CAIRO, April 20 (IsalmOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Arab Union of Journalists vowed on Sunday, April 20, to take measures against the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq and the Israeli occupation army in Palestinian areas for targeting Arab journalists.

"We have agreed with the International Federation of Journalists to help expose these crimes and bring their perpetrators to justice," the AUJ Chairman Ibrahim Nafie said.

Nafie was speaking in a seminar on means to push through an international convention for the protection of journalists, which was held in the Egyptian Press Syndicate.

The seminar, attended by a host of legal experts and journalists, carried a vehement condemnation of the U.S. aerial bombardment of Iraqi press buildings when a lot of people were crowded into.

"The U.S. missiles pounded the Iraqi Information Ministry headquarters and the Iraqi Press Syndicate which had 4,000 journalists whose fate is unknown now," said Salaheddin Hafez, the AUJ Secretary General.

"An Israeli soldier stepped out of his tank and shot dead Darwozah (a 42-year-old cameraman working for Palestine television and Associated Press (AP) news agency), crashing his skull into pieces,” ground cameramen from different news agencies told IslamOnline.net.

Darwozah was the ninth journalist killed since the start of the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation in September 2000. Hundreds of journalists were also injured in similar attacks.

The participants also lashed a finger at the U.S. forces for opening fire on journalists covering their invasion of Iraq unleashed on March 20.

On the same day in the Palestine Hotel nearby where foreign journalists were housed, fire from a U.S. tank killed Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters, and Spanish Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso.

The International Federation of Journalists said the attacks are possible war crimes.

But as the U.S. and Israel violated many of the international legitimacy laws with flagrant impunity, taking those responsible for killing journalists proves a bit hard way to move in.

"There are three ways to take them to justice," said Egyptian International Law Professor Mohamed Nur.

"Setting up international courts for trying killers of journalist by a U.N. Security Council resolution as was the courts for Bosnia and Rwanda massacres," Nur said.

"The second choice is to resort to the International Criminal Court; and the third is to push forward compliance with Geneva convention calling for the protection of civilians, including journalists, at times of war," he added.

Practically, the head of the Union of Arab Lawyers Sameh Ashur asked for coordinating efforts to hold an international conference with many international experts in attendance to probe means of documenting killings of journalists in Palestinian areas and in Iraq.

Meanwhile, two Egyptian journalists are staging a hunger strike in support of a colleague arrested by security forces, one of the protestors said Sunday.

Hicham Fouad, of the opposition daily Al-Arabi, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he began the strike three days ago to focus attention on the case of Ibrahim al-Sahari, reportedly arrested on March 12 for the second time in two months.

Ayman Makram, who worked with Sahari at the economic daily Al-Aalam Al-Yom, has joined the action in an attempt to get his colleague freed.

Sahari played an active role in recent demonstrations against the U.S.-led war in Iraq.