Foreign journalists whose reporting is deemed unfavourable to Israel are facing difficulties entering the country ahead of its upcoming national elections, with reporters subjected to questioning, detention and entry restrictions.
Award-winning British journalist Secunder Kermani was briefly detained and initially denied entry after arriving to cover the elections, amid growing concerns over restrictions on international media reporting.
Kermani, a foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News, shared a letter from Israeli authorities on social media on Monday notifying him that he had been refused entry after landing at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
“Just arrived in Tel Aviv for coverage ahead of the Israeli elections,” Kermani wrote. “Only to be told the Israeli authorities are denying me entry to the country!”
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, border officials questioned Kermani about whether he believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and whether he considered Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organisations.
Kermani, whose reporting on Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank has earned him Emmy and Bafta awards, confirmed in a follow-up post on X that Israeli authorities had reversed the decision after he spent a short time in an airport detention facility.
He also raised concerns that other journalists seeking to enter Israel in recent weeks had encountered similar difficulties.
The incident prompted the Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents international media working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, to condemn the restrictions.
The association accused the Israeli government of denying entry to or deporting media workers “on the basis that their reporting was deemed to be unfavourable toward Israel”.
“The Foreign Press Association is aware of several other cases of journalists being turned back at the airport or their digital entry authorisation cancelled in the last year,” the FPA said in a statement issued on Monday.
The association called on Israeli officials to end the practice, arguing that it was incompatible with press freedom.
On Sunday, German journalist Serena Bilanceri, a correspondent for the newspaper Die Tageszeitung, also raised concerns that her previous reporting had influenced the decision to deny her entry to Israel.
Bilanceri said she had been refused entry after calling for sanctions against Israel over escalating settler and military violence in the occupied West Bank and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Addressing Israeli authorities in a post on X, she wrote: “To those who made the decision and spoke with Israeli media, but not with me, I'd like to say: You are not banning ‘anti-Israel actors’.”
She added: “You are banning foreign journalists who criticized the actions of your government.”
Israel's Diaspora Affairs Ministry said the recommendation to deny Bilanceri entry was made under the country's Entry Law and as part of an arrangement to share recommendations with the Population and Immigration Authority, Haaretz reported.
The incidents highlight the difficulties facing foreign journalists seeking to cover Israel's upcoming elections, particularly those whose reporting has been critical of the government's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The latest developments come amid renewed calls for Israel to lift its restrictions on independent media access to the Gaza Strip, where a devastating three-year war has left journalists facing severe dangers and access to information remains restricted.
Israel has barred foreign journalists from independently reporting inside the besieged territory, citing security concerns.
The FPA has pressed Israeli authorities to allow journalists into Gaza since early in the war, while reporting from the territory has become increasingly dangerous, particularly for Palestinian journalists.
According to Gaza's Government Media Office, Israeli forces have killed 263 journalists and media workers in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.
Last month, the International Federation of Journalists said the death toll among journalists in Gaza was the highest in modern journalism history.