Israeli Army Targets Local and International Press in Palestinian Territories
The Israeli occupation deals with the Arab and foreign press in the occupied Palestinian territories as an enemy that must be eradicated.
Over the past period, and during the recent attack on Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on May 10, Israel’s attacks on journalists and media outlets in the Palestinian territories have escalated, including shooting journalists and photographers and arresting many of them.
The most recent attack was against the journalist Jivara Al-Budairi and the cameraman Nabil Mazawi, who work for Al-Jazeera.
They were attacked while covering the attacks on the peaceful march in solidarity with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, last Saturday, June 05.
The Israeli forces arrested, detained, and interrogated Al-Budairi for hours.
During her arrest, she was handcuffed and beaten by the occupation soldiers. Journalist Najwan Al-Samri was injured by shrapnel of a sound bomb fired by the occupation forces at a crowd of citizens and journalists who were in solidarity with activists Mona and Mohamed Al-Kurd, who was detained by the Israeli police the next day.
These attacks included other journalists in different areas of the West Bank, including Wahbi Makiya and Zina Halawani, who were arrested for several days and released on house arrest for five days, deportation from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for one month, and a fine of 2,000 shekels.
On May 21, the Israeli judiciary extended the administrative detention of Al-Ghad TV cameraman, Hazem Nasser, for 11days. He was arrested while passing through an Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to Tulkarm, upon his return from covering clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian youths.
Attacking journalists by the Israeli occupation forces is a systematic policy amid a lack of international deterrence, as the Israeli occupation held more than 15 Palestinian media professionals in administrative detention, according to the records of the International Red Cross.
During the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip last May, Israeli planes targeted press offices and media outlets, and committed crimes amounting to war crimes.
On May 19, the Israeli occupation planes fired two missiles at an apartment in a building for the Abu Hussein family, in Gaza City, injuring more than 12 journalists, destroying 44 offices of media institutions, and more than 11 buildings for advertising companies, media productions, and printing and publishing houses, and more than 22 houses of journalists and media professionals were completely and partially damaged, in addition to targeting journalists’ cars and destroying 6 of them.
These attacks on Palestinian, Arab, and international journalists and media outlets, aim to conceal the facts and war crimes committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people from world public opinion and constitute a violation of the basic rights stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Journalists have been granted legal protection during armed conflict, as civilians may not be subjected to or targeted as long as they are not taking part in hostilities.
We call the international community to intervene immediately and impose sanctions on the occupying entity, deal with it firmly, and submit their attacks on journalists to the International Criminal Court. We also ask the International Federation of Journalists and Media Professionals not to deal with the Israeli media and expose its practices, and for the international community to stop playing double standards in attempting to put the occupied equal with the occupier.
