The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) calls upon all world nations to vote 'yes' to the Palestinian bid for non-member state recognition at the United Nations. The vote will take place tonight, on the United Nations’ enshrined Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

MADA General Director Mousa Rimawi states that Israel’s sustained occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967 has inflicted unlimited levels of suffering upon all segments of Palestinian society, including journalists. Israel frequently suppresses freedom of expression in various forms, has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian journalists since the beginning of occupation, and has severely limited the development of Palestinian media.

Rimawi emphasized that the Palestinian people have been deprived of their natural right to establish an independent state of their own since the UN partition resolution of 1947. It is highly unjust to allow this situation to continue and the international community is urged to force Israel’s implementation of the resolutions of international legitimacy as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which freedom of expression is guaranteed in Article 19. Israel must not be allowed to behave in the manner of a state above the law, encouraging it to commit further crimes against journalists and other segments of Palestinian society.

Rimawi expressed hope that UN membership for Palestine will aid in improving the status of media freedoms, which have been subject to significant violations throughout the year, and provide healthier conditions for the development of Palestinian media as a whole.