RAMALLAH, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 (WAFA) – The General Supervisor of Official Media, Ahmad Assaf, said today that the Israeli occupation authorities’ targeting of the Palestinian official media is a systematic policy carried out by the Israeli government, noting that it renewed the ban on the work of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) in occupied Jerusalem for the fifth time in three years. Assaf made the remarks during a meeting at the PBC headquarters in Ramallah with foreign ambassadors and consuls on the occupation’s crimes against the official media. During the meeting, Assaf highlighted the Israeli occupation forces raiding, two days ago, the office of the company that provides services to Palestine radio and television, where all its crews were summoned and interrogated for several hours and informed not to provide any service to the official media crews in particular. He also reviewed the attacks on the official media crews since 1994, indicating that nine journalists were killed since that year, adding that they were all working in the field and wearing their press jackets. He revealed that 200 injuries from Israeli fire were documented for journalists from the official media even though the number of correspondents in all governorates is 60 reporters, which means that all of them were wounded, and some of them were injured more than once. ‘This indicates the extent of the direct targeting of the official media crews,’ he stressed. “Since 2015, 26 journalists from the PBC have been arrested while carrying out their journalistic work that is supposed to be safeguarded and guaranteed by international law. In addition to that, PBC staff were detained hundreds of times, and its work has been directly hindered, and this is additional evidence that our crews are directly targeted,’ Assaf said, adding that PBC equipment, such as cameras, were broken or onfiscated, and six broadcasting vehicles were vandalized. Assaf touched on the crimes of the occupation committed against the official media since 2000, saying the occupation planes bombed the transmission and air feed station in Ramallah on December 10, 2000, which also contains the main broadcasting equipment. ‘On November 20, 2000, the occupation planes bombed the headquarters of Voice of Palestine radio in the Gaza Strip, and on December 13, 2001, the occupation blew up the main transmission station in Ramallah. On January 19, 2022, the occupation blew up the PBC building in Umm al Sharayet neighborhood in Al-Bireh. On February 21, 2022, the Voice of Palestine studios and the transmission tower in the Gaza Strip was bombed again,” he said. The General Supervisor pointed out that the official media keeps pace with the development in the world of “social media”, as it launched about 25 platforms, broadcasting in seven different languages, in order to ensure that the message of the Palestinian people is conveyed to the world. He added, however, that the social media platforms responded to 90 percent of the Israeli government’s requests to ban Palestinian content, and confirmed that the content of the official media was subjected to 50 violations during the past year. He noted that the Palestinian content is being fought under the charge of “incitement”, because it only covers field events, such as news of martyrs, funerals and all the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people, pointing out that there are direct calls for killing by Israeli officials on a daily basis. ‘The PBC monitors this Israeli incitement daily. It monitored tens of thousands of calls for killing by Israeli media outlets through various social media platforms that fight Palestinian content. On the other hand, these platforms allow the Israeli media to describe the Palestinian people in the most horrible terms, and in a clear incitement to kill and displace them,’ Assaf said. He added that these double standards cannot be tolerated, as the occupation clearly wants to block the voice of the Palestinian people and to continue committing its crimes silently, in order to preserve its lie that it is a democratic country that respects the freedom of journalistic work, but the reality is completely different. “The occupation was not deterred by its killing of the two journalists, Shireen Abu Akleh and Ghufran Warasneh. The occupation and its leaders were not brought to international trial and not held accountable. We do not even see statements of denunciation anymore, as if the targeting of the Palestinian media with planes, tanks, killing and arrest is normal,” he said. On the other hand, he said, the Israeli media is celebrated in some capitals, although it promotes this ‘rogue racist state.’ ‘The so-called extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted on his page that the location of the Palestine TV Channel is Syria. If our place is in Syria, then his place is supposed to be behind bars and in the International Criminal Court, along with his government, and we will remain on this land,’ he said. Assaf affirmed that the PBC will not leave Jerusalem prey to the Israeli occupation authorities, adding ‘despite all this prevention, oppression and aggression, we will continue to cover the steadfastness of the Jerusalemites on their land and sanctities that are subjected to daily attacks, and despite the closure of the service office, dozens of videos reach us from Jerusalem. We have broadcast part of them, and we will broadcast all violations against our holy city.’ He stressed the need to stop the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the official media, which is carrying out its professional duty towards its people, affirming that the lie of ‘incitement’ claimed by the occupation government is used by Israel to fight the Palestinian media. He warned that if this system is not deterred, the alternative would be killing all Palestinian journalists, who insist on staying in the field to cover these crimes. He confirmed that the PBC will follow up the file of crimes against the official media at various Arab and international levels, so that the world stands up to its responsibilities to stop these crimes. For his part, the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Nasser Abu Bakr, said that the Israeli occupation government declared on February 15, 2016, a massive war against the Palestinian media, but this declaration went unnoticed and was never confronted. “Today we feel that we are alone, and no one stands with us, and no one wants to hold the killer accountable, and everyone is waiting for a mistake from the victim to start attacking him,” he said, pointing that ‘8,600 assaults and crimes documented in photos and videos have been monitored against journalists since 2013 until today, which means that three assault crimes occur daily.’ He noted that 55 journalists have been shot dead by the Israeli occupation army, the last of whom are the two journalists, Shireen Abu Akleh and Ghufran Warasneh, and journalists are attacked and none move a finger. In 2022, 920 attacks took place against journalists, while 20% of these attacks were monitored against women journalists. Abu Bakr called on the consuls and ambassadors to take a stand against these crimes committed against Palestinian journalists. Meanwhile, journalist Lana Kamela, one of the workers in the office that provides services to the PBC in Jerusalem, talked about the punitive measures that are practiced against Jerusalemite journalists working in the field and the systematic beating and abuse by the occupation. Palestine TV correspondent, Ali Dar Ali, confirmed that the occupation soldiers directly target reporters, touching on his own experience. He revealed that he was subjected to several injuries during his field coverage, noting that he was hit in the head, hand, and side, and was also arrested for 30 days because of his work.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency