Occupation attacks in Jerusalem affect journalists since the seventh of October / October (Reuters)

Jerusalem- Jerusalemite photojournalist Mustafa al-Kharouf's wounds did not heal after beating and kicking him and threatening to shoot him, while he was documenting Friday prayers, which were held en masse in the Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood of Jerusalem, dozens of meters from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

This duty has been held on the asphalt for 10 weeks in the neighborhoods of Wadi Al-Joz and Ras Al-Amud after preventing worshipers from reaching the first two qiblas.

Attacks on journalists have been repeated since the seventh of last October in the Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood in particular, but the most violent was recorded on the tenth Friday against the cameraman of the Turkish Anadolu Agency, Mustafa Al-Kharouf.

The photographer covered Friday prayers and then they left with his colleague, when a soldier intercepted them after calling them and asking them where they were next, and they replied, "Back to our car."

The soldier asked them to go to the officer, and so on, but the officer told them that if your car wasn't directing you to leave, you shouldn't leave.

Surprise and humiliation

Mustafa asked the officer about the reason for the ban, but the soldier surprised him by kicking him with his military boots in his hand, and this behavior prompted the photographer to ask again about the reason for the attack, so the soldiers attacked him and his fellow photographer and assaulted them with push and beating.

"Be ashamed of yourself" The photographer Mustafa Al-Kharouf directed this word in Hebrew to the soldier who assaulted him, so the latter became angry and pulled the sections of his weapon and pointed it at him, and Mustafa only raised his hands and turned around and said, "Here are my hands. If I make a mistake, arrest me and stop beating."

One of the policemen heard the cameraman's words and ordered his immediate arrest, so the soldiers attacked him, knocked him to the ground and began beating him en masse on the head with military boots and rifle butts, and minutes later the policeman asked the paramedics to go to Mustafa but refused treatment even though his blood was flowing on the asphalt.

Mustafa was released at the same place, and the Israeli police asked him to give his statement after his discharge from the hospital, and he did not hesitate to present it, where he met the two soldiers who assaulted him mainly while he was doing his field work, while they were under investigation at the PIU Police Investigation Department, where most cases end up closing the file without punishing the perpetrators.

The restrictions on journalistic work since the beginning of the war are not limited to physical assault, but have extended to include work bans, restrictions on freedom of movement, and arrest for expressing opinion on social media platforms.

Journalist Rama Yousef banned from working in the Old City of Jerusalem (Al Jazeera)

The charge. I am Palestinian

Rama Yousef, a freelancer with several media outlets, was also banned from working in the Old City on December 7 while accompanying a foreign journalist team to prepare a story in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net about that incident, she said, "We were walking in the road to the valley with our equipment and cameras when we surprised 3 soldiers and asked us to show our personal identities. The foreigners showed the Israeli press card and I showed my blue Israeli ID."

One soldier asked her about the Israeli press card, to which she replied, "I am Palestinian and I cannot carry this card."

This sentence prevented Rama from completing her work that day, and even threatened to prevent her from entering all the gates of the Old City and covering inside the historic wall.

"I asked the soldier why I was banned, and he said: Because you said Palestine. Go to Palestine," he said, referring to the fact that Jerusalem is an Israeli city and therefore should have said it is in Israel.

The Jerusalem journalist was determined to repeat the same phrase while being taken from the valley road in the Old City to outside Damascus Gate: "This is an illegal act," to which the soldier replied, "There is no law today. I am the law and I decide."

Rama adds that this situation affected her psychologically negatively and she felt threatened and threatened, especially since the soldiers treated her from the first moment she said she was Palestinian as an accused and a criminal.

Reporters Without Protection

The official of the Al-Quds Committee in the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Bilal Al-Kiswani, told Al Jazeera Net that the Syndicate has documented since the beginning of the war many violations against Jerusalemite journalists, adding that they varied between beating and preventing them from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City for coverage, in addition to targeting with gas bombs and wastewater and arrest against the background of expressing opinion through social networking sites.

Kiswani pointed out that the syndicate documents all attacks on journalists and sends them to the International Federation of Journalists, which includes more than 600,<> journalists around the world.

Munir Nusseibeh, a Jerusalemite human rights defender and expert in international law, said the video documenting the targeting and violence of photojournalist Mustafa al-Kharouf shows the extent of the Israeli police's arrogance and extremism towards Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Nusseibeh, who runs the Al-Quds University's Community Action Center, pointed out that it should be noted that the photographer did not show any form of resistance, but raised his hands in surrender, but this did not exempt him from continuing the assault on him.

In a legal look at the situation, Nusseibeh stressed that international humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians and journalists in particular, as it specifically addresses them and concerns them with protection as long as they are not part of the war and do not participate in the fighting.

At the end of his speech, Nusseibeh touched on the targeting of journalists in various forms in the current war, stressing that the massacres committed against the families of Al-Jazeera news channel journalists aim to scare journalists and discourage them from practicing their work.

He described these violations as arbitrary in which Israel crosses all red lines, international laws and even its domestic law.

Source : Al Jazeera