Ramallah – May 5th, 2023, April witnessed a noticeable decrease in the number of violations against media freedom in Palestine in comparison with March; and despite this decrease, the largest portion of it is categorized under the serious violations against media freedom and the safety of journalists.
March witnessed an increase in the number of violations (total of 53 violations), as a result of the increase of Israeli violations against journalists during their coverage of the different incidents, especially in Nablus. Therefore, a total of 15 violations have been documented during the month of April, 12 of which were committed by the Israeli Occupation, whereas different Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza have committed a total of 3 violations, and none committed by social media.
Israeli Violations:
The Israeli Occupation authorities committed during April 12 violations with a percentage of 80% of the total violations committed during this month. Most of the violations are categorized as serious assaults against media freedoms and journalists and their ability to carry out their tasks.
The violations have been distributed to 5 physical injuries as follows: MOHAMMED FAWZI, the cameraman of “Roya” Tv channel has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left thigh, MOHAMMED ANAYEH, the cameraman of Palestine Tv has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left forearm and his camera was destroyed after falling to the ground, in addition to ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN, the freelance journalist who has been shot with a rubber bullet in his left calf. Also, the Occupation police assaulted the Jerusalemite journalist ATA OWEISAT with a baton in the al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as assaulting WAHBI MAKKYEH, the cameraman of Almayadeen Tv, and detained him for an hour to prevent him from covering the storming of al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards by the settlers.
The Occupation forces arrested the freelance journalist MOHAMMED BADER from his house in “Beit Liqya”, and he is still in Ofer Detention Center as his trial was postponed more than once. The Occupation forces also prevented journalist and cameraman IBRAHIM ASSINJILAWI from covering the events in Jerusalem and deleted all material from his phone, and the freelance journalist ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN from covering the arrival of the masses to al-Aqsa Mosque through “300” checkpoint in Bethlehem, and they deleted all taken material from his phone.
Palestinian Violations:
The number of Palestinian violations against media freedom in Palestine has decreased during the month of April and in comparison, with March, three violations with a percentage of 20% of the total of all violations have been documented during the month.
The violations were limited to two incidents in the Gaza Strip. One of which was against the cameraman of “The New Arab” who was detained by the UNRWA security and prevented him from documenting the workers union, as they smashed his camera’s lens. The other violation took place in the West Bank as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority “MOHAMMED ISHTAYYEH” banned AQEEL AWAWDEH, the reporter of “24 FM” off of his Facebook page and prevented him from accessing public information on the page.
The Details of Violations:
April 1st, one of the Occupation police personnel assaulted the freelance journalist IBRAHIM KAMAL ASSINJILAWI Saturday dawn and assaulted him at the Gate of Forgiveness in Jerusalem. He also confiscated his phone and threatened to destroy it just to prevent him from covering the abuse of the police of one of the children on the premises.
In his statement to MADA, the freelance journalist IBRAHIM KAMAL ASSINJILAWI (27 years old) reported that at 04:30 AM on Saturday dawn he was at the Gate of Forgiveness (Bab Hutta). During that time, he saw Israeli police personnel abusing a Palestinian child and searching him, therefore, he showed them his journalist’s card that was hanging around his neck before documenting the incident.
The journalist stood far away from the police personnel to film the incident, but one of the soldiers attacked him, confiscated his phone, deleted the video, and threatened to destroy the phone in the event of attempting to film the incident again.
April 3rd, the Palestinian Prime Minister “MOHAMMED ISHTAYYEH” banned the journalist AQEEL AWAWDEH from accessing his official Facebook page and following up with public information on the page. This led the journalist to file a complaint to the Attorney General's office against the Prime Minister.
AQEEL AWAWDEHI (32 years old), the reporter of “24 FM” has reported that he asked several questions on the official page of the Prime Minister regarding a group of old projects that were intended to be implemented. Such posts spread like fire between the people and followers of the page.
In a week time or so, the journalist noticed that the Prime Minister page does not show on his feed anymore, and he confirmed that he was banned from the page. On April 3rd, the journalist “AQEEL AWAWDEH” filed a complaint at the Attorney General’s office against the Prime Minister on the basis of Cybercrimes Law, as the public employee is forbidden from blocking public information or data on technological means.
On April 27th, the public prosecution asked the journalist to file his statement under oath and informed him that they will ask for a technical report regarding the Prime Minister’s page and will start the investigation and proceeding on the complaint.
