On May 3 of each year, and at a time when the world celebrates the International Freedom Day, the Jerusalem city journalists are wounded after the city turned into a brutal repression environment for journalists by the Israeli occupation authorities.
On this day, Jerusalem journalists feel the mute in light of criminalizing their work, monitoring their participation and opinions on social media, and putting them in the incitement field and holding them accountable, especially after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The United Nations General Assembly announced the International Day of Freedom of the Press on the recommendation of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and since 1993 this day has been celebrated on May 3 each year.
And the international organization website stated that this day is a reminder of governments that it is necessary to fulfill their obligations towards freedom of the press, which is an opportunity to stand alongside the enveloped and deprived media of its right to exercise freedom of the press, and it is a day to commemorate those journalists who spent their love while following the field.
In light of the fierce campaign launched by the Israeli occupation authorities against Jerusalem journalists, the charge of “incitement” leads the accusation regulations against them, and this is if they were attached to an indictment at all.
According to local sources, dozens of Palestinians receive decisions to remove the Al -Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of the holy month, including a number of journalists, … pic.twitter.com/8sqm9u8tq7Al -Jazeera Net Jerusalem (@Tel Aviv Tribunequds) March 18, 2025
Future and prosecution
A report issued by the Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate indicated that about 117 journalists were subjected to repression, detention, prosecution and prevention from coverage, in the first quarter of this year 2025, most of them were in Jerusalem and Jenin, with about 14 of them suffered physical attacks such as beating with guns and kicking with feet, while the report recorded 16 cases of confiscation and destruction of equipment for work.
The report indicated that about 31 journalists were inhaled the poisonous tear gas, which caused some suffocation in the same period.
The report also documented a noticeable increase in summoning journalists from Jerusalem for investigation and informing about 13 of them of preventing work and coverage in the vicinity of the Al -Aqsa Mosque and the Old City of the occupied city.
On Sunday, the Israeli occupation authorities arrested Jerusalem journalist Latifa Abdel -Latifa, a resident of the Old City in occupied Jerusalem, on charges of spreading incitement content on the Instagram platform.
The Wadi Hiloqi Al -Qudsi Information Center said that the occupation forces arrested the journalist from the Bab al -Amoud area in Jerusalem, and extended … pic.twitter.com/8pbr7kxmdz
Al -Jazeera Net Jerusalem (@Tel Aviv Tribunequds) March 17, 2025
Self -control
Al -Jazeera Net asked the Jerusalem journalist (B.M.), who works freely (Freelangrir), that the extent of its work was affected and the imposition of self -censorship on itself to avoid summons or arrest, and she replied that Jerusalem journalists were raised in the first weeks of the war under the weight of shock, snare and oppression from the terrifying scenes that were coming out of Gaza in the shadow of genocide.
She added that despite the unprecedented events that broke out in Jerusalem – which was the most severe of the closure of the Al -Aqsa Mosque in front of the worshipers – the events of Gaza prevailed over them, and the interaction of Jerusalem journalists with what was happening in their city is few.
With the passage of days and the start of the arrest of Jerusalemites from the imams of mosques, influential, employees, and others because of what they claimed to be incitement, “the idea of self -censor began to be formed on all the Jerusalemites, not only journalists, and I felt attention to the issue of incitement with the presence of a great conscience and my feeling as a journalist with the impotence of what is happening in Gaza.”
This journalist confirms that the activation of self -censorship was not out of fear or selfishness, but rather to preserve the soul, “and to remain free to write and publish the image and news of Jerusalem in the shadow of the war.”
The arbitrary prosecution of the Jerusalemites by the Israeli occupation authorities has restricted the freedom of this journalist to work, and the content is made and the reports that it prepares without attaching its name, because it decided to continue to perform its mission and achieve the most important goal while removing the damage and the occupation’s eyes and its monitors.
Threat
Not far from that; Jerusalem journalist Manar Shweiki told Al -Jazeera Net that she was prevented from covering events in many areas of Jerusalem after the outbreak of the war, due to the threat of the pursuit of the security services on the one hand and from the settlers’ attacks on the other hand.
“I felt a great danger at the beginning of the war, especially after a campaign of incitement launched by the settlers against me and called for me to target and kill me, and during their invitations, they published my picture and attached a residential place.”
This was not easy, because Shweki lives near a settlement of Jerusalem, which limited her movement and directly affected her work, in addition to the psychological harm that she and her family members had followed.
Not only did the settlers incite her, but at the beginning of the war, Shweki was threatened by Israeli intelligence to arrest her if she continued to work with one of the media platforms that were working with her freely.
Despite its commitment to that and the limitation of its work as a correspondent and the presenter of programs at one of the Arab stations, the danger has been staring at it in light of the spread of weapons among the settlers indiscriminately, and their direct assault on journalists on most of their occasions, especially those they celebrate in the Old City.
And based on the recommendation of the lawyers, this journalist was forced to close all of her accounts on the communication platforms for 3 months, although she was limited to publishing the news, and after reopening it, it was published through it in a limited way while avoiding the use of some terms that may return them to the targeting and prosecution circle.
Since the seventh of October 2023, the Israeli occupation authorities have targeted dozens of journalists in the city of Jerusalem with arrest, deportation and other methods of intimidation and deterrence, the most recent of which was a journalistic arrest – mother of a child – on charges of incitement.
The occupation police launched a campaign of removal from the Al -Aqsa Mosque, before and during the month of Ramadan … pic.twitter.com/tx3pbuzbrAl -Jazeera Net Jerusalem (@Tel Aviv Tribunequds) March 17, 2025
“The coverage continues despite the obstacles”
Shweki sees the importance of talking about the press coverage that accompanied the last truce in the Gaza Strip, which included the release of many prisoners, and said, “I was arrested and investigated in Al -Maskoubia prison during the filming of a report near the Ofer prison, and I threatened to re -arrest if the materials were deleted, and my colleagues were attacked by batons, targeting vocal and gas bombs and rubber bullets during the reception of the editors in the editors The deal.
The journalist Shweiki concluded her talk to Al -Jazeera Net with a word she addressed to the whole world on the International Day of the Freedom of the Press by saying, “The journalist is part of a society that lives a difficult reality in which all freedoms have taken away, but we, as Palestinian journalists, are committed to transferring the truth of what our people live, under the slogan (continuing coverage) despite all obstacles and confrontations.”
According to the data of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, 210 Palestinian journalists were killed during the 17 months of the genocide, in addition to hundreds of martyrs from the families of the journalists, hundreds of wounded, the destruction of the headquarters and ingredients of the journalistic work in full, and thousands of violations against journalists in the West Bank, including the continuation of the arrest of 55 out of 177 journalists who have been arrested since October 7, with the continued hiding of the fate Two journalists.
