Palestinians shoot American journalist

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 4/1/2002 | Arieh O'Sullivan

[l33t]

RAMALLAH (April 1) - An American journalist, Anthony Shadid, from The Boston Globe, was shot in the shoulder and moderately wounded, apparently by a Palestinian gunman, as he was trying to get out of Ramallah.

Shadid had been holed up in a hotel in Ramallah for some time and had been reluctant to flee in the midst of the gun battles. He was shot during an attempt to leave the area. He was then taken to the hospital in Ramallah with a bullet lodged in his shoulder. His condition was stable but no further details are available, said Globe bureau chief Charlie Radin.

Efforts were being made to get him evacuated. Sources who were involved with the incident said he was hit by Palestinian gunfire.

The IDF said they had been information the journalist had been taken to a hospital in Ramallah, but had no details of the circumstances around his shooting.

Meanwhile, the IDF arrested a delegation of some two dozen foreigners, journalists and suspected Palestinian fugitives, on suspicion they tried to help the fugitives escape the Palestinian Authority's Mukata compound in Ramallah yesterday.

The army declared the area a closed military zone, but the journalists forced their way past tanks and soldiers, into the headquarters to support beleaguered PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"The reporters ran inside the building, and the soldiers did not want to shoot at them," said OC Planning Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland. "When they came out, there were double the number that had gone in. Some [of those coming out] were wanted fugitives. They used Israeli openness." The army arrested all the journalists and suspected fugitives for questioning, Eiland said.

While the IDF declared the entire city a closed zone, it was not strictly enforced. Senior officers said that the Mukata compound was, however, closed for good.

Still, the IDF issued a statement saying that non-residents would be removed by force "if necessary."

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel protested against the army's decision.

"The media must be allowed to cover this major story. We call upon the Israeli government to allow free and independent coverage of the operation in Palestinian Authority areas," the FPA said in a statement.

The Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also protested the ban. RSF said the Israeli authorities "wanted to hide their military operations from the world" and said the decision was "very serious" at a time when war was flaring up in the Middle East.

Reuters reported that the army has already taken over the Ramallah offices of foreign news organizations, including Reuters, forcing them out.

[Fish out of Water]

bttt

[AzJP]

An earlier newscast, BBC I think, said the guy was shot by a IDF sniper as the guy ran out of a PLO building.
Must be a real war: what is the truth?
T

[Roscoe]

"Anthony Shadid uses his considerable reporting skills and experience to contest the view that political Islam is synonomous with radicalism and violence."

http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/shadid/shadid.html

[dennisw]

Shadid sure seems like an Arab name of some kind. Could be Christian or Muslim and maybe his mother is Italian. And he will build bridges between the two worlds. [/sarcasm]

[FormerLib]

Gee, they talk about capping a reporter from the Globe as if it were a bad thing or something.