Nasser Ashtiyeh, a photographer working with the AP, was beaten up by Israeli forces for taking pictures of Israeli aggressions

NABLUS, West Bank, January 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli border police beat two Palestinian photographers for international news agencies as they tried to photograph Israeli forces driving with two youths clinging to the hood of their jeep in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, January 21.

Jaafar Ashtiyeh of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Nasser Ashtiyeh of the Associated Press (AP) were punched by the policemen, one of whom threatened to shoot them if the photos were published, said the two men, both from the same family.

The photographers, who were not seriously hurt, did not manage to get a shot of the jeep in the West Bank town of Nablus as it was moving too fast, they were quoted on Wednesday, January 22, as saying.

The AP photographer was not seriously injured, but suffered bruises on one ear and side of his face and visited a local clinic for examination, the news agency said.

AP said it complained to the Israeli army and demanded the incident be investigated and the soldiers punished.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

The two photographers had headed out to check out a report that youths were throwing stones at Israeli forces during a curfew. Nasser and Jaafar Ishtayeh are distant relatives.

Not far from the scene, the two saw a jeep driven by four Israeli paramilitary border policemen speeding down the road with two teenage Palestinian boys hanging from the hood of the vehicle, grabbing onto a protective metal grate in front of the windshield to keep from falling off.

The boys were not tied to the jeep in any way, the AP quoted its photographer as saying.

Israeli repressive practices extend to the local and foreign press staff

He said it appeared the policemen were using the boys as human shields against a group of about 20 stone-hurling youths about 550 yards down the road — which is a violation of Israeli military orders and a Supreme Court ban of the practice.

The two journalists pulled to the side of the road, and standing beside an armored car clearly marked with “TV” signs in thick tape, they tried to photograph the jeep.

The policemen sped up to them, got out and aimed their rifles at them before they could take any pictures. The Israelis beat the two men’s faces with their fists, Nasser Ishtayeh said, and demanded to know if the two had taken any pictures of them.

One policeman tightened the camera strap around Ishtayeh’s neck.

“We are here in Nablus, and we see you all the time,” the policeman said, according to Ishtayeh’s account. “If we see a picture of us published anywhere, we’re going to kill you like this,” the soldier said, gesturing with his hand as if running a knife across his neck.

Anne Gwynne, 65, a British woman spending three months in the West Bank with a pro-Palestinian activist group called the International Solidarity Movement, said she tried to help the two men.

“I saw the soldiers kicking the photographers and beating them and shouting at them,” she said. “I tried to stop that. A soldier kicked and beat me with a rifle butt on my back. He was shouting, cursing.”

Jaafar Ashtiyeh said one of the policemen had already beaten him and threatened his life on December 19 when he was stopped just outside Nablus.

The French news agency numbered some attacks targetting its staff in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Last year, an AFP photographer in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Hossam Abu Alan, was held for six months in an Israeli jail and released on October 23 without trial or explanation.

In August, a photographer of the same agency in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, Seif Shauki Dahlah, charged that Israeli soldiers stole 2,000 dollars worth of jewelery and three mobile phones during a search of his house.

He was also advised to change jobs because he was running the risk of “ending up like Imad Abu Zahra,” another Palestinian photographer in Jenin who was killed in June 2002.

The incident comes to add up to several others where reporters and photographers working for local and foreign press are shot injured or even dead. The assaults have increased during the two-year Palestinian uprising against the ruthles Israeli occupation.