Israel clears tank crew over killing of Reuters cameraman; or Shooting the Messenger

Gaza: Israel clears tank crew over killing of Reuters cameraman
· Crew misread press jacket and camera as 'hostile'
· Agency head says report condones deadly force

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

The Guardian, Thursday August 14 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/14/israelandthepalestinians.reuters

The Israeli military will not take action against a tank crew that killed a Reuters television cameraman and eight other Palestinian civilians in Gaza and has defended the decision to shoot as "sound".

In a letter to the Reuters news agency, Israel's top military lawyer, Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit, said the troops involved in the shooting in April could not tell whether cameraman Fadel Shana, 24, was holding a camera or a weapon but nonetheless reached a "reasonable conclusion" that he was "hostile".

One of the reasons for the tank crew's suspicion, said Mendelblit, was that Shana and his soundman were wearing blue flak jackets, which the Israeli military lawyer said were "common to Palestinian terrorists". The jackets were marked with the word "PRESS" and were identical to those worn by journalists reporting on conflicts across the world. Shana's car also carried large "PRESS" and "TV" markings.

Shana was killed on a day of heavy fighting in Gaza that left 18 Palestinians, nearly all civilians, and three Israeli soldiers dead. Shana arrived shortly after a series of Israeli air strikes in a Gazan village and began filming. The last few seconds of his footage show an Israeli tank on a distant hilltop. There is a flash and a cloud of smoke as the tank fires a shell and moments later a second bright flash close to the camera as dark shapes come shooting out. The tape then goes black.

His body was hit by several inch-long metal flechette darts from the tank shell.

David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters, said yesterday he was disturbed by the decision. "I'm extremely disappointed that this report condones a disproportionate use of deadly force in a situation the army itself admitted had not been analysed clearly," he said. "They would appear to take the view that any raising of a camera into position could garner a deadly response."

The decision came in a letter sent on Tuesday by Mendelblit, Israel's military advocate general. "The tank crew was unable to determine the nature of the object mounted on the tripod and positively identify it as an anti-tank missile, a mortar or a television camera," he wrote.

He said the crew were suspicious partly because of the blue flak jackets, and because of an attack that killed three Israeli troops earlier in the day elsewhere in Gaza and because of a separate grenade attack on a tank. "In light of the reasonable conclusion reached by the tank crew and its superiors that the characters were hostile and were carrying an object most likely to be a weapon, the decision to fire at the targets ... was sound," he wrote.

"Fadel Shana's death is a tragedy ... A journalist in action was killed by IDF [Israel Defence Force] fire, along with others not involved in the hostilities. However ... the available evidence does not suggest misconduct or criminal misbehaviour ... I have therefore decided ... that no further legal measures will be taken."

Reuters sent a letter back yesterday asking why the soldiers ruled out the possibility that Shana was indeed a cameraman and why the tank crew did not simply reverse out of sight.

The Foreign Press Association in Tel Aviv said it was dismayed. "The IDF's decision to close its probe without taking any disciplinary action is the latest in a long line of cases clearing its soldiers of deadly negligence," it said. "The FPA believes the army is obligated to clearly identify its targets before firing, especially in areas where civilians and journalists are present."

Video of Shana's death:
YouTube video

This is not the first time Israeli forces have been accused of targeting reporters:

w3yN1Qnz3LQ&NR

notice how the sniper continues to fire into the wounded camera man as his colleagues try to bring him to safety. Notice how the shots are targeted at the legs, ie, the sniper is not trying to kill the camera man.

YouTube video

Say what you want, but there is no possible excuse for the targeting of press individuals by an army. Al Jazeera did a four part documentary (about an hour long in total) which I have the links for after this. It covers all the cases mentioned above and more, and I would say is almost essential watching for this topic.

part 1 - http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2gOpp-zcFUA
part 2 - http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=eHK2-9SEB-w
part 3 - http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfxlAnGUZg
part 4 - http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=l770SrFBTFA

good for them...double standards if you ask me.

good they cleared the tank crew?

good they shoot at people with clear press markings waving white flags?

good that no information that the Israelis don't want shown of their occupation of Gaza gets out?

