The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemns the Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation forces attacked yesterday (25 October): the reporter and photographer of “Alquds Net" Dyala Jwayhan, the correspondent of Palestinian News Network (PNN) Mais Abu-Ghazaleh, AP photographer Mahfouz Abu Turk. “Yediot Aharonot" newspaper photographer, Atta Ewissat was injured by Palestinian youth who’s hurled a stone on him, during coverage the events in the vicinity of Al Aqsa Mosque.
Jwayhan said that the Israeli police attacked her after taking a picture of an Israeli police officer assaulted an elderly man, so one of the soldiers beat her and pressed his leg on her foot strongly and ripped her T-shirt, and this attack led to her suffering from severe bruises in the neck and back, and tearing a muscle in her foot.
Abu Turk said that he was beaten severely by Israeli special guards, when he was in the old city. As the guards pushed him into a corner and beat him with batons, hands and feet, causing him severe pain in the left foot and right knee, and bruises on his back.
According to “Abu-Ghazaleh" while she was trying to enter Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the soldiers closed the metal barrier on her right leg, which led to a slight injury, bruises and swelling. Abu-Ghazaleh said she also saw a foreign journalist who was beaten and some of her teeth were broken, but she couldn’t identify her name.
On the other hand “Atta Ewissat" said that he was wounded in his left leg by a stone thrown at him by a Palestinian youth, while he was trying to convince a number of young men, that the foreign journalists who were accompanying him are not soldiers disguised in journalists dress, that because the Israeli occupation forces disguise as photojournalists, in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud on (8-9 October).
MADA center demands the international community to pressure Israel government to stop its attacks on journalists, particularly in Jerusalem, where a number of them had been arrested, detained and prevented from covering during the last few months.
