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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police briefly detained the Washington Post's Jerusalem bureau chief and West Bank correspondent for alleged "incitement" on Tuesday, prompting the Foreign Press Association to decry Israel's "heavy-handed tactics."

The FPA said bureau chief William Booth and West Bank correspondent Sufian Taha were detained while interviewing Palestinian and Jewish residents of Jerusalem at Damascus Gate outside the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.

Booth and Taha were interviewing high-school students under a tree when Israeli border police "waved the two journalists over and asked them for their IDs," the FPA said in a statement.

"They presented their Government Press Office cards as identification, but these were waved away and they were asked for official identity documents.

"Although the journalists made it very clear that they were reporting a story for the Washington Post, police took them to a nearby police station, where they were held for about 40 minutes, then released."
The FPA added that when the two journalists asked why they had been detained, "police said they had suspected the journalists of 'inciting' Palestinians."

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld confirmed the two journalists had been taken aside and questioned by Israeli police officers before they were released.

He did not provide any further details, although he said "security measures" were in place around Damascus Gate following a series of recent attacks there.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the Jerusalem police department said "a number of suspects" were detained when a passerby told police that young Palestinians were planning "a disturbance of the peace" in the area.

They said the detainees were released when no evidence of "criminal activity was found."

The Washington Post's foreign editor Douglas Jehl said in a statement: "While Booth has now been released, we regard the detention of any of our journalists anywhere as extremely troubling.”

Meanwhile, the FPA said it "protests this absurd accusation against a respected international news outlet, as well as the detention, however brief, of an accredited foreign journalist and his Palestinian colleague."

It said the incident came "in the context of heavy-handed tactics -- including violent attacks -- deployed in recent months by border police against foreign journalists and their Palestinian co-workers covering the unrest in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"We do not think it is coincidental that a baseless accusation of 'incitement' was made at a time when blanket accusations of bias are being leveled against the foreign press by Israeli officials and commentators."

Earlier this month, the FPA expressed dismay after its members were summoned to a subcommittee hearing in the Israeli parliament to account for their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Knesset subcommittee hearing was called to discuss foreign press coverage that it said "in the long-term erodes the legitimacy of (Israel's) fight against terrorism."

The FPA said it disagreed with the hearing's basic premise, which it said "presupposes two things: that the foreign media are biased and that that supposed bias undermines Israel’s ability to quell terrorist attacks.

"We do not agree that the foreign media are biased, and the legitimacy of Israel’s campaign against terrorism is entirely determined by how Israel conducts that campaign. It has nothing to do with the foreign media."
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by Nir Hasson, The Associated Press and Haaretz

Israeli police forces briefly detained Washington Post Jerusalem Bureau Chief William Booth and an employee of a human rights organization near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate on Tuesday in response to a witness who said a group planned to stage a confrontation by Arab youth directed at the police.

According to another reporter at the scene, the two were detained for an hour on grounds of incitement and taken to a police station for questioning. The two have since been released.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the journalists were questioned in connection to an unspecified "incident" and quickly released after it was clear they were not involved.

Jerusalem Police issued a statement saying: "A passerby had complained that he was witness to the intention on the part of a number of people to stage a provocative situation and a disturbance of the peace by young Arabs directed at police on security duty on the ground." The incident was apparently to be staged for "propaganda purposes," the police added.

"In light of the complaint, the police detained a number of suspects to clarify the facts – in a sensitive and discreet manner at the adjacent police facility. When the circumstances of the incident became clear, and no suspicion of criminal activity was found, the detainees were immediately released by the investigating officer without proceedings of any kind in the matter."

"This is a regrettable incident, casting an unnecessary shadow over the work of an excellent journalist," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said, adding that "the MFA will ask the Police for the necessary clarifications."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Berlin on a state visit, said that while he was unaware of the details, Israel does not arrest journalists. "As I can personally testify, the media in Israel is lively and free, very dynamic and free to say what it wants. And you know what? That's what it's doing. It not the situation in our neighborhood, but it is the situation in Israel, and that's how it'll continue to be."

The Foreign Press Association protested the detention and the "absurd accusation" of incitement, noting that it came in the context of "heavy-handed tactics – including violent attacks - deployed in recent months by border police against foreign journalists and their Palestinian co-workers covering the unrest in Jerusalem and the West Bank."

According to the FPA, Booth and Eglash were trying to interview Palestinian high-school students near Damascus Gate when they were waved away by police. They then moved under a tree, and tried to interview the teens there, when they were stopped again by police officers, who asked for their IDs. The journalists showed their Government Press Office cards, but the officers rejected them, asking for official identity documents, and then detained them, the FPA statement said. 

"We do not think it is coincidental that a baseless accusation of 'incitement' was made at a time when blanket accusations of bias are being leveled against the foreign press by Israeli officials and commentators," the FPA said in a statement.

The FPA also urged Israeli authorities to recognize journalists bearing GPO credentials and let them work without hindrance. 

Israel Police later released another statement, apologizing for any emotional harm caused to the journalists, saying that an investigation of the incident showed that the detainment was necessary in light of the information that had been received, which later turned out to have been false.