Ramallah – 7th June 2023 - The month of May witnessed an increase in the number of violations against media freedoms in Palestine compared to April by 273%, as the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms “MADA” documented a total of 41 violations during May committed against media freedoms in Palestine, 37 thereof committed by the Israeli occupation, while Palestinian authorities in the West Bank committed a total of 4 violations, bearing in mind that the previous month, April witnessed 15 violations.
Israeli Violations:
During May, the Israeli occupation forces and settlers committed a total of 37 attacks against media freedoms in Palestine, representing 90% of the total number of violations documented, which is a greater than the Israeli violations documented during April (as the Israeli authorities committed a total of 12 violations during April), noting that most of these Israeli attacks, in both months, fall within the serious physical attacks to the life and work of journalists and media freedoms.
The 37 Israeli violations were among the most serious types of violations, most of which took place during covering field events in the city of Jerusalem for the so-called "flag march" organized by settlers every year to celebrate Unification Day, during which settlers attacked journalists and citizens by throwing stones and empty bottles.
During the past month, 11 physical injuries against journalists were documented, including the injury of the journalist YAHYA ABU ZUNAID with a stone in the head and he was also beaten and detained after several days. This is in addition to the injury of journalist DIA HAJ YAHYA by a stone in the head, the freelance cameraman IBRAHIM AL-SINJLAWI, the journalist LATIFA ABDEL-LATIF, and the journalist RAJAI AL-KHATIB were also injured with empty bottles.
The journalists JAMAL AWAD, YAZAN HAMAYEL, ABDULLAH BAHASH, and MOHAMMAD THABET were beaten by the occupation soldiers and police even though they knew that they were journalists.
Meanwhile, the staff of "WAFA" Agency were detained in Masafer Yatta, as Palestine TV crew and both the journalist ADEL ABU NIMA and the journalist SULEIMAN ABU SROUR were detained in Aqabat Jaber Camp in the city of Jericho.
The occupation forces also prevented six journalists from covering events, including the photojournalist WEHBE MAKIYA, the cameraman SUHAIB JABARIN, MOHAMMAD ASHO, and MUSTAFA AL-KHAROUF.
The occupation forces targeted seven journalists with live bullets in the city of Nablus to prevent them from covering the field events. They are ROYA TV crew, and both cameramen NASSER SHTAYYEH, ABDULLAH BAHASH, and ASHRAF ABU SHAWISH. The journalists ABDULLAH BAHASH and ABDUL RAHMAN YOUNES were also targeted with gas bombs while they were covering the occupation forces' incursion into the vicinity of Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus.
The occupation authorities summoned the cameraman FIRAS HINDAWI for investigation in room 4, and one of the settlers tried to threaten Al-Jazeera English crew to prevent them from performing their work near "Ain Samia" gathering, while Israeli authorities hacked the website of Al-Istiqlal Newspaper and Al-Hadaf portal and disabled it for days.
Palestinian Violations:
The number of Palestinian violations increased slightly during May, as four violations were documented, confined to the West Bank, accounting for 10% of all violations committed. They included the attack of the security of Rafidia Hospital against the cameraman of the French Agency, JAAFAR SHTAYYEH, and his son ZAIN, who works for the same Agency, and prevented them from covering the funeral of a martyr who was at the Hospital then.
Details of Violations:
4th May - Security officers at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus attacked the cameraman of the French Agency, JAAFAR SHTAYYEH, and his son, the cameraman, ZAIN, on Thursday afternoon, and prevented them from covering the funeral of a martyr in the Hospital.
The cameraman of the French Agency, JAAFAR ZAHED SHTAYYEH (54 years old), stated that he and his son ZAIN were in Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, who is working as a photojournalist for the same Agency, at about 12:00PM on Thursday, covering the funeral of a martyr who was transferred to the Hospital after her martyrdom.
