Israel detained four Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem yesterday for several hours over “illegal activity” connected with the Palestinian Authority, a police spokesman said.
According to the Palestinian ministry of information, the four are Christine Rinawi, Dana Abu Shamsiyeh, Ameer Abed Rabbo and Ali Yassin, who work in the city for Palestinian Authority-funded Palestine TV.
Last month, Israel shut down the Jerusalem office of Palestine TV, with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan accusing it of producing anti-Israel content.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday that “the journalists were detained in connection with illegal activity by the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem,” without providing further details.
The journalists were released from a central Jerusalem police station yesterday afternoon, an AFP photographer said.
Abed Rabbo said the release of the four was on condition they do not work for Palestine TV for the next six months or communicate with one another for the next 15 days.
Saeb Erakat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation said the detentions were “an attack against freedom of speech” and the “Palestinian presence in Jerusalem”. The detentions were “part of a larger campaign against any voices showing the reality of Israel’s occupation,” he contended.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian citizens were suffocated yesterday after inhaling tear gas, during the Israeli occupation forces’ repression of the peaceful, anti-settlement march in Kafr Qaddum, QNA reported.
The protesters called for the opening of the village street, which has been closed for 16 years. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers attacked the march, which also came out to condemn the decisions of the US administration, the most recent of which was the announcement of its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to legitimise settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, local sources said.
The sources added that the occupation soldiers shot live ammunition and gas bombs at the citizens’ houses, which resulted in dozens suffocating, including children and women, who were treated in the field at the village ambulance centre, east of Qalqilya in the West Bank.The march began with the participation of hundreds of people in Kafr Qaddum, calling for an escalation of popular resistance against the occupation and settlers everywhere.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned in the strongest terms, the removal of the art exhibition hosted by the State of Palestine and Palestinian Human Rights Organisation Al-Haq from the hallways of the World Forum, QNA reported. Late on the evening of December 4, 2019, the art exhibition hosted by the State of Palestine and Palestinian Human Rights Organisation Al-Haq was maliciously removed and hidden without authorisation from the hallways of the World Forum.
The exhibit was held on the occasion of the 18th session of the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Journalists from Palestine TV, the Palestinian Authority’s official station, pose for a photo soon after being released by police in Jerusalem, yesterday.
