Israeli forces attacked Palestinian journalists on 24 September 2013 during their coverage of protests denouncing continuous Israeli raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) attacks against journalists, which included beating them, targeting them with sound bombs, and spraying them with blue colored waste water, during their coverage of the protests against ongoing raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, at the Damascus Gate area in Jerusalem on 24 September 2013.
Palestine Public TV cameraman Nader Baybars reported to MADA that no journalist was safe from the IOF attacks, and he stressed that the soldiers were brutal to the journalists.
“The demonstrators and journalists were sprayed with blue colored waste water, and when we began to run away, I tripped and fell on the stairs and got bruised,” he said, “Many of my colleagues’ cameras were damaged due to the waste water, including Pal Media photographer Isaq Kasba and Alquds newspaper photographer Suliman Khadir. My Palestine Public TV coworkers Khalil Khadir and Mohamed A’shoo both got injured by sound bombs and were treated on site. Ahmed Albediri, a BBC correspondent, suffered severe suffocation that affected his vocal cords as a result of two sound bombs that landed at his feet; he was transferred to a hospital for treatment.”
Diala Jwehan, an Alquds Net correspondent, reported to MADA that the suppression of journalists was clear and direct while coverage of the protest was ongoing as well as during interrogations with each of the held journalists which lasted for about four hours. Jwehan said: “We were pushed and beaten with batons. Most of the journalists’ cameras were damaged due to the water they sprayed on us.”
MADA stresses the need to hold the Israeli forces accountable for their continued violations against journalists, and the state’s violation of all international conventions and laws that protect journalists during their coverage of events, and we (MADA) call on the international community to move quickly to protect Palestinian journalists.
An undercover Israeli policeman detains a Palestinian protester during clashes at a demonstration near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City on 24 September 2013REUTERS/Ammar Awad
