Israeli forces block journalists from Palestinian Oscar winner's village

AFP | Tuwani

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Israeli forces yesterday blocked an international media tour in the occupied West Bank, preventing journalists from entering the village of Oscar-winning Palestinian director Basel Adra who decried worsening Israeli violence.

Adra's film "No Other Land" chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta, an area in the southern West Bank that Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.

Journalists from AFP and other international media travelled to Tuwani at the invitation of Adra, who lives in the village, and co-director Yuval Abraham, seeking to draw attention to a spate of house demolitions and violent incidents in recent weeks.

At the entrance to Tuwani, the journalists as well as a Palestinian Authority delegation were blocked by Israeli forces, who said they had a warrant to set up a one-day checkpoint.

Abraham called the roadblock a "good example" of what he said was Israeli authorities' involvement in attacks against Palestinians in Masafer Yatta.

Adra said the violence was "getting worse and worse". "Settler violence increased, the demolitions carried out by Israeli soldiers and authorities against our homes and schools and properties is increasing in very crazy and high numbers," he told AFP.

An Israeli officer who refused to give his name told AFP the force was at the entrance to Tuwani to "keep the public order".

"There were violent clashes between settlers, Jews, Arabs, journalists, and to prevent these violent clashes, we decided not to allow passage today," the officer said.

Adra said that last week, settlers had entered the nearby Palestinian hamlet of Khallet al-Dabaa, which was bulldozed by the Israeli army in early May, with the Israelis harassing the residents who remained despite the destruction.

To Abraham, blocking the media tour was a "good example of the relationship between settler violence and the state".

"These police officers and soldiers that are here now to prevent the international media, not only do they not come to prevent the settler violence, often they partake in it," the Israeli co-director told AFP.