April 4th, the Israeli Occupation authorities arrested the freelance Journalist MOHAMMED SALEH BADER (34 years old) from his house in “Beit Liqya” in Ramallah on a Tuesday dawn and transferred him to Ofer Detention Center.
SUJOOD ASSI the wife of the journalist “BADER” reported to MADA that a force of Occupation soldiers raided their house in “Beit Liqya” to the southwest of Ramallah around 03:00 AM on Tuesday. They asked about her husband MOHAMMED and asked for his I.D. card and confiscated his phone. They also searched the house swiftly, handcuffed his hands, and blindfolded him. They left the house, and afterward, the family had information regarding his whereabouts, he turned out to be in Ofer Detention Center.
The journalist had a trial session on the day of his arrest at Ofer Detention Center and it was decided to extend his arrest for another 72 hours on the charge of “communicating with political figures”. The journalist had another trial session on April 10th and the case review was postponed until confirming the charge, and to know if his contact with the political figures was for journalism purposes or not.
He also had another trial session on April 27th, and it was postponed until May 15th.
April 5th, the Occupation police detained the journalist cameraman WAHBI MAKKYEH at the Dung Gate (Maghrabi Gate) in Jerusalem for one hour, they beat him and hindered his work while he was covering the storming of settlers to the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards on Wednesday morning.
The reporter of Almyadeen, WHABI KAMEL MAKKYEH (38 years old) reported to MADA that he was present on Wednesday morning to cover the storming of the settlers to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Around 07:00 AM, the journalist started covering the storming of the settlers’ first wave. Minutes after, a group of Israeli Police intercepted his work, and they dragged him out of the courtyards to their checkpoint at the Dunk Gat (Moghrabi Gate). They handcuffed him, beat him, and questioned him about his work and what agency he works for, in addition to confiscating his phone by one of the police personnel.
After about an hour of detention, one of the police personnel returned and uncuffed him, then returned his phone.
April 6th, the Occupation police assaulted the journalist cameraman ATA OWEISAT with a baton targeting his leg. They also prevented him from documenting the Occupation police repression of the masses in the al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday evening.
The cameraman of the Turkish Anadolu Agency, “MUSTAFA ANNATHEER” EYAD ALKHAROOF (35 years old) reported to MADA that a group of journalists were present at 11:30 at the Chain Gate in Jerusalem and about 100m away from the al-Aqsa Gate.
The Occupation police repressed the masses in the al-Aqsa Mosque and forced them to exit it. At that time, the journalists were about to leave the premises after the Mosque was emptied of people, but the police prevented them from taking the main road out and pushed them into choosing another.
The Occupation police also attacked the journalist cameraman ATTA OWEISAT and beat him with a baton targeting his leg to prevent him from documenting the assault against the masses of the congregation, who were repressed and pushed out of the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Some of the journalists who were present (the cameraman of the Turkish Anadolu Agency, FAYEZ HAMZEH ABU RMEILEH, MOHAMMED ELYYAN, MO’ATH ALKHATTEB, SA’EED ALQAQ, MUSTAFA ALKHAROOF, FAYEZ ABU RMEILEH, HIBA NAJDI, AHMED GHARABLI, and AMMAR AWAD).
April 8th, the Occupation forces targeted the journalist ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN with a metal bullet coated with rubber in his left calf during his covering of the clashes that took place in al-Khader town to the west of Bethlehem.
In his statement to MADA, the journalist ABDULRAHAMAN HASSAN (35 years old) reported that he was present at around 12:00 in the afternoon of Saturday in al-Khader town to the west of Bethlehem, specifically, at “Um Rukba” area to cover a settlers’ march that started from “Efrat” settlement.
During the march, the settlers attacked one of the town’s houses which led to a counter-action by the citizens against this assault. The clashes heated between the citizens and the Occupation soldiers who were present and started firing live and rubber bullets at the protesting youth.
Also, the soldiers targeted the journalist with three metal bullets coated with rubber, a short time between each bullet, during the coverage while he was 100m away from them and despite him wearing his full press uniform. The journalist was injured and fell due to a direct hit by one of the rubber bullets in his left calf.
The journalist ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN had treatment at “al-Yamama” hospital, and his injury was considered mild.
April 9th, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) security personnel in the north of the Gaza Strip detained the journalist ABDULHAKEEM ABU RYASH, the cameraman of “The New Arab” on Sunday morning prevented him from filming, and threatened to beat him.
