Since Hamas’s attacks, Palestinian journalists employed in Israel claim to have experienced an increase in intimidation and harassment.
Since Hamas’ attack on October 7, Israeli authorities have stepped up their crackdown on broadcasts, reports, and social media posts that they believe pose a threat to national security or provide support to terrorist groups. Human rights organizations and press freedom advocates claim that the strategy stifles free speech and media freedom.
Journalist Dalia Nammari of the state-funded Russia Today reported that on October 16, while attempting to file a live report in southern Israel, she was approached by armed police. According to Nammari, she and her camera crew had pulled over on the side of the road in an agricultural area with no obvious military significance.
“A police car pulled over and took our IDs. Six or seven armed men carrying rifles, live rounds, and ammunition soon arrived as part of another military police force. She said to News, “They surrounded the cameraman and me.”
When Nammari tried to reach a police spokesperson, she was told to put her phone away, according to her.
“A soldier instructed me not to speak while he had his finger on the trigger. I felt like my life was in danger for the first time in my 14 years of journalism,” the woman remarked.
After verifying their identification, which took about ten minutes, the police withdrew, threatening to arrest Nammari and her cameraman should they be discovered in the vicinity once more, she added.
When News questioned Israeli police regarding the incident, they did not answer right away.
Palestinian reporters from a number of other media organizations, such as the BBC and Sky News Arabia, have also mentioned feeling pressure from Israeli authorities.
The reports that on October 12, Israeli police attacked and threatened one of the publication’s Arabic crews.
In a statement, Israeli police informed the BBC that they had pulled over and searched a “suspicious vehicle” and its occupants, adding that “one should contact the relevant authorities if there is a claim for deviation from protocol.”
A number of prominent Israeli figures have publicly expressed their endorsement of the repression of some Palestinian journalists. Knesset member Danny Danon said on Thursday that Israel would “hunt down” Palestinian photojournalists who “arrived together with the terrorists” on October 7. Danon made this statement in a post on X. The announcement followed questions raised by the pro-Israel media advocacy group Honest Reporting about whether certain photographers had coordinated their coverage with Hamas and knew about the attacks on October 7 in advance.
The media organizations that employed the photojournalists, however, vehemently disagreed with the assertion. Both Reuters and the Associated Press claimed that the images they had bought from independent photographers were taken long after Hamas’s attack began. Furthermore, The New York Times declared that the charge made by Honest Reporting was “untrue and outrageous” and that it “put journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk.”
The executive director of Honest Reporting subsequently told Reuters that the organization was only posing queries and that the answers were both sufficient and relieving. One of the photojournalists was later fired by the Associated Press and CNN; Honest Reporting published a photo of the photographer kissing a Hamas leader.
Israeli media earlier in the conflict said that the government had passed legislation enabling it to temporarily block foreign news channels it considered to be a threat to national security.
The Times of Israel, Reuters, and other publications reported last month that Israel’s minister of communications, Shlomo Karhi, intended to take aim at the news network Al Jazeera. However, there has been no decision regarding the closure of the outlet’s operations in Israel.
An inquiry seeking clarification on that possibility has not received a response from the Israeli government as of yet.
An immediate investigation into incidents of violence against journalists in Israel has been demanded by the International Federation of Journalists, a confederation of journalism trade unions with headquarters in Belgium that supports press freedom and journalists’ rights.
The general secretary of the organization, Anthony Bellanger, issued a statement saying, “We are raising the alarm about this climate of intimidation faced by journalists and media workers in Israel, which has worsened since the war in Gaza started.”
As the number of journalists killed in the region keeps rising, Palestinian reporters working in Israel face even more serious threats. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that monitors press freedom, claims that at least 41 journalists have died in the first month of the conflict: one video journalist in southern Lebanon, four in Israel following an attack by Hamas on October 7, and 36 in Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
Israeli authorities have not been the only source of obstruction faced by Palestinian journalists. Journalist Hana Mahameed of the pan-Arab television news network Al Mayadeen claimed that on Monday at a post office, she was ambushed by a group of Israeli reporters, among them reporter Haim Etgar of Israel’s Channel 12 television channel.
Mahameed claimed that “a group of people surrounded me and started filming me— we are talking here about journalists and not far-right activists” in a video message that was uploaded to X.
According to Mahameed, Etgar “claimed in a systematic and intensive manner… that I was spreading fake news and rumors over the Israeli forces.” “They hurled accusations against me in my capacity as a journalist,” Mahameed continued.
Additionally, Al Mayadeen posted video of the incident on X, claiming that Etgar had harassed Mahameed “in a thuggish manner” and had even “gone so far as to prevent her from getting into her car.”
While Channel 12 declined to comment on the incident, Etgar claimed in his own post on X that Al Mayadeen was associated with Hezbollah, a militant organization. He admitted that he had spoken with Mahameed regarding charges made by the Israeli government that the channel was disseminating “fake news” and endangering national security.
Mahameed stated that her reporting “adhered to what has been permitted by the Israeli authorities,” and Al Mayadeen prides itself on being independent.
Since the day of the Hamas attack, reports of Israeli authorities harassing Palestinian journalists have surfaced. According to an online report by Sky News Arabia, on October 7, Israeli police approached their reporter Firas Lutfi and a cameraman in Ashkelon, a coastal city in southern Israel, brandishing rifles at them. Comcast owns Sky Group, which manages Sky News Arabia in part. Comcast also owns universal.
When questioned Israeli police regarding the incident, they did not answer right away.
