4th September 2006 

Following the FPA complaint to the Defense Ministry (See "Statements" ) with regard to the harassment incident at Erez crossing, the following official reply was received:

Subject: Defence Min. reply re Erez.

STATE OF ISRAEL

SPOKESPERSON OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE

May 15th, 2006
דובר משהב''ט-980-150506
Tel:  972-3-6975546 
Fax: 972-3-6977285
Email: dover@mod.gov.il

Mr. Simon Mcgregor- Wood, Bureau Chief , ABC News

Chairman of the Foreign Press Association

Dear Simon,

Let me start by saying, on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, how sorry we are for any inconvenience caused last Friday to Ms. Karin Wenger.

Security checks conducted in Erez crossing are built in the Israeli reality and are part of the overall war we are conducting against terror.

However, the security requirements are the same for everyone.

Accordingly, all journalists, correspondents and press people, Israeli or foreign, undergo the same security checks, based mainly on various technological means.

Since January 19th 2006 when the responsibility on the Erez Crossing was transferred to the Ministry of Defense, every effort is being made to improve the conditions for the people using it: Palestinians, Israelis, VIPs, Press etc.

Pursuant to Friday's incident I suggest to have an open line with Mr. Shlomo Tsaban who runs the Erez Crossing and call him whenever there is a specific problem and even if someone is stuck on the Palestinian side.

His phone number is:  054-6622607 .

Let me assure you that every effort is being made to reduce and prevent occurrences of irregular events, such as the one on may 12th.

We believe that all current problems, including the exceptional incidents will no longer exist in the new Erez terminal we are building.

We are very attentive to your concern and wish to stress our obligation to principles such as freedom of information and privacy but at the same time our commitment to safety and security.

Sincerely

Rachel Naidek Ashkenazi
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense

RE: Erez Terminal : Following the Chairman's onsite meeting at the terminal, the FPA requested assurances as to the safety of the use of the personnel security portal in use. The FPA received written assurances that the machines are safe. For further information the contact person is:

Maya Radzinski
Vice President, Software Engineering
SafeView Inc., www.safeviewinc.com
Mobile:  +1-650-799-3446 

2005

8 November 2005

FPA welcomes the release of Al Jazeera cameraman Nabil Mazzawi but finds it disturbing that the IDF insists on seeing and retaining a copy of  Al-Jazeera's footage. The FPA protests demands to hand over  material to ANY authorities, except in extraordinary circumstances.

10 AUGUST 2005

The Final rules and regulations for media access to Disengagement following meeting between FPA Board with IDF and GPO on Tuesday 10^{th August.}  

The Government Press Centre opens today in Eshkol for the duration of the Disengagement. 

48 Hour IDF Facility
 At midnight on Sunday 14^th there will be a military closing ceremony at the Kissufim Checkpoint. Access to the ceremony will be arranged by IDF. 

At 0200-0300am Monday 15^th up to 20 (twenty)  IDF buses carrying journalists will be taken into the settlements in Gaza and the four in the West Bank. 

Journalists need to inform the IDF of their desire to take places on these buses and to which settlements as soon as possible. 

Journalists must stay in their chosen settlement until the evening of Tuesday 16^th, (at about 10 or 11pm) when IDF will collect them by bus. 

Journalists can only take in what they can physically carry, no vehicles. 

Starting at 0700 on Monday 15^th the IDF will start distributing the final notice warrants which will be open to coverage by those inside. 

Disengagement Shuttles :

From the morning of Wednesday 17^th the Israeli authorities will institute a system of coverage built around one shuttle bus, with places for 10 (TEN) FPA members plus TWO stills photographers. The IDF is attempting to procure a third stills place.  Stills will be informed of pool arrangements in a separate mail from Jim Hollander to be distributed tomorrow ( Thursday). 

There will be at least two settlements evacuated every day, possibly more. There will one shuttle bus to each settlement. 

The 10 spaces will be distributed among the three wires services, with 7 spaces to be distributed among other FPA reporters including radio and newspapers, not television. 

Television coverage will be facilitated by APTN and Reuters television agencies travelling on the same shuttle with their own satellite uplink vehicle. One pool satellite vehicle will travel at the head of the evacuation convoy to ensure pool pictures of the beginning of each evacuation available to all. 

In cases where an evacuated settlement contains less than 20 families the number of journalists will be significantly reduced by IDF, and wider pooling will be imposed on FPA members and Israeli media. 

Journalists travelling on the shuttle will need to join the bus at the Eshkol media centre where they must hand in their GPO card in return for a special identity bracelet which they must wear for the day. 

Journalists resident in Settlements :

The IDF is finalising the list of FPA members who will be allowed to stay inside the settlements of their choice. 

The FPA Board is confident that in the case of Neve Dekalim and others most members’ requests will be granted.

