Washington keeps silent after Israel arrests U.S. journalist over report on Iran attack

Jeremy Loffredo could face the death penalty for reporting on Iranian missile strikes that targeted Israeli military and intelligence bases used to carry out brutal assassinations over the past year

Update:

The U.S. government has yet to comment on the case of Jeremy Loffredo, an independent U.S. journalist who remains in Israeli police detention on suspicion of “endangering national security.” Loffredo may potentially face life imprisonment or the death penalty after reporting the locations where Iranian missiles struck in the attack launched by Iran earlier this month.

U.S. officials refrained from commment despite a Yedioth Ahronoth report from Thursday stating that representatives from the U.S. Embassy attended the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on the request of the police to extend his detention.

In his report, Loffredo stated that the strikes hit targets, including the Israeli military’s Nevatim Air Base and an intelligence base in central Israel.

“Since the missile strikes, Israeli authorities have attempted to downplay the significance of the attacks, censored the locations of missile impacts from media publication, and claimed that Iranian missiles targeted Israeli civilians,” Loffredo stated.

“What I saw today, here in Israel, is clear evidence that Iran was targeting the same Israeli intelligence and military infrastructure that has been used over the past year to carry out brutal assassinations and attacks.”

The Grayzone, the outlet for which Loffredo has been reporting since his arrival in Israel, issued a statement saying police are officially holding him “on suspicion of serious security offenses for publicly publishing… the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

The Grayzone added that Loffredo’s report showed the aftermath of Iranian attacks on military and intelligence targets inside Israel, which were openly featured in reports broadcast on mainstream U.S. news outlets ABC News and PBS, neither of which currently face such charges.

“He published the information openly and fully, without attempting to hide anything. If this information constitutes aiding the enemy, many other journalists in Israel, including Israeli reporters, should also be arrested,” said the attorney defending Loffredo, Leah Tsemel. “A spy would not have acted so publicly and transparently.”

Originally, the judge overseeing Loffredo’s case ordered him released, saying that since Israeli military censors agreed to allow Israeli media to publish both “word of [Jeremy’s] arrest and the publications that led to his arrest,” Israel could “no longer justify his continued detention,” The Grayzone added.

However, Israeli police appealed this decision, and Loffredo remains in custody.

The Grayzone stated, “We will fight these charges and ask that you contact the State Department and urge them to act in defense of their citizen detained in Israel. The U.S. has an obligation to defend its journalists who are merely adhering to their ethical obligation to inform the public of pertinent facts.”

The Grayzone and The Cradle contributor Kit Klarenberg said that Loffredo was arrested by Israeli military officers while crossing a checkpoint in the illegally occupied West Bank.

Klarenberg continued, “Jeremy has done nothing wrong, and these are allegations that can lead to life imprisonment or the death penalty.”

He noted further that Israeli Knesset and Likud Party member Revital Gotliv had recently requested life imprisonment or the death sentence for Yuli Novak, the executive director of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that documents abuses of the Israeli government toward Palestinians.

In March, Loffredo embedded himself among Jewish Israeli nationalists who were trying to block desperately needed humanitarian aid at the Gaza border. “They enjoyed pastries with the military while confessing to war crimes and cheering for genocide,” Loffredo reported.

In January, Loffredo reported from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where he documented settler terror attacks on Palestinian businesses. He interviewed local activists who told him they feared arrest and beatings from Israeli police for speaking out against the assault on Gaza.

Source: The Cradle