CDFJ demands the formation of an independent investigation committee into Israeli crimes committed against Palestinian journalists
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to support the demand to form an independent investigation committee affiliated with the Human Rights Council, which would issue a report that monitors and documents Israeli crimes against journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt).
In its statement, which was directed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, Mr. Volker Türk, said that “the Center is following with great concern the systematic and deliberate killing carried out by the Israeli occupation against journalists in the Gaza Strip in Palestine”.
CDFJ stated that the available information indicates that 25 journalists were martyred so far. Other cases of killing of journalists are still under scrutiny and investigation. Further, 13 workers in the media sector were martyred. Two journalists have disappeared since the start of the Israeli aggression, more than 35 journalists’ homes were destroyed, and more than 20 journalists were injured. Additionally, 18 journalists were arrested in the West Bank.
CDFJ reminded that the Israel’s deliberate resort to cutting off communications and the Internet is an addition to all of these crimes, and makes it impossible for journalists to carry out their duties, at a time when it constitutes a violation of Article (19) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Journalists, like all civilians in Gaza, also suffer from water, electricity, and medicine cuts, and brutal bombing that has left no safe place in Gaza.
CDFJ added in its statement that “the necessity and importance of immediate intervention must increase, as the Israeli occupation forces informed international news agencies – and this is documented – that it cannot guarantee the safety of journalists in the Gaza Strip, which is considered a violation of international humanitarian law, which obliges the Israeli occupation to protect all civilians, Including journalists”.
CDFJ reiterated what was stipulated in Article (79) of the Geneva Convention that “Journalists in war zones must be treated as civilians and protected provided that they do not participate in hostilities,” indicating that failure to adhere to the text of this article constitutes a war crime.