More than two dozen journalists attacked by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

IPI urges IDF to stop targeting journalists

May 11, 2021

Israeli police in action as clashes continue in the old city of Jerusalem, 10 May 2021. Protests continue in support of six Palestinian families facing eviction in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in favor of Jewish families who claimed they used to live in the houses before fleeing in the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel. EPA-EFE/ATEF SAFADI

The Israeli security forces should stop targeting journalists covering the ongoing clashes in East Jerusalem, the International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media workers and journalists, said today.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has recorded 24 cases of attacks against journalists in the past three days. In a statement released on its Facebook page, the Syndicate said that on Sunday as many as 19 journalists were wounded, including 12 journalists targeted while covering the clashes in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab Al-Amoud and Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem, and three others while covering the events at Camp Salem, north of Jenin. Four more were injured while covering the events in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported that its Middle East News Editor Turgut Alp Boyraz was injured yesterday in an Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque. Besides Boyruz, several other Anadolu journalists also suffered injuries while covering the clashes. Fayez Abu Rumaila, a photographer, was attacked by the defence force personnel, while another photojournalist of the agency, Mustafa Kharouf, was hit in the chest by a rubber bullet while aiding an injured medic, the news agency said.

“These attacks against journalists by the Israeli defence forces are disturbing and the government of Israel should take action against its personnel who deliberately attack journalists”, IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said.

Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv based Union of Journalists in Israel, Irgun Haitonaim, has called on the police to allow journalists to work as freely as possible.

According to media reports more than 300 people have been injured in clashes that broke that out in East Jerusalem three days ago, following tensions brewing between the Israeli and Palestinian communities over the past few weeks over possible eviction of Palestinian families from a disputed neighbourhood.