取材中のパレスチナ人記者が片目失う、眼帯姿のジャーナリストら抗議デモ

【エルサレムＡＦＰ＝時事】「真実の目をふさぐことはできない」──パレスチナ自治区ヨルダン川西岸各地で17日、眼帯を着けたパレスチナ人ジャーナリストらが抗議デモを行った。パレスチナ人のデモ隊とイスラエル国境警察の衝突を取材していた記者が先週末、飛来したゴム弾のようなものに当たって失明した一件を非難するもので、眼帯は負傷した記者への連帯のしるしだ。（写真はパレスチナ自治区ヨルダン川西岸のベツレヘムで、取材中の記者が失明した事件に片目を覆って抗議するパレスチナ人ジャーナリストら）
　エルサレムの病院で治療を受けているムアス・アマルネ記者は１５日、ヘブロン近郊の村でデモと警官隊の衝突中に負傷した。
　１７日に病院でＡＦＰの取材に応じたアマルネ記者の話によると、負傷した当時は防弾チョッキと記者章、ヘルメットを身に着けていた。デモ隊と警察の衝突が始まったため、デモ隊から少し距離を取って立っていたという。ところが「突然、目に何かが当たったのを感じた。ゴム弾か石のような物だと思った。手を当てたら、目がなくなっていた」という。
　「何も見えなかった。私の目は完全になくなっていた」
　医師からは、長さ約２センチの金属片が目に突き刺さり、脳の近くにまで達していたと言われたという。
　ベツレヘムに近いデヘイシャ難民キャンプ出身のアマルネ記者は、目に当たったのはイスラエルの警察が発砲した物体だと考えており、ジャーナリストとして標的にされたと主張している。
　一方、イスラエルの警察当局は、記者を狙ったとの疑惑を否定している。
　パレスチナ・ジャーナリスト組合によると、今年に入って既に６０人のジャーナリストが実弾で撃たれており、その大半はガザ地区で起きている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/11/19-09:08）

The eyes of truth will never be blinded, protesters' placards read, as Palestinian journalists wore eye patches Sunday to decry the wounding of a colleague in the occupied West Bank.
Muath Amarneh has been in an Israeli hospital since he was hit in the eye Friday during clashes between Israeli border police and Palestinian demonstrators in the village of Surif, close to Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Dozens of Palestinian journalists rallied Sunday -- protesting with one eye covered in solidarity.
Amarneh, who is being treated in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, said he was some way from the protesters when he was hit by what he believes was Israeli fire.
After the clashes started, I was standing to the side wearing a flak jacket with press markings and a helmet, the freelance cameraman told AFP on Sunday.
Suddenly I felt something hit my eye, I thought it was a rubber bullet or a stone. I put my hand to my eye and found nothing.
I couldn't see and my eye was completely gone.?
He said doctors at the hospital told him a fragment of metal, about 2 centimetres long, pierced the eye and settled behind it near the brain.
Amarneh's cousin Tareq, accompanying him in hospital, said doctors planned to extract the metal but changed their minds after discovering they could also damage the right eye or even trigger bleeding in the brain.
A spokesman for the Israeli police denied that the photographer was targeted, saying fire was not directed at all toward him.
The security forces operated in the area in front of dozens of rioters, some of them masked, who threw stones at officers and burned tires, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The response by the forces was using non-lethal means in order to disperse the rioters.
Amarneh, who comes from the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, claimed he was targeted as a journalist.
There is an unnatural and ugly targeting of journalists, the father-of-two said.
- Solidarity sit-in -
Since the incident Palestinian journalists have launched a campaign, with protests in several cities in the West Bank.
In Bethlehem Sunday, border police dispersed a sit-in by journalists at the checkpoint north of the city, an AFP journalist said.
Demonstrators wore eye patches and held signs aloft.
Tear gas cannisters were fired by the border police, the journalist said.
Seven people were lightly wounded, according to Palestinian health officials.
In the city of Tulkarem, about 250 journalists took part in a sit-in to show solidarity, according to journalists present.
A video and photos of Amarneh spread immediately after his injury, with journalists trying to carry him with blood flowing from his left eye.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says 60 journalists have been hit by live ammunition this year, the majority in Gaza -- an enclave where violent weekly protests along the border often lead to dozens of demonstrators being wounded.