Tuesday, November 27, 2007

IMEMC’s Photographer beaten and detained by PA Security in Bethlehem


"Palestinian Security forces assaulted and detained IMEMC’s photographer and news producer Ghassan Bannoura as he was covering an anti-Annapolis demonstration in Bethlehem on Tuesday afternoon.

Bannoura was stopped by an officer who was not in a uniform, and was asked not to take photos, then he was pushed against the wall and was beaten by a number of security men, some of them were masked.

He was then forced into a car that belongs to the Palestinian Authority and was severely beaten with the bottoms of the guns and with batons and attempted to take his camera. His cell phone was confiscated.

Bannoura said that he was taken to the headquarters of the military intelligence and where his camera was taken from him at gun point.

He was released four hours later and was checked into the hospital for treatment. He suffered severe bruises in his back and neck and a light fracture in his right arm.

Several media sources reported that the Palestinian Authority security forces assaulted a number of journalists in Bethlehem and Ramallah and other areas while they were covering anti-Annapolis conference rallies.

In Hebron, Hisham Barad’i, 37 was killed when the security forces dispersed a demonstration called for by the Liberation Party, an Islamic group in Palestine."

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