Bethlehem / PNN /
Palestinian human rights defenders, activists, and journalists are facing a systematic Israeli campaign aimed at deterring them from performing their duties to assist Palestinian citizens, who have been subjected to various types of assaults since October 7th.
Human rights defenders and journalists have long endured harassment by Israeli occupation forces throughout their decades-long struggle for human, national, and popular rights. However, these attacks have intensified in severity and violence since last October, escalating to killings, assaults, arrests, and torture in prisons—unprecedented measures against human rights defenders.
Palestinian and international human rights organizations have documented the rising levels of targeting against Palestinian human rights defenders, whether Palestinian or international, by both the Israeli army and settlers, who carry out assaults under the protection of Israeli police and army forces. These attacks have taken various forms, including preventing representatives of international human rights organizations, such as the United Nations, from entering Palestinian territories. Numerous incidents of targeting Palestinian human rights defenders and journalists through killings, beatings, arrests, and torture in prisons have been documented.
In this context, human rights activist Munther Amira, who has long defended Palestinian lands and farmers, confirmed the ongoing assaults, sharing his personal experiences of attacks and violations against his home and family.
Amira recounted how Israeli forces brutally assaulted his brother before arresting him to exert pressure on Amira himself. He described how the occupation forces bound his family members, including his children, tore off the clothes of his son Mohammad because they bore the Palestinian flag, and subjected him to severe beatings on the way from his home to Rachel's Tomb, all because he turned to comfort his young daughter, who was seeking security from her father and expressing her love for him.
Amira explained that the interrogation was unimportant and focused on what Israel describes as incitement, leading to his administrative detention by an Israeli officer who sarcastically congratulated him on his arrest.
Amira pointed out that his arrest and mistreatment in Israeli prisons are intended to prevent him from continuing his work with farmers and landowners in marginalized and remote areas targeted by Israel for eviction and displacement to implement its colonial plans. He emphasized that human rights defenders worldwide do not face the level of violence, persecution, and harassment that they experience.
Journalists fare no better than human rights defenders. Hundreds have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip, with more than 160 journalists martyred and many others wounded or injured. Israeli forces have also destroyed press offices and equipment, a situation mirrored in the West Bank, where journalists' offices have been closed, their equipment and cameras confiscated, and many have been arrested. Journalists are also frequently prevented from covering events.
Journalist Abdulrahman Hassan from Bethlehem highlighted the repeated assaults he and his colleagues have faced from Israeli forces while covering events, where soldiers often prevent them from performing their duties and report on the incidents, resorting to brutal attacks.
Hassan noted that the most recent assault occurred a few weeks ago while covering events in the village of Artas, south of Bethlehem, where Israeli soldiers confiscated the phones and cameras of some journalists, and even seized Hassan’s personal ID.
Hassan explained that journalists work in unsafe conditions despite their efforts to report the truth and maintain a safe distance from Israeli soldiers, who nevertheless persist in harassing and obstructing them from reporting the truth and continuing their work. Journalists strive to avoid direct confrontation with Israeli forces, but the threats of arrest and detention are part of a systematic and escalating policy aimed at stifling the work of Palestinian journalists and human rights defenders, preventing them from conveying the truth to the world.
This report was produced as part of the "Investing in Human Rights" project implemented by the Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society in cooperation with the Palestine News Network (PNN) and funded by the French solidarity group with the Palestinian people ASTM.
