Report: Increase in violations against press freedoms in occupied Palestinian territory

November 2016 saw a significant increase in violations against media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territory, with the large majority of violations committed by Israeli forces, according to a report from the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA).

The Ramallah-based NGO released a report on Tuesday highlighting that in November alone, a total of 31 “violations against media freedom” were documented, with 27 violations committed by Israeli forces and four committed by various Palestinian “apparatuses” in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

Eleven violations had been recorded in October by Israeli forces, included restrictions on the movement of many journalists and media outlets, raids on press offices, destruction of property, and the detention of Palestinian journalists.

According to MADA, Israeli authorities banned a total of 28 journalists from traveling from Gaza to the occupied West Bank for the seventh annual Fatah conference, despite all the journalists applying for permits ahead of the event.

On 17 November, MADA reported that Israeli forces “attacked” more than nine journalists by beating them and firing tear gas and pepper spray at them while the journalists were covering peaceful demonstrations against illegal Israeli settlements and the displacement of bedouins in the Jordan Valley.

On 16 November, Israeli forces stormed the media programme for the Health Development Office in Ramallah after bombing the front door open. Forces then smashed equipment and confiscated several technical devices, including three hard-discs, two servers and a recording device for cameras.

Throughout the month, Israeli forces stormed three printing houses across the occupied West Bank – the Taj printing house in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, the Asayel Yafa printing house in Qaqiliya and the Alam al-Ibdaa printing house in Salfit – where they caused thousands of dollars of damage.

Israeli forces raided the home of Palestinian journalist Khaled Maali, 49, in the northern occupied West Bank city of Salfit, before dawn on 3 November and confiscated his phone and computer before detaining him, his wife, Afaf, said.

According to Afaf, Israeli authorities interrogated Khalid regarding four personal photographs and a picture of Al-Aqsa Mosque which they considered a form of incitement.

Khalid refuted their claims and adamantly stressed that the photos were all to help in work as a journalist and that everything he publishes is legal and falls within professional standards.

MADA criticised the Israeli authorities’ stipulation that Maali, who was held for eight days for alleged Facebook “incitement”, should not engage in any media activity for a month after his release. His bail was set at 7,000 shekels ($1,832).

Israeli forces detained cameraman Nidal Asmar Al-Natsheh, 28, from his home in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron on 9 November and held him in solitary confinement at a detention centre in the central Israeli city of Petak Tikva.

Al-Natsheh told MADA that during his detention, he was interrogated regarding a film he produced a year and a half ago about the situation of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons and the Israeli policy of attempting to force feed them.

Israeli authorities have carried out a crackdown on Palestinian journalists and human rights activists since a wave of violence erupted in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory last October, with several dozen Palestinian journalists being detained by Israeli forces.

“Israel’s systematic assault on Palestinian journalists and media institutions is part of a broader campaign to instil fear and silence in an entire population,” Jamal Dajani of the Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office said in a press release in May, following an attack on Palestinian journalists at a World Press Freedom demonstration in May.

“Today, freedom of expression has become grounds for arrest, under the Israeli pretext of incitement. Israel wants to stop Palestinians from reporting on Israeli human rights violations; Israel doesn’t want the world to know the real facts on the ground.”