An injured journalist screams during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Gaza border east of the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on September 15, 2023. Photo by Abd Rahim Al-Khatib/UPI
July 7 (UPI) — The Foreign Press Association, a nonprofit group representing journalists working in Israel and Palestine, has slammed Israeli authorities for what it calls “information censorship.”
“This is the first time that Israel has imposed such long-term and strict information controls,” FPA said in a statement on Sunday.
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“The agency has repeatedly denied our pleas for access, fought us in court to maintain its strict bans, and offered only a handful of tightly controlled ’embedding’ opportunities to a small number of our members.”
The group added that Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip continue to face “unprecedented threats” from Israeli forces who monitor and restrict their movements. “This raises the question of what it is that Israel does not want international journalists to see,” the group said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli journalist Nir Hasson and Palestinian journalist Saif Kwasmi were harassed and assaulted by Israelis during the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March last week, drawing condemnation from the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Israeli police started beating me and took me to a side street to arrest me,” Kwasmi told the nonprofit. “I told them I was a journalist and showed them my ID. They took us to a journalists’ area outside the Old City.”
The annual march marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem on June 5 in the 1967 war. Palestinians have been banned from protest marches for half a century and regularly censors media coverage of the Israeli occupation.
Indeed, after Israel imposed a total ban on Al Jazeera reporting in Israel in May, it has detained journalists solely on suspicion of working for the organisation.
CPJ reported that at least 48 journalists have been arrested by Israeli authorities since October 7, 36 of whom remain in Israeli custody. Only three journalists have been arrested by Palestinian authorities.
So far, 108 journalists covering the war have been reported killed and 32 injured; their deaths are being tracked by a non-profit organization.
