Palestine: Extreme violence against Palestinian media workers in Jerusalem

Israeli police are assaulting, beating, and firing stun grenades at Palestinian media workers reporting on recent clashes between Palestinian civilians and the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) condemn the extreme violence against journalists and call on the United Nations to provide urgent field protection for media workers reporting on the ground.

EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP

The PJS reported at least nineteen journalists were injured by the Israeli forces while covering the clashes. Twelve of them were injured while covering the Israeli military storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab Al-Amoud, and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Three journalists suffered attacks while covering events at Camp Salem, located north of Jenin, and four others were targeted while covering events In the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus.

Many of these aggressions were recorded and denounced on social media.

 

 

The PJS praised the efforts made by Palestinian and Arab journalists to cover the events in the Palestinian territories “despite the high risks they take by reporting in the field”.

The PJS renews its call to the United Nations to provide urgent field protection for journalists, to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 2222, which calls for providing protection for journalists, and to subject Israel to international law, and not to allow these crimes to go unpunished”, the IFJ affiliate said in a statement.

According to the Red Crescent, hundreds of people were wounded on Monday 10 in renewed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound. More than 153 people, including four in a critical condition were transferred to hospitals.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to “exercise maximum restraint and respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly” and urged the Israeli authorities to “to cease demolitions and evictions” in Palestinian territories.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: “The IFJ joins the United Nations in condemning the systematic Israeli violence towards Palestinian civilians and media workers. We urge the international community to take action to stop and punish the crimes against Palestinian journalists”.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries

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