Israel army stops Palestine TV documenting settlement activities in West Bank

Israeli soldiers prevented the Palestine TV crew from reporting at Ein Al-Bayda village in the occupied West Bank and forced the media crew to leave the area, reported Wafa news agency.

According to a Wafa correspondent, the soldiers held the Palestine TV van and checked the journalists and crew members’ papers before ordering them to leave the area.

The Palestinian journalists were reporting about the expansion of illegal settlements Maon and Karmiel around Ein Al-Bayda village.

Rateb Al-Jabour, a local activist against Israeli settlements in the area, told Wafa that Israeli soldiers and settlers regularly harass Palestinian residents in the area and destroy their lands as settlers attempt to set up livestock farms.

READ: Settlers stop Palestine TV documenting settlement activities in West Bank

Palestine TV is a local broadcaster funded by the Palestinian Authority. Israeli authorities routinely suppress any PA-supported or linked activity.

In a report published last June, the Journalists’ Support Committee, a non-profit organisation representing journalists, said Israeli occupation forces have committed more than 56 violations against Palestinian journalists in occupied Jerusalem during the first half of 2020.

The report also revealed that the Israeli occupation renewed the ban on Palestine TV‘s activities in Jerusalem, fined six journalists, confiscated four items of media equipment, raided the homes of six journalists, threatened and beat six others, and sentenced one.

In 2019, Israeli police and intelligence personnel stormed Palestine TV‘s office in East Jerusalem and handed the closure order to its administration.