Palestine: CFWIJ Is Appalled At The Violence Israeli Forces Are Enacting On The Journalists Covering The Crisis In The Region
Location: Palestine, Gaza
Date: May 19, 2021
On Monday, Israeli forces bombed and damaged the offices of "Filastiniat" association and its affiliated news agency "Nawa". Since no prior warning was given before the attack, it resulted in two civilian casualties including one child. In a separate incident today, Palestinian photojournalists Latifeh Abdellatif was physically assaulted by armed Israeli officers for covering their actions on ground.
The bombing of the Ghazi Shawa building in Gaza damaged the offices of the women’s rights and youth organization “Filastiniyat” as well as its affiliated news channel, “Nawa Online Women Media Network”. This was confirmed in a Facebook post by the channel itself, as well as by Nawa’s editor-in-chief Wafa Abdel-Rahman. Abdel-Rehman provided the details of the incident to a correspondent of Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, a regional press freedom group. Since Israel did not send any prior warnings before the attack, the bombings resulted in two civilian casualties, whom the news organization identified as “a man and his daughter”. Prior to this, on May 15, Israeli forces also attacked the offices of international news media organizations including Al-Jazeera and Associated Press.
In a separate incident today, a photojournalist for Middle East Eye, Latifeh Abdellatif was physically assaulted by armed Israeli officers in East Jerusalem at the Damascus Gate, for covering the illegal protests said officers were carrying out in the area. The footage of it was widely circulated on social media, resulting in public outcry from prominent Palestinian activists including resident of Sheikh Jarrah, Mohammed El-Kurd. This is not the first attack on Palestinian journalists by the Israeli forces either. On May 10, they attacked at least 10 journalists at the Al-Aqsa mosque including Liwa Abu Armila and Fatima Al-Bakri. The indiscriminate bombing of Gaza has also resulted in the deaths of two Palestinian journalists, Yusef Abu Hussein and Reema Saad.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is absolutely appalled at the actions of the Israeli state against journalists covering the violence in the region. The silence of global powers at this blatant silencing of the press is shocking and reprehensible. No country that calls itself a democracy should be able to enact or tolerate such violence against the journalist community. These repeated attacks on members of the news media, who are already risking their lives to fulfill their duties, need to stop immediately.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.