In 1973, I reported freely on Israel at war. Now its censorship has made that impossible | Martin Bell

WAtching TV coverage of the conflict in Gaza with increasing dismay this week, my mind returned to the banks of the Suez Canal in October 1973. I was filming the surrender of the entire Egyptian Third Army with a BBC team, without great supervision or an obstacle. The Israeli leader, General Avraham Eddan, stopped in everything he was doing to give us an update.

The channel crossed the Israeli floating bridge in a bright yellow Herz (not a wise choice of colors). We helped us even when we had to fix a framework that was performed by shrapnel scattered in the battlefield.

Control? Yes, the report was controlled by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the satellite feeding point in Herzelly. But censorship was only limited to operational security issues. It was clear that this was useful for reporters, but also for the Israelis themselves. They had independent verification, with the video to support it, of their great achievement in converting the initial setbacks in the Sinai. And they can, through scenes with the echo of the Bible, can show that the surrender of the Egyptians was conducted in a humanitarian manner and according to the Geneva Conventions, the laws of war. Since the great columns of the third army installed the sand dunes, they exchanged their weapons to the water bottles provided in abundance.

Was this always easy? Of course not. On another occasion, it rose early and reached a road basin beyond Gaza Just to return, because all the press was on that day, based on the orders of the southern leadership.

But this was exceptional. The IDF runs a relatively open access policy based on a mutual advantage. Sometimes, everyone was common in press buses, which were far from a disease. But it will regularly provide the main television networks with an accompanying official, armed and united, to enable and supervise coverage. One of my companions in Kibor’s day war He was Topol, actor From feddler on the surface. It was a hero in Israel, and all road barriers opened it.

On another occasion, I was on my way to the Golan Heights, accompanied by the documents, when the Great Mosul and the Israeli sympathy asked Zobin Mihata the elevator. To my permanent regret, I rejected it on the basis that I had a press pass and did not do that – I thought this might harm my chance to enjoy entering.

What place that IDF was working outside our limits. We can photograph what we wanted and meet the soldiers of all ranks freely. In the Golan Heights trenches, due to language difficulties, other ranks tend to be migrants in South Africa.

You are also free to make mistakes. In 1968, the following year A six -day warI returned to Israel and conducted an interview with the Chief of Staff, General Hayim Bar Valf, who was busy building the defensive line of his name. I traveled to Jerusalem and stopped at a road barrier outside the biblical village of Emous. She stood in the middle of Latrun Salient, a Jordanian site in the previous war of 1948. The Israelis were busy dismantling it from the brick. I was not allowed to photograph it and I could not report it only by leaving the country, not to return. Such medium solutions are common, but I am sorry for this one. The village disappeared, to be replaced by a Canadian peace park.

After 1967, I was allowed to visit and stay in Gaza, and to show daily revenge by the Israeli Defense Army against the Palestinians who took responsibility for previous attacks. The same applies to the destruction of homes in the West Bank city QalqilyaAnd sowing the ground mines around the churches of St. John the Baptist in the Jordan Valley. All this has passed the control of the Israeli Defense Army without difficulty.

Soon forward, coverage-or rather, non-assignment-the conflict between the Israelis and Hamas in Gaza. The broadcasting begins regularly with Mantra that IDF does not allow access to foreign media to the Gaza tape, and move forward with the most vibrant coverage, was photographed by Brave for their own account And other civilians who are published on social media from inside Gaza, from the scenes of death and destruction, with the comment that was expressed remotely in Jerusalem, Ashkelon, or London. Often, the printing and broadcast media ends and wounded them by reminding that they were provided before The Ministry of Health run by Hamas Sometimes the only source available.

My former colleague Jeremy Bowen said Ali Today’s program On Wednesday: “Israel does not allow us to enter because it does things there … they do not want us to see, otherwise it will allow free reporting.” I tend to agree with him.

My sympathy with Bowen, Fergal Kane and others PBC, especially when Donald Trump wanders Biasic accusations. BBC and other responsible news means have a difficult line. I cannot talk about American networks, but all British channels have excellent reporters standing in the region, there is no exact but sometimes, sometimes on the high ground overlooking Gaza, which some correspondents call. “Tel from shame“What is missing is the direct experience of the war, which journalists share on the ground who can explain what is happening properly. This gives freedom of rumors and falsehood.

What I know and I of our joint experience is that it is not enough to win the war of weapons without also winning the war of words and pictures. The IDF must see that it is losing. Historically, it had an up and down with the foreign press, but nothing is like the current firm hostility. It causes great damage, which began to feel a diplomat.

I would like to urge the following: The foreign press, especially television networks, continue to stand on its soil, and that the Israeli press machine prefers itself and relieves the rules to allow some independent access to Gaza. This will not only limit the tide and advertising (on both sides, it must be said), but it may carry the front lines forces according to the standards of higher behavior, just as it did next to the Suez Canal in 1973.

It is important for both sides to re -establish the limited level of confidence at least that existed between them. Here is an example. In the 1973 war, we managed to transmit news by satellite the day when it happened. Our office was a chair under the palm tree near the feeding point. In the 1967 war, the open news film was collected in the BBC onion-Red Bags, Red for NBC-and was transferred to the censorship that concluded his approval on the mask tape around the neck, before it was transferred to the air to London. But he had to take our word when the movie had already shown.

The audience had a more accurate account at the time of events in the battlefield than it is today through the fog of war in Gaza. When access is rejected, everyone loses. And Israel, and this includes you.

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