When the martyr was taken from the x-ray room through the corridor, she was completely covered, and nothing was visible. The cameraman, ZAIN, took some pictures of her, then one of the security forces in civilian clothes addressed him adversely and prevented him from filming. When the journalist JAAFAR spoke to him that he had no right to prevent them from filming. He attacked him, trying to beat him up.
The cameraman, ZAIN, did not help himself and tried to prevent the security officer from striking his father, so the other security forces collectively attacked and beat him brutally, causing him to lose consciousness (as he was exposed to high blood sugar). When JAAFAR tried to help his son, he was also beaten.
This attack lasted for about 15 minutes, and then the journalists were dragged to the hospital door. When one of the doctors even tried to help them, he was also beaten.
The photojournalist, ZAIN, was transferred to the National Hospital, where he stayed for nearly 3 hours until he regained consciousness, while the journalist, JAAFAR, filed a complaint with the Journalists Syndicate and the Military Intelligence against the attackers.
6th May - The occupation forces detained the crew of "Wafa" Agency at the military checkpoint established at the entrance to the village of "Umm al-Khair" on Saturday morning, obstructing their work and preventing them from reaching "Maghayer al-Abeed" in Masafer Yatta in the city of Hebron to cover settler attacks on its citizens.
Wafa Agency reporter in Hebron, Mashhour Hassan Al-Wahwah (39 years old), reported to MADA that he and his colleague, driver AHMED MUNIF AL-QAZZAZ (26 years old), were on their way at around 9:00AM, on Saturday, to “Maghayer al-Abeed” in Musafir Yatta, south of Hebron, to cover the stand condemning the settlement and the repeated settlers’ attacks on the people and pastures of the area.
Upon their arrival to the village of "Umm al-Khair", it was found that the occupation forces had set up a barrier at the entrance of the village to prevent journalists from reaching the area, where the occupation soldiers confiscated the identity cards of the reporter and the driver and detained them for nearly an hour.
After they returned the identity cards, they told the driver, AL-QAZZAZ, that he was wanted. He was taken to a military checkpoint far from the place, and there he was interrogated about the reasons for his presence with the journalist MASHHOUR in that place, then he was released after being detained for about an hour and a half, and he was returned from where he was arrested.
9th May - The Israeli occupation forces targeted a group of journalists by firing bullets directly at them while they were covering the incursion into Nablus on Tuesday morning.
HAFEZ SABRA, reporter of "Roya TV", reported to MADA that a group of journalists were present at around 8:00AM on Tuesday in "Al-Arion Street" and "Ras Al-Ain" in Nablus, where a force of the occupation army stormed these areas to arrest wanted persons.
During the coverage, journalists in "Ras Al-Ain" were targeted with live bullets to prevent them from covering, as the journalist NASSER SHTAYYEH, MAJDI SHTAYYEH, ABDULLAH BAHSH, and ASHRAF ABU SHAWISH were targeted from a distance not exceeding 200 meters, but none of them was injured.
Meanwhile, the crew of "Roya" TV (the reporter HAFEZ SABRA and cameraman MAHMOUD FAWZI) were targeted with live bullets from a distance of 500 meters while covering the "Arion Street", but the bullets hit the trees around them.
10th May - The website of "Al-Istiqlal" Newspaper was hacked by Israeli authorities, and pictures of martyrs were shared thereon with the comment "Who's next?", which is why it went down for 5 days.
The Newspaper's’ Website Manager, ABDULLAH YOU SEF MAGHARI (30 yearsold), stated t MADA that the website of "Al-Istiqlal" Newspaper was hacked on the first day of the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip.
The Israeli authorities added a picture of a number of the martyrs, with the comment “Who is next?” The website remained hacked for five days due to programming problems, as the workers lost control of it until the specialists were able to solve the problem.
12th May - The website of "Al-Hadaf News Portal" went down for 48 hours on the second day of the aggression on Gaza Strip as a result of hacking by Israeli authorities, and the data was transferred to another server to fix the problem.
