By Gideon Levy
".....The Gaza Strip has been completely closed to Israeli journalists for nearly a year. The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service decided this because it is dangerous in Gaza. An Israeli journalist can travel to Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, but not to Gaza.....Long before it was declared a "hostile entity," Gaza had become a closed territory, without any media coverage or documentation. Such is Israeli freedom of the press......
Even worse, it has surrendered submissively to the prohibitions imposed on it, while blurring the reality. There are only a few reporters who still bother to cover Gaza, often entangling their viewers and readers in falsehood, creating the deception that they have just returned from there. Instead of protesting, they collaborate. It is one thing that consumers do not protest about the lack of this service - even Yes subscribers remain quiet. But journalists?.....
With the exception of Burma, not many places in the world are so closed off. It is true that Israel lets foreign journalists enter Gaza, and this is good, but it is ridiculous when media organizations like Haaretz, which still have an interest in covering what is happening, use foreign sources to tell their readers what is going on there.....
It is hard to know what really motivates Israel to close Gaza in this way. Is it the aspiration, so easy to fulfill, that Gaza will not be exposed here? If, on the other hand, it is an exaggerated concern for our safety, I waive this right. According to our foreign colleagues' reports, it is much safer in Gaza now than it was a year ago, when we still traveled there. Armed gangs no longer roam the streets and Hamas is even willing to protect Israeli journalists. But how will we know if we are not there? "
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