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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Palestinian journalists targeted
as Netanyahu and Abbas march for “free expression” in Paris</h1>
<div class="submitted"> <span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2015-01-15T14:06:29+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/patrick-strickland"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Patrick
Strickland</span> on Thu, 01/15/2015<br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/palestinian-journalists-targeted-netanyahu-and-abbas-march-free-expression">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/palestinian-journalists-targeted-netanyahu-and-abbas-march-free-expression</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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media-element file-full" height="417" width="618" style="">
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<p>Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas join world leaders
in Paris; both Israel and the Palestinian Authority
routinely abuse the rights of journalists. (<a
href="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/">European
Council President</a>)</p>
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<p>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 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-moves-quickly-exploit-paris-attacks">marched
in Paris</a> following fatal attacks in that city against the
satirical publication <em><a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/charlie-hebdo">Charlie
Hebdo</a></em> and a Jewish supermarket.</p>
<p>Journalists in the occupied <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank">West Bank</a>
continue to <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/attacks-journalists">face
the threats of persecution and violence</a> from both Israeli
and Palestinian Authority forces, accoding to a recent <a
href="http://www.madacenter.org/report.php?lang=1&id=1524&category_id=13&year=2015">report
</a>by the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mada">Palestinian
Center for Development and Media Freedoms</a> (MADA).</p>
<p>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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/facebook">Facebook</a>.”</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/israel-charges-8-palestinians-over-facebook-incitement-191702843.html">reported
at the time</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/incitement">documented
time and again</a> at The Electronic Intifada, Israeli groups
and high-ranking politicians regularly incite violence against
Palestinians but rarely, if ever, face legal repercussions. </p>
<p>During Israel’s 51-day military assault on the besieged <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-strip">Gaza
Strip</a> this past summer, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/moshe-feiglin">Moshe
Feiglin</a>, deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset, was just
one of several Israeli leaders to <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/concentrate-and-exterminate-israel-parliament-deputy-speakers-gaza-genocide-plan">
call for increased bloodshed</a>. Writing on his Facebook
page, Feiglin called for the “conquest of the entire Gaza Strip,
and annihilation of all fighting forces and their supporters.”</p>
<p>“This is our country — our country exclusively,” he added,
“including Gaza.”</p>
<h2>“Stormed the house”</h2>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The following day PA security forces arrested 23-year-old Islam
Zaal, a media student at the Jerusalem-area <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-quds-university-0">Al-Quds
University</a>, for “inciting… against the Palestinian
Authority on Facebook.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>A MADA spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada that Abu
Hlayel was later “interrogated several times and then released.”</p>
<p>In addition to targeting students, the PA “committed violations
against a number of freelance journalists,” the MADA report
adds. Freelance journalist Amer Abu Aram, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/wattan-tv">Wattan TV</a>
cameraman Mohammed Awad and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-quds-tv">Al-Quds
TV</a> producer Majdouline Hassoune were all interrogated in
December for Facebook postings.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<h2>Bullet “exploded in my leg”</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-worlds-second-most-lethal-country-journalists-2014-watchdog-says">recent
report</a> issued by the watchdog group <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/reporters-without-borders">Reporters
Without Borders</a> deemed present-day Israel, the West Bank
and Gaza the second deadliest place in the world for journalists
in 2014.</p>
<p>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. </p>
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