The rules for staying inside the settlements are as indicated before: 

No vehicles, with the possible exception of satellite trucks still to be confirmed. 

Members will not be allowed to move from their settlement of choice. 

Members will only take out what they can physically carry on the day their settlement is evacuated. 

Excess gear and luggage will be packed into a shipping container provided by the FPA in coordination with the IDF. 

In recognition of the large number of resident FPA journalists living in Neve Dekalim, the IDF will therefore not provide the shuttle bus on the day of evacuation. Coverage must be provided by those living there. 

The IDF is still compiling the lists of members who will be allowed to reside in other smaller settlements. Similarly, the number of resident journalists will directly affect the number of members allowed on the evacuation shuttle bus.

In other words, if the IDF allows 2 stills photographers to live in a particular settlement, on the day of its evacuation, there will be no stills photographers on the shuttle, etc, etc. 

On the day of evacuation resident journalists will be given similar identity bracelets by the IDF. IDF will inform resident journalists the night before of the arrangements for meeting the evacuating forces and the receipt of the bracelet. 

Legal Document 

The IDF will distribute a legal document that members staying in settlements or those travelling on the shuttles will have to sign. The Board has a copy of this document and is seeking legal analysis of it. 

Journalists without permission. 

GPO and IDF made clear that all journalists found inside settlements without permission will be removed and their organisations will suffer consequences. Those organisations will not be given access to shuttles and further unspecified threats were made regarding those organisations’ continued operations inside Israel. 

Other arrangements: 

The Board is now aware of specific alternative access arrangements that the government has concluded with certain other media entities for special daily access. The FPA Board has expressed its strong disappointment with this separate track of negotiations. 

Stills :

The FPA Board strongly protested the clear shortage of access for stills photographers in the daily shuttles.

Eshkol Region 

There are no extra accreditation requirements for members travelling in the Eshkol region outside the Gaza Strip. However the GPO has issued “Disengagement 2005” cards which might be useful, they are available from the GPO. 

FPA recommends members make use of the PRESS/TV over vest and vehicle stickers they may have recently purchased. 

Kissufim live positions : 

IDF has approved all applications for those organisations wishing to establish live positions at Kissufim checkpoint. They will all be at the new Kissufim Checkpoint, near the Kibbutz Kissufim and not at the old Green Line checkpoint. 

There will be free movement to and from these live positions. 

End.


31.07.05 

13.7.05. Following this morning’s closure of the Gaza settlements to non-residents the IDF spokesman’s office has this morning informed the FPA that its members will be allowed free access to this area only after each individual journalist has signed a form to be issued shortly by the IDF. The IDF says it will be faxing blank forms to each office by fax in due course. 

The signed form must be presented at Kissufim before entry will be permitted. For those members already en route, the spokesman’s office is trying to send blank forms to Kissufim so that they can be filled out there. 

The FPA is not yet aware of the contents of the forms.

The FPA is currently trying to negotiate members’ access to proper, independent coverage of the Disengagement. It understands that in many cases members and their accredited visitors from outside wish to base themselves inside settlements to achieve this kind of free reporting of the story.

 An expanded board attended a meeting this afternoon hosted by the IDF, GPO and the Foreign Ministry. At the meeting, significant reductions in access and stringent new controls were issued. Here is a summary:

Contrary to earlier indications, the Israeli authorities have told us that they are willing to permit far fewer members the right to stay inside settlements than we had earlier been led to expect.

They have also clarified the strict conditions under which members would be allowed to stay. These are:

Once inside after August 15,  those few journalists will not be allowed to leave the settlement where they are staying until it is evacuated.
There will be absolutely no movement between settlements, which will be encircled by troops, For example a journalist staying in Neve Dekalim will not be allowed to go to Gadid nearby.

Journalists will not be allowed to keep any vehicles - including satellite trucks.
Equipment they cannot carry themselves will be brought out by the army in a single container for all journalists

The army wants members to submit detailed lists of journalists who would like to stay -- together with job functions, addresses, passport details and GPO card numbers. These updated are to be submitted through the FPA.

The army will then decide how many will be allowed to stay in each settlement. This could depend on the number of settlers who remain. A decision would be expected between August 10 and 14.

The army suggested that five to seven journalists in total might be allowed for each settlement - with the exception of Neve Dekalim, where more might be permitted.

Journalists would have to provide their own accommodation in agreement with the settlers.

All those members found to be living in settlements after midnight of August 14 without permission, they said, would face prosecution and unspecified other sanctions which could affect the future operations of news organizations in Israel.

We have demanded that the authorities publish a document specifying these rules and the sanctions that anyone might face for disobeying them.

The authorities also outlined a reduced shuttle service of only one bus a day to each settlement being evacuated. This would leave pre-dawn with evacuating forces as part of a convoy including two satellite trucks for AP and Reuters.