Ramallah/ PNN/
The month of May witnessed an increase in the number of violations against media freedoms in Palestine compared to April by 273%, as the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms “MADA” documented a total of 41 violations during May committed against media freedoms in Palestine, 37 thereof committed by the Israeli occupation, while Palestinian authorities in the West Bank committed a total of 4 violations, bearing in mind that the previous month, April witnessed 15 violations.
Israeli Violations:
During May, the Israeli occupation forces and settlers committed a total of 37 attacks against media freedoms in Palestine, representing 90% of the total number of violations documented, which is a greater than the Israeli violations documented during April (as the Israeli authorities committed a total of 12 violations during April), noting that most of these Israeli attacks, in both months, fall within the serious physical attacks to the life and work of journalists and media freedoms.
The 37 Israeli violations were among the most serious types of violations, most of which took place during covering field events in the city of Jerusalem for the so-called "flag march" organized by settlers every year to celebrate Unification Day, during which settlers attacked journalists and citizens by throwing stones and empty bottles.
During the past month, 11 physical injuries against journalists were documented, including the injury of the journalist YAHYA ABU ZUNAID with a stone in the head and he was also beaten and detained after several days. This is in addition to the injury of journalist DIA HAJ YAHYA by a stone in the head, the freelance cameraman IBRAHIM AL-SINJLAWI, the journalist LATIFA ABDEL-LATIF, and the journalist RAJAI AL-KHATIB were also injured with empty bottles.
The journalists JAMAL AWAD, YAZAN HAMAYEL, ABDULLAH BAHASH, and MOHAMMAD THABET were beaten by the occupation soldiers and police even though they knew that they were journalists.
Meanwhile, the staff of "WAFA" Agency were detained in Masafer Yatta, as Palestine TV crew and both the journalist ADEL ABU NIMA and the journalist SULEIMAN ABU SROUR were detained in Aqabat Jaber Camp in the city of Jericho.
The occupation forces also prevented six journalists from covering events, including the photojournalist WEHBE MAKIYA, the cameraman SUHAIB JABARIN, MOHAMMAD ASHO, and MUSTAFA AL-KHAROUF.
The occupation forces targeted seven journalists with live bullets in the city of Nablus to prevent them from covering the field events. They are ROYA TV crew, and both cameramen NASSER SHTAYYEH, ABDULLAH BAHASH, and ASHRAF ABU SHAWISH. The journalists ABDULLAH BAHASH and ABDUL RAHMAN YOUNES were also targeted with gas bombs while they were covering the occupation forces' incursion into the vicinity of Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus.
The occupation authorities summoned the cameraman FIRAS HINDAWI for investigation in room 4, and one of the settlers tried to threaten Al-Jazeera English crew to prevent them from performing their work near "Ain Samia" gathering, while Israeli authorities hacked the website of Al-Istiqlal Newspaper and Al-Hadaf portal and disabled it for days.
Palestinian Violations:
The number of Palestinian violations increased slightly during May, as four violations were documented, confined to the West Bank, accounting for 10% of all violations committed. They included the attack of the security of Rafidia Hospital against the cameraman of the French Agency, JAAFAR SHTAYYEH, and his son ZAIN, who works for the same Agency, and prevented them from covering the funeral of a martyr who was at the Hospital then.
