Israel Rescinds Threat To Flotilla Reporters

The New York Times reports:

Israel on Monday set aside its warning of a day earlier that any foreign journalists aboard a flotilla planning to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza risked being barred from Israel for up to a decade and having their equipment impounded.

In addition, the office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement on Monday saying that he had instructed the relevant authorities to formulate a special procedure for journalists covering the flotilla bound for Gaza on the assumption that they would end up in Israel.

Officials said that the earlier decision had been taken by bureaucratic staff, who applied to journalists the regular policy against infiltrators and those who enter Israel illegally.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel issued a statement welcoming the turnabout, saying it was pleased to see that Israel “understands that journalists should be treated differently from political activists.”