On World Press Freedom Day
7/5/2025 – Union for Justice Foundation
The Union for Justice Foundation stated that, since 7 October, the Palestinian journalist has become “wanted” by the Israeli authorities, assassinated and killed in the Gaza Strip, and arrested and pursued in the West Bank.
It added: “In the shadow of the ongoing war on Gaza and the West Bank, Israel’s targeting of media workers appears more brutal and extensive. From killing and direct targeting to arrest, injury, and prevention of coverage, through closing television channels and ending with the confiscation and destruction of equipment, these violations differ in form but share the same purpose.”
The Union for Justice Foundation, in a report issued to coincide with World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on 3 May, affirmed that the occupying state has placed the Palestinian journalist at the top of its target list in an attempt to conceal the reality of Israeli violations on the ground and prevent them from reaching public opinion, whether local, Arab, or international.
According to the Union for Justice, the image has always been a crucial factor in mobilising public opinion and prompting people worldwide to participate in activities supporting Palestine; hence Israel’s targeting of the Palestinian journalist as one of the principal conveyors of that image.
It said: “Israel views the erosion of its popularity, particularly among elites and university students in Europe because of what traditional and social media convey, as a threat to its control over the ‘narrative’ in which it had long excelled and monopolised during past decades.”
The Foundation stressed that the Occupation deliberately killed and directly targeted Palestinian journalists working in the Gaza Strip despite their wearing all identifying press insignia, and expanded the scope of journalist arrests in the West Bank, making “incitement” a ready-made charge to justify this practice.
Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli army has killed 210 journalists in the Gaza Strip, including 90 who were killed when their homes were bombed and 29 others who were killed in displacement areas, tents, and shelters, in addition to a large number of wounded and the destruction of their workplaces and homes. This period is the deadliest in the history of Palestinian journalism since its beginnings in the early twentieth century.
Media Institutions between Bombing and Closure
Since the war began, the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and closures in the West Bank have affected 112 media institutions belonging to Palestinian, Arab, and foreign outlets. In other instances, it seized the contents of these offices after closing them, as happened with the offices of Al‑Mayadeen, Al‑Jazeera, and Palestine TV in Jerusalem, and with some local radio stations, in addition to closing 14 printing presses in various West Bank governorates.
In the West Bank, the targeting of journalists was not limited to occupation soldiers; settlers also participated: some journalists were shot at, beaten, insulted, deliberately rammed by vehicles, and subjected to incitement on social‑media platforms.
Under Arrest and the Charge Is Ready
Since October 2023, human‑rights organisations have recorded 180 cases of arrest and detention among journalists; 49 remain in detention, the most recent being journalist ‘Ali al‑Samoudi from Jenin, in addition to six others whom the Occupation has detained since before the war.
Among the imprisoned journalists, 19 are held under arbitrary administrative detention without indictment, including Nidal Abu ‘Aker from Bethlehem, who has spent about 20 years in the Occupation’s prisons, most of them under administrative detention, and Samer Khuwaira from Nablus, whom the Occupation arrested a few weeks ago and placed under administrative detention because of his work at a local radio station.
Since the beginning of the war, the Occupation has turned social‑media platforms and journalistic work from tools of freedom of opinion and expression into instruments of repression and a pretext for arrest under the vague charge of “incitement,” which lacks clear parameters and can thus be wielded against journalists.
The Occupation also commits the crime of enforced disappearance against some journalists: since 7 October 2023, it has refused to disclose the fate of journalists Nidal al‑Wahidi and Haitham ‘Abd al‑Wahid from the Gaza Strip, despite efforts by many human‑rights organisations.
Journalists in the Occupation’s prisons, like other detainees, are subjected to systematic torture, severe beatings, starvation, medical neglect, daily humiliation and abuse, ongoing deprivation and confiscation policies, and detention in harsh and degrading conditions.
Targeting the Digital Sphere
Israel’s targeting of Palestinian journalism has not been confined to physical space; it has extended to cyberspace and social‑media platforms.
Although these platforms are owned by global companies, they have nevertheless fully yielded to Israeli pressure aimed at blocking Palestinian content and preventing it from reaching users.
This blocking includes closing personal pages belonging to journalists and others belonging to media institutions because their owners exercised their right to freedom of expression by posting pictures, videos, and tweets highlighting the Occupation’s violations against Palestinians.
End
