Press institutions issued today, Saturday, the call for the need to work to protect Palestinian journalists, stop the continuous violations against them, and release the 22 prisoners of war.
This came in separate statements on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian Journalist, which falls on the 26th of September of each year, which was announced by the International Federation of Journalists following the events of the tunnel gift in 1996, during which dozens of Palestinian journalists were injured during their professional coverage of the Israeli occupation´s violations of Jerusalem. .
The Journalists Support Committee renewed its condemnation and denunciation of the occupation’s arbitrary practices of directly and deliberately targeting journalists while performing their duties and their field coverage of the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
The committee pointed out that the occupation intentionally used live and explosive bullets as a hidden nickname to kill and wound journalists with permanent injuries that prevent them from practicing their professional work and newspapers, as happened with a number of journalists in Gaza and the West Bank.
The committee said, "The Israeli occupation is turning the lives of 22 imprisoned journalists and media professionals into hell by placing them in prisons and cells that do not meet health conditions and safe safety measures, especially with the spread of the Corona epidemic, which increases the scale of the disaster in the occupation prisons." .
And it warned against the continuation of the occupation in the violations of journalists, which according to the committee’s statistics since the beginning of the current year have reached more than (290) cases of Israeli violation of the right of journalists, the most prominent of which was the arrest of journalists, the extension and confirmation of several administrative detention of them without charge and the removal of a number of them under false pretenses. Since the beginning of this year, according to the committee’s statistics, it has reached 80 arrests and extensions, the last of which was the transfer of the poet Mahmoud Ayyad, and the journalists Osama Shaheen and Musab Sa`id to administrative detention without any charge.
We call on international and human rights institutions to press for the release of journalists and media activists, who are still detained in the occupation prisons, and to intervene to stop the policy of arresting and detaining journalists while they are performing their journalistic duty.
The Committee to Support Journalists called for the launch of the largest local, Arab and international practical campaign on the ground to expose the occupation practices against journalists and provide the elements of complete safety and preventive measures to protect them from the "Corona" pandemic in the occupation prisons, and strengthen their steadfastness and provide them with protection during their press coverage in the field, especially as The majority of Palestinian press crews do not have the simplest protective gear such as flak jackets, helmets or armored cars to move around.
She emphasized that the crimes committed by the occupation against the media, are expected from the press frameworks and institutions, bodies and international federations guarding freedom of the press to pursue the Israeli authorities, and also calls for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution (No. 2222), which guarantees the protection of journalists.
She stressed the importance of the press and its role in promoting democracy and human rights, rejecting hate speech and exposing violations of the occupation.
She urged me that journalistic work should practice its work freely, in a manner that does not contradict Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that the occupation government must respect its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and respect its obligations under the Convention Fourth Geneva and its Annex Protocol, which impose special protection for journalists as civilians.
It strongly condemned the Facebook administration’s continued ban and fight against Palestinian content, which is considered a violation of the international law on freedom of opinion and expression, by imposing unjust restrictions on Palestinian content, as the Report of the Journalists Support Committee recorded (150) cases of violation of Palestinian content.
It also called on world journalists, trade unions and national institutions to strengthen solidarity, support and support for Palestinian journalists and the various media outlets that are facing a major crisis due to the Corona pandemic and its economic repercussions on the continued work of institutions.
And it called for the necessity to neutralize journalists and not involve them in the existing political conflict and enable them to freely practice their journalistic work, in respect of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and press freedoms.
For its part, the Palestinian Media Forum affirmed that the Israeli occupation is the first enemy of Palestinian journalists, which continues to target them in various ways, neglecting international and humanitarian laws and norms related to the protection of journalists and press freedoms.
In a statement, the forum renewed its call to all international press institutions, led by the International Federation of Journalists, which approved this day its duties towards Palestinian journalists and to protect them from the Israeli occupation’s intrusion on them, trying to obliterate the truth and negate the Palestinian media message.
An appeal was made to the Union of Arab Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York and Reporters Without Borders, to support and assist the Palestinian journalist.
The forum issued a loud cry to human rights institutions in Palestine and outside the need to work to force the occupation to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, protect the right of journalists to freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of access to information, and to stop targeting journalists while carrying out their professional duty to cover Various events in the Palestinian territories.
He called on all male and female colleagues in the Arab world to strengthen their solidarity with Palestinian journalists in the face of Israeli violations.
He renewed his call to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate for the need to heed the journalists ’demands and go to arranging the internal home for journalists, and to move towards union elections that all Palestinian journalists agree to to end the long years of union slack, and the absence of an inclusive voice for journalists.
