TEHRAN (FNA)- Mona Kandil, journalist, says Israel goes after journalists to prevent them from documenting its crimes and rights violations against Palestinians.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Mona Kandil said “it is Israel’s strategy to silence media and prevent journalists from telling the world what really goes on in the occupied territories. Today, many of the journalists are being held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial”, on the allegations of inciting violence.
Mona Kandil is a Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah, the West Bank. She has been covering the news stories in the West Bank for various media outlets.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: What is the status of freedom of speech in the occupied territories?
A: Press freedom is seriously restricted in the occupied Palestinian territories, with Palestine 134th out of 180 on the 2018 World Press Freedom index. Israel is in 87th place. Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories regularly arrest and assault Palestinian people, and Palestinian journalists are no exception here, they face the same brutality during their work on exposing Tel Aviv's aggression. Today over 20 Palestinian journalists are currently being held in Israeli jails. Their detention is part of tight restrictions imposed by Israeli forces on journalists working in the field.
Q: Why does Israel imprison journalists? Do they pose a threat to Israel?
A: Israel is systematically going after journalists to stop them from documenting and exposing its crimes and rights violations like its illegal settlement activities in the occupied territories, home demolitions or daily detentions of Palestinians mainly children who are treated by the Israeli authorities as adults and this is against all international laws. At the end of the day they say it is Israel’s strategy to silence media and prevent journalists from telling the world what really goes on in the occupied territories. Today, many of the journalists are being held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial. Israel accuses them of inciting violence and taking part in activities harmful to its interests. Just like what happened to Mohammed al-Qiq. This journalist has been detained frequently and was only released from jail following his lengthy hunger strike in protest of his illegal incarceration.
Q: How are imprisoned Palestinian journalists treated by Israeli forces?
A: Just recently, Israeli forces slapped a Palestinian female journalist with 13-month jail term on incitement charges. Forty-two year-old Lama Khater was also fined 5,000 shekel around 1400 USD. Khater was detained by Israeli forces in 2018 during a raid on her home in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, also known as al-Khalil. She was accused of incitement through her writings and membership in a banned organization. These are just a few of multiple abuses Palestinian journalists face. Journalists have increasingly found themselves in the line of Israeli army fire especially when covering the weekly demonstrations held by Palestinians against the illegal separation wall and the building of Israeli settlements, and other protests against the Israeli occupation authorities. Israeli snipers have shot journalists with live ammunition, even while clearly marked as Press. Journalists here say all this is part of tight restrictions imposed by Israeli forces on journalists working in the field, to terrify them. The Israeli forces have also closed or harassed many Palestinian media outlets in recent years for allegedly inciting violence. In 2018, the far-right Israeli party dubbed “Israel is our home-Yisrael Beitenu” proposed legislation that could have seen journalists face up to 10 years in prison for documenting or filming abuses by soldiers against Palestinians in the occupied territories. Human rights organizations say this form of incarceration only aims to intimidate media workers. The journalists syndicate as well as other rights groups continue to call for international intervention to ensure Israel is held accountable for its crackdown on Palestinian media.
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