Jerusalem police detain Al-Jazeera staff for third time in 24 hours

Police detained Al Jazeera crew members three times in 24 hours, the last time being on Monday. The official cause for their brief arrests was suspicions that the crew reported the location of rocket strikes in order to assist Hezbollah. Other TV networks, including Israeli news services, filed similar reports without suffering from police intervention.

On Monday police detained Al Jazeera manager Walid al-Omri for reporting rocket hits in the Upper Galilee village of Kfar Yasif. Al-Omri had also been detained late on Sunday.

Also on Sunday police detained for questioning Al Jazeera correspondent Elias Karam and the team working with him in Acre. The team was released after an hour of questioning.

Al Jazeera said, after the arrest of Karam’s team, that Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet is inciting against the Qatar-based TV network.

Reshet Bet reported Sunday morning that Al Jazeera aired live footage of the scene of Hezbollah strikes on Haifa, and that it had positioned its cameras to overlook the refineries in the city’s industrial zone, explaining that “with such broadcasts Hezbollah has no need for spy satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Source: Yoav Stern, Haaretz

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