The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claims that the Israeli forces have arrested at least 79 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza since the start of the war. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have both condemned the increasing number of attacks on journalists working in the West Bank. This week, journalists were among the injured after a group of Israeli settlers attacked them during an olive harvest. These attacks are taking an increasingly large toll on the personal and occupational lives of journalists in the West Bank and Gaza.
Ahmad Al-Bazz, an award-winning journalist and documentary maker based in the West Bank, has been working there for around ten years. He has produced and directed two documentaries, To My Mother (2014) and Homelessness (2018). His work has a focus on Palestinian-Israeli affairs.
When speaking to him about the situation in the West Bank, Ahmad said: “Everything we’re facing today as journalists is the same as what we were facing before the war, the frequency is just increasing.”
He describes an instance of violence he faced: “This February, I was with a German colleague in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the north of the West Bank.
“We were not sure if the soldier shooting at us realised we were journalists because we believed he was shooting at any moving body.
“We stayed inside a little market and called the Red Cross to facilitate our way out of the camp.
“After a few hours, they sent us a vehicle that took us to the Israeli military.
“They did a check, and we got out of that area.”
While the CPJ believes that 26 journalists have been killed in targeted attacks, Ahmad said: “Rather than saying that there is a systematic targeting of journalists […] because the Israeli regime is smarter than this, I think that the aggressive attitude of soldiers is because they just see us as Palestinians, a Palestinian is a Palestinian.”
If you’re a civilian, if you are medical staff, if you’re a journalist, it doesn’t really matter.
“If they decide to shoot, they shoot; if they choose to detain, they detain.
“I am noticing an increase in the aggressive nature of the soldiers, which is affecting everything.”
In Gaza, 252 journalists have been killed, the most of any conflict on record. Ahmad is in contact with Palestinian journalists there, and he said “The last time I had a call with a colleague was two months ago.
“She told me she went to the aid site where American aid was distributed.”
“She was asking people what they had been going through when suddenly the soldiers started shooting.
“She was in the line, and she had to do what everyone else was doing, which was try and hide in the sand. She published a video of this event.”
Since the ceasefire, there have been renewed calls for the freedom of the press in Gaza by the Foreign Press Association and others, but there has yet to be any improvement.
She/Her
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