The cameraman of “The New Arab”, ABDULHAKEEM ABU RYASH (34 years old) reported to MADA that he headed at 08:30 AM on Sunday to Jabalia refugee camp to the north of the Gaza Strip to cover the strike of the “UNRWA” workers union started refusing the stalling of the administration to answer their demands. They closed all the UNRWA facilities.
While the journalist was taking pictures, he was stopped by one of the security personnel of the UNRWA preventing him from filming despite his presence outside the walls of the UNRWA center. After a heated argument, the security personnel asked the journalist to enter the premises with them and after having a seat inside a room, 4 of the security personnel were present with him and asked him to watch the footage inside the UNRWA clinic building. They also asked him to erase some of the pictures of the building that he took from an opening in the main gate.
The security personnel detained the journalist and refused to allow him to leave the building. They told him that he is being detained, threatened to destroy his camera and punish him, they tried to assault him physically which led to the destruction of his camera after hitting the wall.
The detention of the journalist lasted for 25 minutes, and he was allowed to leave afterward.
April 10th, “Roya” Tv cameraman, MAHMOUD FAWZI, was shot with a rubber bullet in his left thigh on Monday afternoon during his coverage of settlers’ march on “Sbeih” mountain in “Beita” town. He had field treatment in an ambulance.
The cameraman of “Roya” Tv, MAHMOUD FAWZI (38 years old), reported to MADA that a large group of journalists and media cadres were present at 11:00 AM on Monday close to Sbeih mountain in “Beita” to the east of Nablus to cover the settlers’ march.
Heated clashes took place during the march between the citizens on the one side, and the Occupation and settlers on the other side. The Occupation soldiers assaulted the people there with rubber bullets and tear gas.
During the coverage, the journalist cameraman was shot with a rubber bullet in his left thigh, and it was a serious injury. Therefore, he had field treatment in an ambulance that was on the premises, and he also suffered suffocation due to the firing of tear gas despite him wearing the full press uniform and a gas mask.
April 14th, the Occupation forces assaulted the freelance journalist ABDULRAHMAN HASSAN and hindered his work on the last Friday of Ramadan during his coverage of the people masses heading to the al-Aqsa Mosque to pray through the “300” checkpoint in Bethlehem. They also confiscated his phone and deleted all material.
The freelance journalist ABDULRAHMAN ABDULKAREEM HASSAN (35 years old) reported to MADA that around 11:30 AM and close to the “300” checkpoint in Bethlehem, many people were heading through the checkpoint to Jerusalem on the last Friday of Ramadan.
During the crowding of people passing through the checkpoint, the Occupation soldiers refused to let them in which led to the escalation of crowding. The journalist ABDULRAHMAN was present to cover the incident via his mobile phone.
The Occupation soldiers assaulted him while he was covering the incident. Four of them were District Coordination Office (DCO) officers who stopped him for a few minutes and attempted to assault him and confiscate his phone. After arguing with him, they snatched his phone and deleted all materials from the phone studio and bin, they then returned the phone to him, and he left the premises.
April 28th, the Occupation forces targeted the Palestine Tv personnel in Qalqilya with sponge bullets during their coverage of the clashes in Kafr Qaddum to the east of Qalqilya. This led to the injury of the Tv cameraman, MOHAMMED ANAYA with a bullet in the hand and deflected to hit the chest.
The cameraman of Palestine Tv, MOHAMMED ANAYA (31 years old) reported to MADA that he was with his colleague the reporter of Palestine Tv, YANAL AL-GADAA before the Friday prayers to cover the weekly demonstrations against the settlement and to open the village road which is closed for 20 years in “Kafr Qaddum”.
At around 01:30 PM, the demonstration started, and the Occupation forces started firing tear gas canisters, flashbangs, and rubber bullets from a distance of 300m at the Palestine Tv staff that was located at the top of the mountain behind the citizens and the press staffs.
During the coverage, one of the Occupation soldiers climbed down the mountain and mounted the roof of one of the houses on the opposite side from the Tv crew. The reporter AL-GADAA, the reporter of Palestine Tv, moved to a safer place and during that, the Occupation forces targeted them with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. However, none hit them, until they reached a safer area.
The crew continued covering despite the presence in an unsafe area and while wearing the full press uniform. One of the soldiers targeted them with a sponge bullet directly, which led to the injury of the cameraman ANAYA in his left forearm. Then the bullet deflected to hit his left chest area. As a result, the camera hit the ground and was destroyed completely.
The Journalist had medical field treatment in a Red Crescent ambulance, as his hand was cut and bruised. His chest, however, was not hurt due to the protection of the body armor.