The editorial director of Al-Hadaf Portal Website, SAMI YOUSEF ISSA (37 years old), stated that since the second day of the aggression on Gaza Strip, the hacking started against the website, which resulted in huge amount of visits that the server could no longer handle, which led to the sudden crash of the site, according to programmers.
Hours after the start of the hacking, the specialists lost the ability to access the server, and it took about 48 hours until they were able to solve the problem, as all the data was transferred to another server.
16th May - The occupation forces targeted journalists with gas bombs while they were present to cover the storming of soldiers and settlers in the vicinity of "Joseph's Tomb" on Tuesday evening, which caused the journalists to suffocate due to the smell of gas.
Quds News Network reporter ABDULLAH TAYSEER BAHASH (24 years old) stated that he and his colleague, the cameraman of Russia Today and a reporter for Palestine TV, ABD AL-RAHMAN MOHAMMAD YOUNES (35 years old), went to the vicinity of “Joseph’s Tomb” east of Nablus at around 10:30PM, to cover the incursion of the army soldiers to the place in preparation for the storming of the settlers.
The journalists, who were wearing the “Press” Uniform, stood in "Amman" Street, where they took a safe corner to cover. During the coverage, they were targeted with a group of gas bombs directly and from a distance not exceeding 20 meters, as one of the gas bombs bounced off and hit the journalist BAHSH, but it was a minor injury.
The journalists suffocated with the smell of gas for a short time, but they did not receive any treatment and continued their coverage until 1:00AM the following day.
18th May - The occupation authorities suppressed Jerusalemite journalists, obstructed their work, and prevented them from covering the so-called "flag march" in which settlers took part to commemorate the occupation of Jerusalem or the so-called "Unification Day", where settlers shouted racist chants and assaulted Jerusalemite citizens by throwing stones and empty bottles at the citizens and journalists, which led to the obstruction of the work of dozens of journalists and prevented them from covering.
Al-Mayadeen TV cameraman, WAHBI KAMEL MAKEYA (38 years old), Stated that around 6:30 AM on Thursday morning he was at Al-Aqsa Mosque squares to cover the Flag March, But the police officers took him out and prevented him from covering the event. So, he went to the Chain Gate and found their (the cameraman of Al-Ghad TV SUHAIB JABAREEN, Al-Mayadeen TV cameraman, MOHAMMED ASHO, Anatolia Agency cameraman MUSTAFA ALKHAROUF) who were all pushed by hand to prevent them from covering the existing events, then after that all journalists were forced to leave the area until they reached Damascus Gate then they continued the coverage of the events until 7:30PM.
The freelance cameraman IBRAHIM KAMAL HAMAD "AL-SINJLAWI" (27 years old) stated that the police and border guards obstructed his work on the same day, as he was on his way at around 3:30PM on Thursday afternoon to the " Damascus Gate" and he was wearing the “press” vest, and when he arrived at a checkpoint set up by the police and "border guards" to secure the path of the march at the end of Khan al-Zeit Market near Damascus Gate, he showed his Israeli press card clearly and told the policeman about it, but the latter refused to allow him to pass through the checkpoint, while settlers carrying Israeli flags and Israeli journalists were allowed to pass.
The journalist was late for the press coverage, and when he arrived at Damascus Gate, he did not find a suitable place for filming due to the large number of journalists and because he was late due to the racist police checkpoint.
The journalist IBRAHIM started his press coverage, but a group of settlers threw stones and empty bottles at the journalists to prevent them from covering, and one of the bottles hit him in the head, but it did not harm him as it was plastic.
The photojournalist for "Al-Araby TV" JAMAL AMMAR AWAD (20 years old) also reported to MADA that he was with a group of journalists at around 2:50PM at “Damascus Gate" to cover the "flags march", and the police were standing in front of him and behind him.
