Condemnations continued at the highest levels of the Israeli occupation forces’ storming and closing of the Tel Aviv Tribune office in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Irish President Michael Higgins condemned Israel’s closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah, describing it as “shameful.”
In response to a question from Tel Aviv Tribune, Higgins said that Israel’s refusal to allow Tel Aviv Tribune to continue its work has great implications.
For his part, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expressed his concern over the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah.
He added in exclusive statements to Tel Aviv Tribune that what happened is a broader example of the harassment of journalists around the world. He considered the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah an example of restricting the work of journalists during the war.
Attack on press freedom
In turn, the Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, Anthony Bellanger, said in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune from Brussels that the Israeli government seeks to silence all voices that present what contradicts its version of events.
Belangi described the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah by the occupation authorities as an attack on press freedom. He expressed the union’s support for “Tel Aviv Tribune colleagues in the face of attempts to prevent them.”
The Washington Press Club considered the Israeli army’s attack on Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah an aggressive military act.
He said that Tel Aviv Tribune’s independent reports are one of the few reliable sources of what is happening in the region, and stressed that Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah must be allowed to open and journalists must be enabled to continue their work.
The club stressed that the Israeli army’s tearing up of the photo of the martyred Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was an unnecessary act of aggression.
The American Wall Street Journal said that the Israeli army did not answer questions about allowing Tel Aviv Tribune journalists to continue covering the West Bank, after the decision to close the network’s office in Ramallah.
Armed raid
A heavily armed force from the Israeli army stormed the Tel Aviv Tribune office in Ramallah at dawn yesterday, Sunday, and announced its closure for 45 days without explaining the reasons.
CNN quoted a security source as saying that Israeli soldiers used explosives to storm the building’s entrance, and the source confirmed that extensive damage was seen outside and inside the building.
The invading forces confiscated all equipment and documents, along with a military order to close it under the emergency law. They prevented the Tel Aviv Tribune crew in Ramallah and colleagues Walid Al Omari and Guevara Al Badri from working, and stopped broadcasting.
The Israeli army sent trucks to confiscate and remove the camera and broadcast equipment and documents from Tel Aviv Tribune’s office, although the military order did not stipulate their confiscation.
The raid came four months after the occupation authorities closed the channel’s office in occupied Jerusalem.
network #Aljazeera Condemns the Israeli occupation forces’ storming of its office in Ramallah and pledges to continue coverage pic.twitter.com/bmL9uy4bjg
— Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) September 22, 2024
Tel Aviv Tribune statement
Tel Aviv Tribune Network condemned the Israeli occupation forces’ storming and closing of its office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, and stressed that these repressive measures aim to prevent the world from seeing the reality of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the war on Gaza.
In a statement, the network described the storming of its office as a criminal act, and said that Israel’s continued suppression of the free press aims to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
The statement refuted the false claims made by the Israeli occupation authorities to justify this illegal raid, and held Benjamin Netanyahu’s government responsible for the safety of the network’s journalists, and pledged to take legal steps to protect its rights and the rights of its employees.
Tel Aviv Tribune also pledged to continue covering and conveying the truth professionally and objectively, even in light of these Israeli measures aimed at silencing it.
Condemning positions
Following the storming, reactions condemning the new Israeli attack on the island continued.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that this step constitutes a flagrant violation of freedom of the press and a suppression of freedoms, and comes as a culmination of the declared war against journalists and aims to conceal the truth.
The Islamic Jihad Movement also condemned the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office, saying that it was a retaliatory measure against its professional role in exposing the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
In turn, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine saw the Israeli move as a desperate attempt to silence free voices seeking to expose the crimes of the occupation.
In response, Reporters Without Borders denounced in a statement what it described as Israel’s bias against Tel Aviv Tribune after Israeli soldiers stormed its office in Ramallah and closed it.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also expressed concern about the Israeli army’s storming and closing of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah, and stressed that Tel Aviv Tribune had been subjected to a large number of attacks throughout the war in Gaza.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said that Israel’s censorship of Tel Aviv Tribune undermines the public’s right to information about the war.
The International Press Institute also expressed its deep concern over Israel’s raid and forced closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office, and called on the occupation authorities to respect freedom of the press and allow the media to cover the news freely in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
In this context, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese commented in a post about the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office that it “does not allow witnesses” to Israel’s violations.
Former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth said that Tel Aviv Tribune was one of the most important sources of information during the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, stressing that the network’s office in Ramallah was closed because it exposed Israeli oppression and apartheid in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune, Courtney Radsich, a former lawyer for the International Committee to Protect Journalists, said that closing media institutions is a violation of press freedom, stressing that there is no justification for closing Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in Ramallah.
The Israeli Foreign Press Association expressed its deep concern over the closure of Tel Aviv Tribune’s office in the West Bank, according to what was reported by the American newspaper, The Washington Post.