[News] Palestinian journalists targeted as Netanyahu and Abbas march for “free expression” in Paris

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Palestinian journalists targeted as Netanyahu and Abbas march for
  “free expression” in Paris

Submitted by Patrick Strickland on Thu, 01/15/2015
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/palestinian-journalists-targeted-netanyahu-and-abbas-march-free-expression*

Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas join world leaders in Paris; both 
Israel and the Palestinian Authority routinely abuse the rights of 
journalists. (European Council President 
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeancouncilpresident/16263276225/in/photolist-pR2dYD-85uVvw-85rLz2-7aCJYy-7ayVJg-7aCJzj-qLYerc-qM8xqe-pQ8u1C-qM8xqp-7ayVRz-85ssQK-85ucQY-85tRM9-85tRWE-85tRRd-8awQk6-8awQi2-7aCJQC-7ayVkR-qLEDYA-7aCJCq/>)

Palestinian journalists and social media activists are facing a 
crackdown on free expression at a time when Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas 
marched in Paris 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-moves-quickly-exploit-paris-attacks> 
following fatal attacks in that city against the satirical publication 
/Charlie Hebdo <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/charlie-hebdo>/ and a 
Jewish supermarket.

Journalists in the occupied West Bank 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank> continue to face the 
threats of persecution and violence 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/attacks-journalists> from both 
Israeli and Palestinian Authority forces, accoding to a recent report 
<http://www.madacenter.org/report.php?lang=1&id=1524&category_id=13&year=2015>by 
the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mada> (MADA).

According to the Ramallah-based group, Israeli occupation authorities 
arrested Palestinians “for their writings on Facebook” and the 
Palestinian Authority cracked down on “journalists, media students and 
activists for their writings on Facebook 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/facebook>.”

In addition to a litany of other press violations, MADA noted that 
Israel arrested eight Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem for 
their Facebook postings. The men, aged 18-45, were all indicted by an 
Israeli court in late December for “inciting anti-Jewish violence,” 
Agence France-Presse reported at the time 
<http://news.yahoo.com/israel-charges-8-palestinians-over-facebook-incitement-191702843.html>.

As documented time and again 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/incitement> at The Electronic 
Intifada, Israeli groups and high-ranking politicians regularly incite 
violence against Palestinians but rarely, if ever, face legal 
repercussions.

During Israel’s 51-day military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-strip> this past summer, Moshe 
Feiglin <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/moshe-feiglin>, deputy 
speaker of the Israeli Knesset, was just one of several Israeli leaders 
to call for increased bloodshed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/concentrate-and-exterminate-israel-parliament-deputy-speakers-gaza-genocide-plan>. 
Writing on his Facebook page, Feiglin called for the “conquest of the 
entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their 
supporters.”

“This is our country — our country exclusively,” he added, “including Gaza.”


    “Stormed the house”

Noting a clear “escalation of violations” in December, the MADA report 
says that Israeli and Palestinian forces committed a combined total of 
thirty violations against Palestinian journalists throughout that month.

In the West Bank, Baha al-Jayoushi was one of several Palestinians 
arrested for criticizing the Palestinian Authority online. On 2 
December, after being called into police headquarters several times for 
interrogation, al-Jayoushi was arrested for “vilifying” PA figures on 
Facebook, according to MADA.

The following day PA security forces arrested 23-year-old Islam Zaal, a 
media student at the Jerusalem-area Al-Quds University 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-quds-university-0>, for 
“inciting… against the Palestinian Authority on Facebook.”

PA security forces “stormed the house” of 22-year-old Amer Abu Hlayel, 
also a media student at Al-Quds University, on 5 December. After 
searching his home, “they handed an arrest order to his family for his 
writings on Facebook.”

A MADA spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada that Abu Hlayel was 
later “interrogated several times and then released.”

In addition to targeting students, the PA “committed violations against 
a number of freelance journalists,” the MADA report adds. Freelance 
journalist Amer Abu Aram, Wattan TV 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/wattan-tv> cameraman Mohammed Awad 
and Al-Quds TV <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-quds-tv> producer 
Majdouline Hassoune were all interrogated in December for Facebook postings.

Aysar Barghouti, a correspondent for Wattan TV, was targeted for his 
reporting and arrested from his home in Kufr Ein, a Ramallah-area 
village. Freelance journalist Muath Amleh was also threatened and beaten 
for his writing.

On 14 December, “Quds Press agency correspondent Zaid Abu Arra received 
a summons from the director of the [PA’s] preventive security through 
his phone telling him that the apparatus are going to arrest him,” MADA 
continues, adding that just two days earlier “the preventive security 
forces summoned the media student at Al-Quds University, Qutaiba Hamdan, 
[and] detained, interrogated and beat him.”


    Bullet “exploded in my leg”

While the Palestinian Authority has received increased criticism for its 
press crackdowns, Israeli forces — which regularly target, arrest and 
assault Palestinian journalists — continue to pose the greater threat to 
press freedom for Palestinians.

Israeli forces fired live ammunition at Palestinian cameraman Bashar 
Nazzal, 36, during a weekly demonstration in the central West Bank 
village of Kafr Qaddum on 5 December. “While we were standing at a 
distance of around 90-100 meters away from the Israeli forces, one of 
the snipers shot at me. I was far away from the protesters, visible from 
the army, and there were no other bullets or grenades shot in my 
direction,” the journalist told MADA.

“The bullet hit my leg and exploded inside, breaking bones,” he 
recalled. “I underwent surgery [on 6 December] in the Arab Specialist 
Hospital in Nablus. Four fragments were removed from my leg, but others 
are still inside.”

During Israel’s 51-day military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip last 
summer, fifteen Palestinian media workers and one foreign 
photojournalist, an Italian national, were killed. These journalists 
were killed and many others were injured while Israeli forces attacked 
Gaza from land, air and sea — and in some cases press workers appear to 
have been deliberately targeted.

A recent report 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-worlds-second-most-lethal-country-journalists-2014-watchdog-says> 
issued by the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/reporters-without-borders> deemed 
present-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza the second deadliest place in 
the world for journalists in 2014.

Yet, as world leaders (including US President Barack Obama) condemned 
the fatal attacks on French journalists in Paris and claimed to support 
free speech and media freedom, condemnations of Israel’s attacks on 
Palestinian journalists remain few and far between.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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