Gaza,10/12/2015--- Press House organized a sit-in in solidarity with Palestinian journalists on the occasion of the international day of human rights, which falls in December entitled, " Journalists Right To Protection" at its main office in Gaza.
A pile of journalists and media workers from various international and domestic outlets, media graduates of the Palestinian universities, and new activists as well as such legal people of human rights organizations participated in the sit-in.
The participants had shown banners, asking to provide protection for journalists, where one of the banners says:" No for restrictions on Media", while other says:" We are asking for freedom of movement for journalists".
Belal Jadallah, the chairman of Press House, during his speech on the sit-in said," We are here today on this sit-in to support Palestinian journalists, after a group of them had been intentionally murdered by the Israeli occupation without any accountability- as we are defenders of freedom of expression".
He added," There is an increase in the number of violations committed against Palestinian journalists within the last few months in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, where tens of them were deliberately killed in front of TV news cameras; while the world heard and witnessed that.
Jadallah asked each international, human rights, freedom of expression organization to work hard on defending the Palestinian journalists right to protection.
The chairman of Press House appealed the international community to obligate Israel to facilitate the movement of journalists especially the Gazan ones, trying to assure their freedom of movement during work.
Moreover, an appeal was launched to force Israel to reopen the media organizations and broadcasts, which were closed in the West Bank after they had been vandalized and partly demolished.
He said that during the last October, 112 violations, committed by Israel in the Gaza strip and West Bank had been documented, and so had other 58 in November 2015.
In his turn, Hamed Al-Shubaky, a journalist in Al-Manara Agency and who was injured in the last aggression on Gaza, said that the occupation will never stop the Palestinian resistance and prevent him to publish the reality.
Al-Shubaky added that being injured encourages him to keep working on showing the international community right messages and delivering independent information.
He pointed out that camera and pen are the weapons of journalists, which cannot be broken no matter what.
In his turn, Tamer Meshal , the correspondent of Al-Jazeera channel, said that these statements written on the banners reflect the demands and burdens of journalists, who are always exposed to different kinds of violence and oppression.
Al-Meshal added that the Palestinian journalist is an example of "resistance of a whole nation", pointing out that targeting journalists is still considered to be a continuous action.
He clarified that after the violations against journalists, they have become more determined to deliver their messages to the world with full honesty and integrity.
Al-Meshal followed, " our union, humanity, issue and legal rights are our strength" ,asserting that the Palestinian media needs to be united so that journalists could appeal with one media voice."
He concluded his speech, asking all the local and international organizations to whom it may concern to do something as a try to protect Palestinian journalists.
