598 Israeli violations against journalism in 2019
Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The Journalist Support Committee documented 598 violations against Palestinian journalists throughout Palestine in 2019.
The committee asserted in a new report that the Israeli assaults on Palestinian journalists have increased in May 2019, when the Israelis increased their crackdown on journalists to prevent them from covering the activities that marked Land Day.
The report also noted that the Israelis deliberately targeted journalists with live ammunition and grenades in addition to beating, humiliation, and use as human shields. Palestinian journalists have been arrested, prevented from travel, and prevented from covering events.
The committee documented 163 cases of assaults against journalists. The assaults included direct shooting, beating, humiliation, targeting with tear gas, and confiscation of equipment.
The committee also held the occupation state responsible for sniping Palestinian journalists in several incidents, including sniping the journalists Sami Musran from Gaza and Muath Amarneh from the West Bank, who were both blinded by the Isreali bullets. The journalist Atiyyeh Darweesh had severe damage in his eye as well when Israeli soldiers shot at his eye.
79 cases of arrest, interrogation, and use as human shields have been documented as well according to the report. Moreover, 26 cases of renewal of detention and delay of releasing jailed journalists have been documented.
In 62 cases, the report documented Israel’s barring of journalists to practice their work. 5 cases of incitement and 174 cases of closure of media institutions were documented.
The report also documented 29 cases of raid and vandalism of journalists’ houses in addition to confiscation of their equipment.
The report stated that social media platforms closed several accounts of News and media institutions and journalists. They also imposed restrictions, which varied from closing accounts and preventing from publishing content to the removal of old posts and blocking of journalists’ accounts.
