The Journalist Support Committee: the arrest of four journalists in the West Bank raises the number of journalists in Israeli prisons to 26 journalists

The Journalist Support Committee condemned on Monday, 30 July 2018, the arrest of four journalists in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation, bringing the toll of journalists detained in Israeli prisons to 26.

On Wednesday, July 30, 2018, the Israeli occupation forces arrested four Palestinian journalists, including Alaa Al-Rimawi, the director of Al-Quds Satellite TV in Ramallah, Journalist Alaa Al-Rimawi in addition to confiscating his personal car, Mohammed Sami Alwan, Qutaiba Hamdan and Husni Abdul Jalil Anjas also confiscating his personal car.

The Journalist Support Committee stated that the arrest of the four journalists is a flagrant violation of all values and humanitarian laws that prevent the arrest of journalists on the backdrop of expressing their views or writing and blogging.

The Committee called for prompt and decisive action to stop Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists who are recognized as civilians and the need to protect them on the basis of the International Humanitarian Law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

The Committee called on international organizations concerned with the protection of journalists and freedom of opinion and expression to assume their responsibilities to protect Palestinian journalists and stand by them in the face of Israeli violations.

It also warned of the occupation's persistence in deliberately targeting journalists, while killing and wounding many of them with serious injuries that led to permanent disabilities that impeded their work in covering the Marches of Return in the Gaza Strip.

"These violations and arrests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against journalists have only one objective: to obliterate the truth and to silence the Palestinian voice," the committee stated.

Adding: "The persistence of the occupation authorities in its policy of targeting journalists is a desperate attempt to terrorize the free voice and to muzzle free speech, and in an effort to obfuscate its crimes and black record against the media and their institutions."

The Committee clarified that the occupation uses the method of arresting journalists and female journalists as if kidnapping them while covering the reasons for detention, the authority that will prosecute and raiding journalists' home along with detaining their family members and the use of psychological and moral abuse methods in Israeli prison, which are considered a serious violations in International Law.

The Committee reiterated its call to the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, human rights organizations, the European Union and the embassies of the countries that are sponsoring the peace process to demand the immediate and unconditional release of the 26 journalists who are behind bars, including those with critical health conditions.

The Committee appealed to the concerned parties to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2222 to put an end to the racist and terrorist practices exercised by the Israeli occupation forces and the escalating incitement and prefabricated charges against journalists and Palestinian media institutions.

Journalist Support Committee - Palestine
30 July 2018