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Israel committed at least 90 “violations” against Palestinian journalists last month, a U.K.-based NGO that advocates for press freedom said Wednesday.
According to the Journalist Support Committee, violations included acts of aggression that led to the injury of 28 journalists, 17 of whom had been covering Palestinian protests near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.
An Israeli court this week sentenced Darin Tatour, a prominent Palestinian poet, to five months in jail after convicting her of “inciting terrorism” in a poem she posted on social media.Tatour, a 36-year-old resident of the northern Galilee region, was first detained by the Israeli authorities in 2015 for her poem entitled, “Resist, My People, Resist”.On Tuesday, she was sentenced to five months behind bars and six months’ probation after being convicted of “inciting violence” and “supporting a terrorist organization”.The poem that drew the Israeli authorities’ wrath reads in part:Resist them, my people, resistResist the settler’s robberyFollow the caravan of martyrsTear the constitution of shameThey burn the childrenResist them, my people, resistIt remains unclear whether Tatour plans to appeal Tuesday’s court sentence.Israeli court slaps Palestinian poet with jail termDouble standardsIn a Wednesday article, Israeli daily Haaretz appeared to criticize the double standards of the Israeli judicial system, which it accused of turning a blind eye to the incitement of violence by extremist rabbis and Jewish groups.The Israeli judicial system, Haaretz asserted, “cannot discriminate between offenders who commit similar offenses based on their ethnicity or religion”.The Israeli authorities, the newspaper goes on, appear to have “learned nothing” from their “resounding failure to mete out justice against rabbis who encourage ‘the heroes of the Jewish underground’ [i.e., extremist Jews who call for violence against non-Jews]”.The jail term received by Tatour, it added, “shows that what rabbis in Israel may do, an Arab poet may not”.“When it’s Jews [inciting violence], it’s an ‘underground’, not terrorism,” the newspaper states.Over 3,900 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa complex in JulyAccording to Haaretz, those who praised the “heroism” of Baruch Goldstein -- an extremist Jewish settler who killed 29 Muslim worshipers in the city of Hebron in 1994 -- “paved the way for the assassination the following year of [Israeli] Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin”.Haaretz also cited a case from 2012 in which Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein halted an investigation into the authors of “Torat Hamelekh”, a religious tract that discussed how Jewish religious law viewed the killing of non-Jews.Israel arrests 9 Palestinians in overnight raidsThe newspaper goes on to quote the doctrine of certain extremist rabbis -- verbatim -- who openly call for the murder of non-Jewish infants.“Even [when it comes to] babies who violate the seven Noahide commandments [that apply to non-Jews], consideration should be given to killing them due to the future danger that will be posed if they are allowed to grow up to be evil like their parents,” it reads, according to Haaretz.
'Double standards of the Israeli judicial system'
Over the same period, the NGO recorded another 11 injuries and acts of aggression in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The NGO also registered four cases of prolonged detention, two cases of torture and at least one case of domestic confinement.
Seventeen additional violations were registered in which journalists were prevented -- by various means -- from carrying out their journalistic responsibilities.
At least 769 Palestinians have been denied exit from the blockaded Gaza Strip by Israeli authorities since January, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Wednesday.The applicants included Palestinians who sought medical treatment for diseases such as cancer.According to Haaretz, Israeli authorities cited first-degree relations between the applicants and Hamas members for denying them exit from the seaside enclave.Last year, Israel denied exit to only 21 Gazans.Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that continues to deprive its inhabitants of many essential commodities, including food, fuel, medicine and building materials.Israeli intelligence service has been exploiting exit permits to blackmail Palestinians for security information, while many others are being detained at Israeli access points despite holding permits.Palestinian Authority slams Israeli abuse of prisonersIsraeli court slaps Palestinian poet with jail term
Israel denies exit to hundreds of Gazans in 2018
Last month, the Israeli authorities also designated the Lebanon-based Al-Quds television channel as a “terrorist group”.
Four of the channel’s journalists were reportedly threatened by the Israeli authorities, while the homes of five others were raided.
Last month, the total number of journalists now being held in Israeli prisons rose to 27, including two who suffer from serious medical conditions.
According to Palestinian figures, as many as 6,500 Palestinians are currently languishing in Israeli prisons, including scores of women and some 350 minors.