Originally posted by inimalist
good they cleared the tank crew?

good they shoot at people with clear press markings waving white flags?

good that no information that the Israelis don't want shown of their occupation of Gaza gets out?

I was just speaking on behalf of President Bush...😕

Originally posted by Grand_Moff_Gav
I was just speaking on behalf of President Bush...😕

ah, my mistake 😛

yay oversensitivity

There's only one kind of person that considers a camera "hostile". Not to mention, flechette rounds fired from a tank are excessive beyond all measure.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
There's only one kind of person that considers a camera "hostile".

Chinese? 😛

Does anyone see a possible way for Reuters to get justice here?

I mean, ok, benefit of the doubt and all for the tank crew, though I agree with Sym 2000%, but like, they aren't going to get a day in court, they get nothing...

The Israeli army said its own actions were ok, I guess that is supposed to be good enough? lol, oh, and it is interesting that the tank was able to identify both the blue flack jackets being worn by the press and the tripod that the camera was mounted on, but not the camera or the clear press markings on the car.

Well, that means no one can try the wolf in cheeps clothing trick.

I'm not surprised, though.

If you go into a war zone, especially the middle east you have a very good chance of getting killed. I don´t see why these people complain, war isn´t a clean safe business but rather mayhem like, especially when you consider how young some soldiers are.

which makes it ok that members of the military target civilian press agents

You are an idiot if you expect soldiers to take time to 100% be certain about a threat before firing. That sort of thinking gets the soldiers killed.

indeed

in all the presented situations above, the immediate danger to soldiers is oh so very clear

🙄

my position is clearly not that these people were killed by mistake, in fact, I'd argue the Israeli military was 100% sure who they were firing on

Mistake or not, I believe they should be reprimanded for their actions.

Ush, this seems like pretty deliberate targeting.

Errr... no it doesn't? Nor is the FPA or Reuters claiming that.

Something wrong with you guys here, I think.

did you watch the third video I posted?

This scenario needs to be viewed in a larger scope, ie, the scope where Israeli snipers shoot a man in the neck who is waving a white flag and clearly labeled as a press agent

or in the second video, where an Israeli sniper wounds and continues to shoot at the legs of a fallen camera man. To the point where the legs need to be amputated.

or the fact that the Israeli tank was able to identify the blue press flack jackets being worn by Shana, but not the even clearer press markings on his vehicle?

remember, in none of these situations are the military saying that they mistook the reporters for people pretending to be the press, they said a camera and press jacket were threatening.

EDIT: where does it say that reuters doesn't think it was deliberate... it seems to say they are disappointed in the military's response and thinks they were at least negligent...

Originally posted by Ushgarak
You are an idiot if you expect soldiers to take time to 100% be certain about a threat before firing. That sort of thinking gets the soldiers killed.

Absolutely!

If only Reuters as a whole would descend into oblivion now...

I was recently in Israel and at one point, I was extremely close to the Lebanese border. There are signs (all around) in Hebrew, Arabic and English specifically stating that Israel tanks and military operations are not to be filmed and it is dangerous to do so.

The reason, terrorist groups often disguise themselves as tourist and reporters for the reason of taking pictures for reconnaissance and planning future attack.

Jews ****ed his shit up though, dude must have juiced his pants when he saw the muzzle-flash.

Originally posted by Robtard
I was recently in Israel and at one point, I was extremely close to the Lebanese border. There are signs (all around) in Hebrew, Arabic and English specifically stating that Israel tanks and military operations are not to be filmed and it is dangerous to do so.

The reason, terrorist groups often disguise themselves as tourist and reporters for the reason of taking pictures for reconnaissance and planning future attack.

Jews ****ed his shit up though, dude must have juiced his pants when he saw the muzzle-flash.

✅

Originally posted by dadudemon
...that means no one can try the wolf in sheeps clothing trick.