During the coverage, the policemen attacked him and struck him with sticks. Despite the young men in the place shouting to tell them that he is a journalist, they continued to beat him for about five minutes, until the cameraman managed to escape from them.
The journalist received treatment in the hospital, and it was found that he had a tumor in the right knee caused by hairline fracture in the leg, and he is still seeing a specialist to follow up on the injury.
One of the settlers obstructed the work of "Al-Araby TV" crew and prevented it from covering the march on Thursday evening. The TV cameraman, ALI MOHAMMAD DAWANI (32 years old), stated that he and his colleague, the TV reporter, ChristINE RINAWI, were present at Damascus Gate at about 5:30PM on Thursday, to continue covering the flags march, which began in the morning.
During the coverage, one of the settlers approached them and prevented them from covering and clearly obstructed their work. He also threatened to attack them if they continued covering, but the cameraman called the policeman, who in turn forced the settler to move away from the place.
The journalist YAHYA ZIYAD ABU ZNEID (29 years old), who works for several Turkish agencies, also reported that he was standing around 6:00PM on Thursday in the place designated for journalists (near Damascus Gate stairs) to cover the march.
During the coverage, the journalist was hit by a stone in the head thrown by a settler, which caused him to feel dizzy for half an hour. However, it was a minor injury, as a result of which he received field treatment in the same place, and then continued the coverage.
Also, his colleague, photojournalist DIAA HAJ YAHYA, was hit with another stone in the head at the same time, who also received field treatment in the same place.
The settlers’ stones and bottles hit another group of journalists, including journalist LATIFA ABDEL LATIF and journalist RAJAI AL-KHATIB on same evening while covering the march.
21st May - The occupation police assaulted journalist YAHYA ZIYAD ABU ZNEID, prevented him from covering the events in Al-Qibli Mosque, and detained him at the investigation center in the Chain Gate for one hour on Sunday afternoon.
In his statement to MADA Center, journalist YAHYA ZIYAD ABU ZNEID (29 years old), who works for several Turkish agencies, mentioned that the occupation police officers obstructed his work in Al-Qibli Mosque and prevented him from covering the events there. The policeman approached him and asked for his identity card and press card. After about half an hour, the policeman returned the journalist’s cards and took him to the interrogation center near the Chain Gate, where he was searched, beaten and interrogated about the reasons for his presence in the place. Then he was released after about an hour.
23rd May - The occupation soldiers beat a group of journalists and prevented them from covering the events in the town of "Hawara" after an Israeli settlement was hit by a stone and the shops were closed on Tuesday afternoon.
In his statement to MADA, the student at the Faculty of Media and the freelance journalist, ABD AL-RAHMAN ALI DAMIDI (19 years old), stated that he and his colleagues were present with the Quds Network reporter, the journalist ABDULLAH BAHASH, the freelance journalist YAZAN HAMAYEL, and the freelance journalist SHADIA BANI SHAMSA, all of them wearing the press uniforms, while covering the closure of the occupation forces to the shops in the town of "Hawara" after a settler was hit by a stone thrown by the youths at her car.
While covering the events from a distance of 15 meters, the occupation soldiers obstructed their work and prevented them to continue covering, and when one of the soldiers tried to assault the journalist YAZAN, his colleague ABDULLAH approached him trying to pull him away, which led to the soldiers assaulting the two journalists by beating to keep them away from the place, while they shouted at the journalist SHADIA to intimidate her and prevent her from covering.
24th May - On Tuesday evening, the occupation forces beat journalist MOHAMMAD ABU THABET while he was passing through "Beit Furik" Checkpoint, east of Nablus. They detained him for about fifteen minutes and searched his car.
Freelance journalist MOHAMMAD RADWAN THABET (42 years old) reported to MADA that the occupation soldiers stopped his car at "Beit Furik" checkpoint at around 9:30PM on Tuesday while he was passing through the town despite the presence of the press badge on the car. They asked him to open the car doors and searched it. They also physically and thoroughly searched him, yelled at him, and insulted him despite telling them more than once that he was a journalist.
