The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), strongly condemns the shooting of Majdi Jamil al-'Arabeed, a Palestinian cameraman for the Israeli Channel 10, and the director of the local Al-Horriya radio station, in Gaza on the 2nd of January, 2005. This act by the Israeli army marks the first press freedom violation to take place in the world in the new year of 2005.

Al-'Arabeed and a number of other journalists were covering an Israeli military incursion into Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. The journalists were filming the incursion close to Israeli tanks. According to another Channel 10 journalist, quoted by the news agency AFP; “The Israeli unit knew perfectly well that we were journalists and that did not stop them from shooting at a time when the area was calm,” said Schlomi Eldar. However, Israeli tanks opened fire at the journalists, who were wearing clearly identified press suits and holding cameras, without any prior warning. It was then that Al-'Arabeed was seriously wounded by a live bullet to his side and another to his pelvis. According to another report, by the Palestine Monitor, he was shot in the stomach and leg and critically wounded. Al-‘Arabeed was evacuated to the Kamal ‘Edwan Hospital in Jabalya, where he underwent surgery. His condition remains critical.

Attacks on journalists, such as this latest incident, come as part of an apparently concentrated campaign of targeting journalists carrying out their profession, ultimately hindering them from reporting repeated attacks on Palestinians, including attacks on civilians, which constitute war crimes. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in the year 2004 alone, 56 media workers were killed throughout the world. Furthermore, a report compiled by the International Press Institute (IPI) shows, that in this ongoing Palestinian uprising a total of 562 press freedom violations have been committed, with Israelis bearing the responsibility for 88.4% of all violations.

Hence, MIFTAH urges the international community to pressure the Israeli government and its occupying forces to strictly abide by legally binding International Law, which states that journalists and media workers must be protected as stipulated under Articles 19 and 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Articles 50 and 51 of the “Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions”, which emphasize the protection of civilians, which includes journalists and media workers in times of war. Article 79 of the “Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Convention” further states that: “journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians within the meaning of Article 50, Paragraph 1. They shall be protected as such under the conventions of this Protocol, provided that they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians.”

MIFTAH unequivocally condemns the Israeli Army for its recent conduct, and calls on the army to refrain from targeting journalists in the future.