Israel and impunity

In July 1984, I was in Israel to cover the general election for the BBC. It was a reasonable bet that Likud was going to remain in power, though under new management, with Menachem Begin handing over the prime ministerial reins to Yitzhak Shamir (both men, incidentally, labelled terrorists by the British during the pre-1948 Mandate).

Then, as now, the IDF was engaged in a war. The location was Lebanon and Israeli forces continued to occupy the southern part of that country following their invasion of 1982. The IDF press operation was far less intimidating towards the foreign media than it has subsequently become and a group of journalists - myself amongst them - persuaded the authorities at short notice to organize a press trip into Lebanon. The intention was to take us by car to the biblical city of Sidon, some forty miles or so from the border.

There is no comparison, of course, between the safety risks this entailed and the hellish firestorm which rains down daily in Gaza. Nevertheless, Israel’s enduring foe, Hezbollah, was a formidable fighting force and only the day before we ventured into Lebanon, an IDF sergeant had been killed by sniper fire. Somewhere on the road between Tyre and Sidon, our accompanying press officer began to get jittery - probably having been rebuked by his superiors for having agreed to the trip - and informed us that it would not be prudent to continue without an armoured military escort.

We sat at a manned roadblock for several hours in 40 degree-plus heat waiting for the promised escort, which never materialized and we returned, sweaty and disappointed, to our starting point, kibbutz Gesher Haziv, once the scene of an epic defensive stand by its inhabitants during the War of Independence.

This may not be the most exciting old hack’s traveller’s tale, but it demonstrates the somewhat cavalier approach by the foreign ministry and parts of the IDF towards the international media compared with the iron grip exercised today over the prevailing narrative in Gaza. Equally, forty years ago, the word ‘press’, emblazoned on a helmet or Kevlar vest, offered a measure of protection for a journalist. Now it is akin to having a target painted on your back and today’s trigger-happy IDF can kill with something close to impunity, as the Al Jazeera correspondent, Anas el-Sharif and his five murdered colleagues found to their cost. Never has ‘shooting the messenger’ been interpreted more literally.