More than sixty Palestinian journalists are now in Israeli jails, after Israel increased arrests of reporters in occupied Palestinian territory since the war broke out in Gaza on October 7.
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In total, 61 journalists are imprisoned. Of them, 15 were detained in the first eight months of 2023 and another 46 after the conflict with Hamas broke out, according to the Palestinian Union of Journalists.
This indicates a significant increase in media employees detained by Israel since the war broke out, the entity's spokesperson, Shuruq Asad, tells EFE.
Most of those arrested are from the occupied West Bank, and some from Gaza, and “largely are under administrative arrest”a regime under which Israel arrests Palestinians without formal charges or a trial date, “so they do not know when their imprisonment will end,” Asad adds.
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According to him, Israel is implementing a campaign of repression and greater pressure on Palestinian journalists. ““Many have been arrested for things they said or content they posted on social media about Gaza,” says the spokesperson for the union group, who in turn denounces “the brutality” in prison.
Many have been arrested for things they said or content they posted on social media about Gaza.
“They are treated very brutally and there are very harsh and intense interrogations,” he added, explaining that those arrested – especially from Gaza – who were released, have testified to this.
“One said that (the Israeli forces) beat him all the time, they took him out into the open without clothes, they insulted him, he barely had food or water and he was incommunicado, without the ability to contact anyone and without his family knowing about him,” explains Asad about a case documented by the union.
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According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based group that documents violations of reporters worldwide, “journalists and media outlets across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the ground to be exceptionally challenging” since the war broke out in Gaza.
This group has recorded 25 arrests, as well as “numerous attacks, cyber attacks and censorship”, and as of January 24, 19 of these journalists “were still behind bars. In turn, Israel this year joined the countries with the highest number of imprisoned journalists, according to a list prepared annually by the Committee to Protect Journalists itself, and which is mainly made up of dictatorial regimes such as China or Burma.
The presence of Israel on the list of imprisoned reporters for 2023 “is proof that a basic democratic norm such as freedom of the press is fading while Israel applies draconian methods to silence Palestinian journalists,” said the executive director of the organization, Joei Ginsberg.
EFE
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