Israel charges Palestinian journalists with incitement for doing their jobs

Palestinian journalists have been interrogated and imprisoned for covering protests and other events, pressuring many into self-censorship

DURING THE VIOLENT escalations in Israel-Palestine in the spring of 2021, Hazem Nasser did what he was called to do: he began filming. At the time, Nasser was working as a journalist for the Palestinian television network Falastin Al-Ghad, where Nasser’s footage captured the rising tensions amidst Jewish nationalist marches, Palestinian demonstrations, and Israeli police brutality in Jerusalem.

On May 10, Nasser set out to film a clash between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli army in the northern occupied West Bank. The day sticks out in Nasser’s memory - for what happened to him afterward.

Nasser was on his way home when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers at the Huwara checkpoint, and taken away for interrogations. Nasser languished in detention for more than a month while the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, repeatedly interrogated him.

“All the questions were about my journalism,” Nasser said. “They put images from my video reports on the table, including a funeral of a dead Palestinian, people gathering for a protest, a square honouring a shaheed [martyr], a march with Hamas flags.

The interrogator told me I cannot photograph these things, because they are incitement. I told him that I am a journalist and this is my job — to show images of things that are happening, and that Israeli outlets do the same thing. He yelled at me to stop.”

In mid-June, Nasser, who is 31 and hails from the village of Shweikeh in the occupied West Bank, appeared before a court and was charged with incitement.

Instead of focusing on his journalistic work, as the interrogations had, the indictment listed four old Facebook posts that he had written between 2018 to 2020, a period in which he published more than 1,000 posts.

FULL STORY Israel charges Palestinian journalists with incitement — for doing their jobs (972)

Photo: An Israeli soldier watches a Palestinian journalist during a protest against the Trump Plan, in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, February 25, 2020. (Ahmad Al-Bazz/Activestills)