Gaza: Amira Hass Arrested Leaving Gaza

Ha’aretz is reporting that journalist Amira Hass was arrested by Israeli Defense Forces when she left Gaza on Tuesday. Ms. Hass has been in Gaza for several months following the Israeli attacks earlier this year and her reporting has been essential to understanding the conditions in Gaza.

Hass was arrested and taken in for questioning immediately after crossing the border, for violating a law which forbids residence in an enemy state. She was released on bail after promising not to enter the Gaza Strip over the next 30 days.

Under Israeli law, Israeli journalists are not allowed to enter Gaza and Hass had been arrested in December on the same charge.

The arrest came one day after Israeli authorities "closed down an official Palestinian media center that had been set up in East Jerusalem for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI:"

The Palestinian media center was closed on the order of the Israeli minister of internal security, citing a clause in a 1994 law banning all activity of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem or elsewhere “in the state of Israel.” Official Palestinian activities in Jerusalem have been similarly barred in the past.

So much for freedom of the press.

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