The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
issued the 12th in a series of reports titled “Silencing the
Press – Documentation of Israeli Attacks against Media Personnel in the
OPT.“
The report addresses attacks launched by the
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on local and international media personnel
working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It covers the period from 01 November 2010 to
31 July 2011. It includes detailed accounts of all Israeli attacks on
journalists and media institutions, as documented by PCHR. This documentation is supported by
testimonies by victims and eyewitnesses and by field investigations.
PCHR’s investigations refute many IOF’s claims regarding certain crimes,
including opening fire at journalists. PCHR believes that these crimes
were committed willfully using excessive lethal force, without taking into
consideration the principles of distinction and proportionality, and that these
crimes were not justified by security necessity.
The reporting period witnessed 112 attacks by
IOF against local and international media personnel and institutions,
including: violations of media personnel’s right to life and right to safety and
security of person; beating media personnel and subjecting them to other means
of violence and humiliating and degrading treatment; arresting and holding
media personnel; denying media personnel access to certain areas and preventing
them from covering certain incidents; confiscation of media equipment and
devices; preventing media personnel from traveling abroad; raiding media
personnel’s houses; and destroying equipment and cars of media personnel while
on duty.
The reporting period also witnessed
approximately 35 attacks against media personnel while professionally covering
peaceful demonstrations organized by dozens of Palestinian civilians and
international solidarity activists in protest against the confiscation of
Palestinian lands in the West Bank for the construction of the annexation wall
or expansion of Israeli settlements. In many of the documented incidents, media
personnel sustained serious wounds despite the protection ensured for them by
the international law.
The report concludes that the majority of the
crimes committed by IOF against local and international media personnel were
intentional and part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at isolating the OPT
and attempting to hide crimes of killing and maltreatment committed against unarmed
civilians.
In the report, PCHR calls upon the High
Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to intervene promptly and
immediately, fulfill their obligation and provide protection to Palestinians
and to their property. PCHR calls also upon international media institutions to
continue to cover crimes committed against media personnel in the OPT, and make
all possible efforts at the international level to exert of pressure on the
government of Israel and compel it to put an end to crimes committed against
Palestinians and their property in general, and against media personnel in
particular.
For more information, please contact the
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights at pchr@pchrgaza.org
or +972-(0)8-282
