Nidal Shtieh is a freelance photojournalist, filed a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for damages to his photography equipment and livelihood. About a year ago (12.09.2013), Shtieh was documenting an invasion of settlers to agricultural lands near Salem. The soldiers at the scene not only did nothing to help the rightful owners of the land, but viciously assaulted Palestinians present there, breaking an arm of one man, and holding a knife to the throat of another. As Shtieh’s camera captured the incident, the soldiers proceeded to forcibly confiscate his photography equipment, choking him with the camera’s strap. The IDF officer then snatched the cameras and gave them to a settler who was standing nearby.
For 18 days, the police argued they could not locate the camera and equipment. Then, Shtieh was called to the police station to pick up his cameras, which were broken, filled with sand, and missing their batteries, memory cards and carrying pouch.
Shtieh’s suit cited his heavily damaged equipment, as well the loss of livelihood. The lawsuit is currently being litigated at the Russian Compound Magistrate Courthouse in Jerusalem.

No criminal charges were filed against the soldiers involved in this violent incident.

After hearing, as Shtieh was making his way back to his Kufr Qaddum home, he was detained at Qalandia checkpoint for two hours, where the soldiers called for military police, who questioned him again about the incident.