PA: rights group demands release of journalist who covered funeral attack 

A rights group has demanded that the Palestinian Authority security services should release “immediately” photojournalist Wahaj Bani Mufleh, who was arrested after documenting the attack by security personnel on the funeral of martyr Abdel-Fattah Kharousheh earlier this month. Aside from its agency work, ActiveStills campaigns for journalists’ rights to engage in their professional activities unhindered.

The group said on Tuesday that Bani Mufleh, an independent photojournalist and a new contributor to ActiveStills Photography, was attacked by members of the Palestinian security services while covering Kharousheh’s funeral in Nablus on 8 March. Security agents fired tear gas and stun grenades at mourners, as a result of which the body was almost dropped by pall-bearers. After the incident, Bani Mufleh published a post on Facebook in which he criticised the PA’s suppression of mourners and attacks on journalists at the funeral.

According to the group, on 12 March the PA intelligence service in Nablus issued a summons for Bani Mufleh to go for interrogation. It added that he went to the intelligence office on 13 March at about 1pm and has not been allowed to leave since then. ActiveStills pointed out that the PA has called for the detention and ill-treatment of journalists and activists who criticise it, and to curb freedom of expression.

Kharousheh was a resistance fighter and former Palestinian prisoner who was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces in Jenin refugee camp along with five of his comrades: Tariq Natour, Ziyad Al-Zureini, Moatassem Sabbagh, Mohammed Ghazzawi and Mohammed Khallouf.

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