers.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said Budeiri was arrested for no apparent reason and had been reporting while wearing a jacket with “press” printed on it, as Al Jazeera reported.
She said Budeiri, a veteran journalist, was arrested even though she had tried to retrieve and show her Israeli-issued press card following a request by the forces.
“She was being pushed, that continued as she was trying to get her press card. And then as the cameraman was trying to reach her his camera was smashed,” Abdel Hamid said.
صرخت قائلة "لا تلمسوني".. فيديو يظهر لحظة اعتقال مراسلة #الجزيرة جيفارا البديري والاعتداء عليها بوحشية من قبل سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في #القدس pic.twitter.com/Q3p6rosaIx
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) June 5, 2021
“We spoke to several witnesses and they all said there was no reason for that kind of tension and that it was not clear why they decided to specifically go [after] Givara while there were other journalists doing exactly what she was doing,” she said.
An Israeli forces statement later claimed a man and a woman had been arrested because they were “suspected of harassing security forces”.
Barbara Trionfi, of the International Press Institute, expressed shock at the arrest and called for Budeiri’s immediate release.
“It is absolutely appalling,” she told Al Jazeera.
“We have seen a lot of targeted attacks against journalists by the Israeli forces throughout the past weeks and months and this is, unfortunately, not an isolated case,” Trionfi added.
“This type of behaviour by the Israeli forces is absolutely not acceptable.”
Sabrina Bennoui, spokesperson for Reporters Without Borders, told Al Jazeera the arrest was shocking and unacceptable.
“This is a clear violation of press freedom, because this journalist was clearly recognisable as she was wearing a press vest, and there is a clear will from the Israeli authorities to prevent journalists from doing their job and from reporting on the ground,” she said.
On May 15, an Israeli air-strike destroyed a building in the Gaza Strip that housed international media offices, including Al Jazeera’s, during an 11-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in which at least 279 Palestinians, including 69 children and 40 women, killed and 1,910 others injured.
More than 90,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, and much of Gaza’s infrastructure and many residential buildings were completely destroyed or levelled.
