كشكول جعفر الخابوري الاسبوعي

A year after the war of extermination.. 1639 crimes against Palestinian journalists
10-October-2024
Reem Rabie
The bodies of Palestinian journalist Hiba Al-Abdallah and her family are still under the rubble of Gaza’s destroyed homes for months until today, and the bodies of Salam Meema and Ayat Khadura remained for months among the rubble before reaching them, while journalist Ahmed Al-Zard was injured along with his mother and his brother and a number of his family members were martyred as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted their home. As for journalist Sami Shehadeh, he lost the field after losing his right foot as a result of the occupation’s bombing during his journalistic coverage of the displacement movement in the Nuseirat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, and photographer Muhammad Al-Za’anin was injured in his left eye after being targeted by a drone that dropped explosive bombs near Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Since October 7, 2023, journalists Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdul Wahid have been forcibly disappeared, and the occupation refuses to release any information about their fate, or to respond to all international and human rights efforts to find out their circumstances. These are not just stories that are told, but rather the journalists’ way of documenting the brutality of the occupation and its attacks in their martyrdom and injury with their families, or their kidnapping and arrest. During a year of the war of extermination in Gaza, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documented 1639 crimes against journalists and media institutions, especially in the Gaza Strip, including the martyrdom of 167 journalists and workers in the media sector, which is 11% of Gaza’s journalists. The Syndicate said in a report: “Journalists paid the price for the message of truth and conveying it to the world, and the Israeli occupation carried out the largest massacre of assassinations against them to bury the truth and its witnesses.” The Syndicate’s report revealed 357 cases of injury among journalists during the year, due to the occupation’s missiles and direct bullets, in addition to toxic gas bombs and settler attacks, as 21 direct injuries were recorded due to gas and sound bombs, 26 attacks by settlers, and 121 cases of suffocation due to toxic gas. It also explained that the occupation authorities have arrested 125 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since October of last year, 61 of whom are still in occupation prisons. It also arrested 16 Palestinian female journalists, 6 of whom are still under arrest, noting that 33 journalists were subjected to what is called “administrative detention.” The occupation courts also exploited the so-called Israeli emergency law and accused some imprisoned journalists of incitement through the media and social media platforms. The Israeli occupation destroyed 73 media institutions in the Gaza Strip, including 21 local radio stations, 3 broadcast towers, 15 news agencies, 15 satellite channels, 6 local newspapers, and 13 media and press services offices. It also closed 15 institutions in the West Bank, most notably Palestine TV in Jerusalem, in addition to closing 12 press printing presses in various West Bank governorates. "The families of a number of journalists were completely erased from the civil records of the population" is also evidence of the direct targeting of the families of Palestinian journalists, as the occupation targeted about 115 homes of the families of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip with aircraft missiles and artillery shells. As for the most widespread attack in the West Bank, it was the direct shooting of journalistic crews, as 198 cases of shooting were recorded, most of them in Jenin and Tulkarm, which put their lives in danger of death. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate confirms that the brutal crimes committed against journalists and the ease with which they are killed are the result of a decision from the highest levels of political decision-making in the Israeli occupation government, and cannot be a field effort, but rather the work of a political institution translated by the security establishment into this high level of killing. The so-called Israeli Supreme Court’s rejection of the Foreign Journalists Association’s request to enter and cover the Gaza Strip is an indication of the occupation system’s persistence in maintaining its isolation of Palestinian journalists and casting doubt on the facts they transmit to the world. It adds that the increase in the number of bloody injuries from missile shrapnel and bullets to a level much higher than injuries resulting from beating with batons and kicking is also an indication of targeting for the purpose of killing. The continued detention of journalist prisoners without trial or visits from the Red Cross and their families is contrary to all international agreements and conventions, stressing that the extent of targeting journalists according to geographical and temporal distribution has implications for Israeli targeting of the entire Palestinian society. The Syndicate stresses the need for clear decisions to be issued by the United Nations and the UN Security Council demanding that the Israeli occupation government stop killing journalists, and for the International Court of Justice to take a series of decisions to protect Palestinian journalists, explaining that the International Criminal Court has not yet considered the series of cases brought before it by the Syndicate regarding previous Israeli crimes, calling on the International Federation of Journalists to continue its support and provide a trade union and human rights network to put more pressure on the International Criminal Court to prosecute the political and security leaders of the occupation and settlers, and the need to lead a movement by the Arab Journalists Union that includes Arab parliaments, the Arab League, unions and human rights institutions to support Palestinian journalists in practicing their profession and exposing the crimes of the occupation.

Weekly Kashf Al-Haqaiq Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Jaafar Al-Khabouri