BRUSSELS, Wednesday, July 10, 2024 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) today demanded the European Union (EU) to take clear positions on Israeli assaults against journalists.
The PJS addressed letters to the representatives of parliamentary blocs in the EU, demanding that they take unequivocal stands on Israeli occupation crimes, particularly Israeli assaults on journalists, including killing and detention, during the upcoming parliamentary session of the European Parliament.
Head of PJS Europe branch, Yousef Habash, voiced the PJS’ concerns on the performance of recently elected legislatures regarding the situation in Palestine, as such poor inadequate performance was manifested in the positions of head of European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, providing unconditional support to the occupation state as well as to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Addressing the grave humanitarian situation in the Strip, the PJS said that such a situation was amply reflected on journalists and their families, and that the Israeli attacks targeting journalists are a war crime and an act of genocide in violation of international law and human rights standards.
Such a situation and attacks against journalists, particularly in the Gaza Strip, are compounded by the rejection by the Israeli occupation of all calls for a ceasefire, lifting the blockade and reopening the border crossings for humanitarian aid.
The PJS presented data on its correspondence with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and human rights bodies, urging them to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against journalists, while emphasizing the importance of an EU’s position as part of the ICC to pushing towards taking urgent and tangible measures to hold perpetrators of crimes against journalists and provide protection to journalists in line with the international human rights law.
Israel has proceeded with its genocidal offensive on the war-torn Strip in complete disregard of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel in a legally binding decision to halt its military offensive in Rafah, which may violate its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, killing at least 38,295 Palestinians and injuring over 88,241 others.
Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
