Police arrested a suspect in connection with threats hurled at N12 reporter Dana Weiss. The suspect allegedly threatened Weiss last Saturday, following her recent coverage of the unrest plaguing Israel.Four journalists for N12 - Yonit Levi, Rina Mazliah, Guy Peleg and Weiss - have been assigned with private security details, the news channel reported on Monday evening, after reportedly seeing an alarming rise in calls online to perform acts of violence upon them, some of which included explicit death threats.
Multiple reporters from KAN News, N12 and Channel 13 have been attacked in recent days as organized groups of right-wing extremists have taken to the streets of Israel's mixed Jewish and Arab population cities to perform acts of "retribution" for Arab riots in those cities.
In recent days, N12's Ayala Hasson was attacked in Lod by Jewish rioters, Yoav Zehavi and a photographer for KAN were attacked in Tel Aviv and Lior Keinan, a Channel 13 News reporter, was attacked at the site of rocket blast in Ramat Gan.
On Friday night in Jaffa, Channel 13 reporter Omri Maniv was assaulted in his car by rioters, who broke the mirrors on his car and sprayed him with pepper spray, Magen David Adom reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son Yair tweeted on Monday an invitation to protest in front of the N12 office. The invitation called on protesters to "Say no to the media's anti-Zionist brainwashing."Facebook said: “We don’t want anyone to feel threatened or harassed on our apps. While we allow criticism of public figures, such as journalists, we don’t allow people to threaten or harass them, and we remove this content whenever we become aware of it. We also remove content that shares people’s personal information, and have removed several posts that showed journalists’ private phone numbers. We encourage anyone who sees harmful content on our apps to report it, so we can take action to keep our community safe.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Saturday that the United States had told Israel to ensure the "safety and security of journalists" after the Israeli military destroyed a Gaza tower block housing media offices.
"We have communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility," Psaki wrote on Twitter.In Germany, a firecracker was thrown at a KAN News reporter Antonia Yamin by pro-Palestinian protesters why covering demonstrations taking place in Berlin after the demonstrators heard Yamin speaking in Hebrew."Not only is this a very disgusting attack on the freedom of the press, it also highlights the fact that Jews in Germany cannot move around freely and safely even though it is the right of every citizen in Germany," A spokesperson for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "It angers and shames us all."