Reference number: 93/2023
Date: September 25, 2023
Native language: Arabic
Press release
On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalists, Hashd bows to Palestinian journalists and urges for more solidarity with them as well as the exposure of the occupation’s crimes against them.
Tomorrow, September 26th, 2023, is International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalists, which comes this year amid the continuation and escalation of violations against journalists and media workers in the occupied Palestinian territories, in an attempt to erase the occupation authorities’ crimes against the Palestinian people and their sanctities. Keeping the facts and the story of injustice from reaching international public opinion. In clear violation of journalists and media workers’ minimum rights and the protection afforded to them under international conventions, particularly during international armed conflicts.
According to available audio and video data, the Israeli military occupation forces have made journalists, media professionals, and press offices direct targets of their attacks, while they work and cover events during the aggressions and repeated attacks on the Gaza Strip, areas of the West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem, in flagrant disregard for the international community and its relevant charters, including It contains the Rome Statute establishing the Inter-American Committee on Human Rights.
According to the documents of The International Commission “Hashd,” the total number of violations committed by occupation authorities against workers in the media and journalistic fields until the middle of the current year 2023 amounted to more than (375) violations as follows, more than (80) cases of targeting and injury, whether in a physical form. The most recent of which was the injury of journalist “Ashraf Abu Amra” with a gas bomb in his hand while covering peaceful protest marches of citizens on the borders of the Gaza Strip, in addition to more than (40) cases of arrest, summons, and detention for investigation, with them to prevent them and obstruct the continuation of their journalistic work, In addition to more than (115) cases in which journalists were prevented from carrying out their duties and covering events to prevent them from conveying the truth to the public, more than (50) violations were documented by the management of social media sites for journalists under pressure from the authorities in the context of fighting Palestinian content. During this time, Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank registered more than (40) breaches of the occupation.
The International Commission “Hashd,” renewed its solidarity with Palestinian journalists and workers in all media outlets, recognizing their role in defending the Palestinian national narrative and victims of human rights violations committed by occupation forces, and reiterating its strong condemnation of these violations as a dangerous assault on the human rights system. International principles and norms, most notably the text of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression, information access, circulation, and dissemination, and peaceful assembly.
In addition to violating the provisions established by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which imposes on the occupying state the duty to protect civilians and differentiate between civilians and military personnel, and in violation of the First Additional Protocol attached to the Geneva Conventions, particularly the text of Article (79) of the Protocol, which considers journalists performing professional tasks as dangerous in areas of armed conflict. Infringement on civilians is forbidden and must be protected as such. As a result, it registers and requests the following:
- The International Commission “Hashd”: calls on the international community and the Permanent Fact-Finding Commission to conduct thorough investigations into these violations, to take immediate action to stop violations of international law, to protect journalists and other civilians, and to prosecute and hold anyone suspected accountable. As an inherent legal responsibility of every state signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, committing significant violations of international law standards.
- The International Commission “Hashd”: urges active international institutions, particularly those concerned with journalists and press freedoms, as well as the world’s journalists, to strengthen their solidarity with journalists working in the occupied Palestinian territories and to work to expose the occupation authorities’ violations of journalists, the media, and freedom of coverage, opinion, and expression. Including pressure on the administrations of social media platforms, which deny the most basic human rights standards by deleting, restricting, and blocking Palestinian digital content under flimsy justifications, opening the door to inflammatory and racist content against Palestinians from the occupation and its settlers.
- The International Commission (Hashd): Demands the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Public Prosecutor to add crimes perpetrated against journalists working in occupied Palestinian territory to the dossier of Israeli crimes being examined. Away from procrastination, political reasons, and false standards.
- The International Commission (Hashd): asks Palestinian leadership to use various diplomatic and legal spaces and tools, including internationalizing violations of journalists’ and media professionals’ rights by occupation authorities and herds of settlers, and to put pressure on various international actors to improve protection for journalists in occupied Palestinian territories during armed conflicts.
- The International Commission (Hashd): demands on the responsible authorities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to uphold the system of rights for journalists, including the freedom of opinion and expression and the freedom of journalistic work, by their obligations under international law and in compliance with relevant national laws.
Finished.