The journalist asked the soldier why he was screaming, and the soldier punched him with his hand below his ear, which led to swelling of the area that the journalist had treated with cold water compresses after that.
The journalist left the place after about fifteen minutes of detention and search.
25th May - The occupation forces detained a group of journalists in "Aqabat Jaber" Camp, west of Jericho, obstructing their work and preventing them from covering the storming of the camp on Wednesday evening.
Palestine TV reporter OMAR AHMED ABU AWAD (35 years old) stated that he and both (Palestine TV cameraman MOHAMMAD JAWAD ZAGHB, Wafa Agency cameraman SULEIMAN ABU SROUR and freelance journalist ADEL ABU NIMA) arrived at “Aqabat Jaber” Camp in the city of Jericho at around 11:40AM, on Wednesday evening, after they received news that the occupation forces had stormed the camp.
Despite the soldiers closing all entrances to the camp with military jeeps, the journalists were able to leave to a remote area in their vehicle and enter through a secondary road until they reached the camp.
The journalists put on the press uniforms and prepared for the live broadcast, and when the soldiers became aware of their presence, one of the jeeps approached and asked them to stop broadcasting, and threatened them by saying, "Beware of me and leave" and asked them to leave the place.
The journalists did not leave because their car was far away, and they stayed where they were, but the jeep pulled back in an attempt to run them over, but they climbed the steps of one of the buildings behind them.
The soldiers got out of the jeep with their dogs and detained the journalists in a corner for about fifteen minutes, and then let them leave.
27th May - Settlers attacked Al-Jazeera English TV crew near "Ein Samia", prevented them from covering, and almost violently crashed their car and threatened them to prevent them from being there.
Al-Jazeera English reporter NIDA IBRAHIM reported to MADA that she arrived at around 12:30PM on Saturday corresponding to 27th May with her crew, the producer and cameraman, to the Bedouin community of "Ein Samia" east of Ramallah, whose residents were expelled in the past days by force of arms by the occupation army, to film the place where the Palestinian residents of the community sought refuge after their expulsion.
Upon the arrival of the crew, an armed settler expelled them from the place, so they all moved away until they reached the main street, far from there.
The cameraman stopped on the main street to take a faraway picture of the place to include in the report, so they were surprised by a speeding car that was heading towards them, and it was clear that it wanted to collide with their car directly. The car hit them and changed course from a very close distance, to be near them.
It was a car driven by a settler with traces of bullets on the glass, and it had no number plate, and it was heading towards them at such a high speed that it looked like a serious threat to their lives.
The car continued to follow them for about ten minutes, before they took further ways to return to Ramallah, and wit stopped following them.
31st May - The occupation intelligence summoned photojournalist FIRAS HINDAWI for interrogation, after they detained and interrogated him in the field while covering an event commemorating FAISAL AL-HUSSEINI in Jerusalem.
FIRAS FAYEZ HINDAWI (31 years old), a cameraman for Marcel Productions, stated to MADA that the occupation intelligence handed him a summons for investigation on Wednesday evening, while covering an event to commemorate FAISAL AL-HUSSEINI in front of the Orient House in Jerusalem.
At about 06:00, the cameraman was covering the event, when two Israeli intelligence officers approached him, detained him and subjected him to a field investigation for ten minutes about the reasons for his presence in the place, and for whom is he filming? How will he send the video material? and are there other journalists with him?
The officer handed him a summons for interrogation on Thursday at 09:00AM.
The cameraman, HINDAWI, went to the appointment on the next day to Room 4, and there the officer reminded him that he was not allowed to film for Palestine TV, and the cameraman answered that he only works for “Marcel” Company, which is a licensed and legal company, and the same questions that were asked to him the previous day were repeated. The interrogation lasted for half an hour, and then the journalist left the place.
