RAMALLAH, Tuesday, June 4, 2024 (WAFA) - Around 111 civil society organizations in a statement denounced the ongoing Israeli campaign aimed at placing draconian restrictions on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including blocking access to representatives of international press and media outlets to the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the 111 organizations also condemned the deliberate targeting of all local and international press and media organizations, which has claimed the lives of 148 journalists in the past eight months.
The statement also decried the deliberate attacks and detentions of dozens of journalists under inhumane conditions, as well as the destruction of the headquarters of press organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the offices of international press entities.
The signatories of the statement affirmed that the Israeli prevention and restrictions on the access of journalists and news organizations to the Gaza Strip are a crime under the established principles of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, particularly the right to freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of the press which are established under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The statement stressed that the appalling Israeli violations committed against journalists and press institutions in the occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the killing and targeting of journalists, constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity, which fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
The civil society organizations stressed that silencing the free press, forcing the world to believe Israel’s false narrative about what is happening in the occupied territories and falsifying the truth about the ethnic cleansing and genocide committed against Palestinian civilians, expose the goals behind the Israeli campaign to ban the access of international inquiry and fact-finding missions, UN personals and foreign press crews to the war-torn Strip.
They added that the aim behind this was also to cover up these crimes of genocide committed by the Israeli occupation and its regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
The organizations maintained that the occupation’s behavior was encouraged and strengthened by the refusal of the occupation’s Supreme Court to an appeal submitted by the Foreign Press Association to allow the entry of international press into Gaza.
The statement urged International institutions and organizations to open an investigation into the war crimes committed by the occupation against journalists and press institutions and to allow safe and continuous access of journalists to the Gaza Strip.
The organizations praised the work of journalists and press organizations, especially those who after eight months stopped promoting the false Israeli narrative after realizing the awful truth and adopted the Palestinian narrative about what is happening.
The statement accused the Western media coverage that promoted the lies and narratives of the Israeli occupation of being complicit in the crime of disinformation and flimsy pretexts that led to the considerable bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.
The organizations called on the international community and its specialized institutions to take prompt practical measures to ensure an end to the war on Gaza.
The statement demanded the International Solidarity Movement, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), press unions and all Arab, regional and international organizations to act at all legal, political, diplomatic and human rights levels to ensure access by journalists and international investigative teams to Gaza, ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians, spread the truth about the suffering of the Palestinian people and ensure that the voices of victims are heard.
T.R.
