Testimony of Khader Issa Shaheem

Testimony of: Khader Issa Shaheen
Age: 33 years
Location: Living in Ras e-Amoud in East Jerusalem
Testimony is as follows:
Shaheen works with the Palestinian Media Communication Center and the Voice of Palestine public radio. The Palestinian Media Communication Center works with other stations around the world, so they do not deal solely or directly with the Arab channels.
On January 3, 2009 Shaheen went to the Israel/Gaza boarder to film the war in the Gaza Strip like many journalists in the area as the Israeli army was allowing coverage of the war. At that time he was reporting from the boarder to al-Alam (a satellite channel in Iran). Information was being transmitted to al-Alum through the organization he was working with, the Palestinian Media Communication Center, headed by an individual known as Maher Shalabi (the director). Shaheen had been there for eight days and normally reported live from 6pm to 11pm. On the eighth day of the war, television reporters from Iran started talking about the possibility of a land invasion by the Israelis. Since Shaheen was standing on the Israeli side of the boarder, the Iranian reporters asked him if he had heard any tanks in the area and he replied saying yes, he had heard some tanks and that they had been quite laud. So they asked him, while being filmed on television, “Is there a land operation right now?” He responded, “I can’t say because the Israeli Defense Forces have not confirmed it.” Around the same time Shaheen gave his response about the land operation to the Iranians, the Israeli Minister of Defense announced the commencement of a land operation in Gaza.
Shaheen finished his live report around 11pm. Shortly after Ehud Ya’ari, an Israeli reporter working with channel 2 on Israeli television, identified Shaheen by name and accused him of reporting to the enemy and supplying them with military information. Not only did Ya’ari say that Shaheen’s reports violated the rules of military censorship, but he accused him of working with the Iranians (even though he was working for the Palestinian Media Communication Center) and he called for Israeli security forces to take action against Shaheen. These allegations were made by Ya’ari around 10pm so Shaheen was in the process of reporting on another channel. When Shaheen finished his reports around 11pm the office in Ramallah called to notify him of the indictments being made against him by Ya’ari on channel 2. They instructed him to leave the area as soon as possible so he went back to his house in East Jerusalem that night.
Shaheen’s situation became a sensitive one and he was told to go to the office in Ramallah not to report, but to discuss the matter. The head of the office in Ramallah, Mr. Shalabi, called the Israeli Governmental Press Office (GPO) and spoke with its director, Gary Simon. Shalabi asked Simon if there was any problem with Shaheen continuing his reporting. According to Simon, everything was fine and no one had filed a complaint against him to the GPO. Shalabi explained to Simon that yesterday Ya’ari had incited criminal charges against Shaheem and called for his arrest. Simon clarified that Ya’ari was simply expressing his own opinion and that it was within his rights to do so. He continued to say that if it suited Shaleen, he too could appear on television to criticize Ya’ari. Next, Shalabi proceeded to call Avichia Dera’i, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, to ask if he saw a problem with Shaleen resuming his reporting duties, to which Dera’i also answered, “No.” Shaleen did not appear to report that day (January 4, 2009) because of the time it took to clear his position.
On January 5, 2009, the next day, Shaleen returned with his equipment to the same location in the south to report on the war. On his way there he crossed the Hizma checkpoint and his identification was checked by the police with no problems ensuing. Once clearance was given to proceed into Jerusalem he continued into the south. On his way there he passed by the law office of Moahmmed Dahleh and decided to check with the lawyer to make sure he was not wanted by the police in south Jerusalem. Dahleh called the police command in south Jerusalem and they confirmed that he was wanted by the police there despite the fact that he passed the boarder crossing. Dahleh asked the police in south Jerusalem to fax over a letter confirming a warrant for his arrest which the southern commander sent along with another letter from Commander London stating that Shaheen belonged to the International Investigation Department in Bitach-Tikva (near Tel Aviv) and requested Shaleen drive there to make an appearance. Shaheen, with Dahleh and his belongings, went to Bitach-Tikva thereafter.
Upon his arrival, Shaheen was taken inside and placed in a small room where three investigators came to interrogate him. Two of the investigators where referred to as Yakov and Shai, but Shaheen does not remember the name of the third. The investigators told Shaheen that he had informed the enemy of the situation in Gaza and caused harassment to Israel and to national security. He replied humorously by saying, “I did all of that?” The investigators, not appreciating his humor, told him to, “not take these things so lightly, you are in the highest level of the Israeli police (International Department of Police).” They told him he was working with Iran, to which he replied, “No,” and clarified that he is “working as a journalist for the Palestinian Media Communication Center which provides services to other television channels including the Iranian channel al-Alum.” The investigators charged him with breaking the rules of censorship and leaking information about the military land operation before any information on that operation was released regardless of the fact that Israeli television had announced the Israeli land operation one hour prior to his statements.
After the interrogation Shaheen was taken into custody and arrested. He was held in Bitach-Tikva for a total of eleven days. Within the first seven days he remembers being questioned every day for extended amounts of time. On the seventh day he was brought to court again and the judge ruled that if no new charges or evidence surfaced within the next 48 hours Shaheen would be released. However, on the ninth day he was brought to court once more and again he was held for another 48 hours. On the eleventh day, Dahleh, Shaheen’s lawyer, petitioned that he be kept under house arrest. The judge agreed with the condition of a fine of 300,000 shekels which Shaleen’s organization paid to the treasurer of the court. Since his release on January 16, 2009, Shaheen has been allowed to leave the house every two to three weeks to attend court dates only as he still remains on house arrest. His court date on May 21, 2009 where a variety of witnesses, one being the head of the Military Censorship in Israel, were going to testify against him, was postponed until May 31, 2009. Regardless of these details, Shaheen’s lawyer remains optimistic that the charges will be dismissed.