Again, Journalists across Africa, under the aegis of African Journalists Against Genocide (AJAG), have called for the intervention of African governments on the continued killing and detention of Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting the press.
AJAG, in a statement released on Friday and signed by its founder, Nigerian broadcast journalist, Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, condemned in particular the alleged detention of a Palestinian journalist, Moath Amarneh, by the Israeli Defense Forces.
“Moath Amarneh’s commitment to telling the story of his people under occupation has already come at a devastating personal cost.
“In 2019, an Israeli sniper’s bullet shattered his left eye while on assignment.
“The shrapnel remains lodged in his head and causes persistent pain. Yet the IDFs brutality did not break his commitment to the truth.
“This is not the first time Amarneh has been targeted. From 16 October 2023 to 9 July 2024, he was held for nine months under the same draconian “administrative detention” a euphemism for an illegal practice condemned by the United Nations as a tool of collective punishment and political persecution.
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“Administrative detention means imprisonment without charge or trial and is a hallmark of authoritarianism.
“In Israel’s case, it is deployed systematically to suppress Palestinians, and Palestinian journalists, with an objective to criminalize the act of documenting war crimes, and terrorize the press into silence,” the statement read.
AJAG calls on African governments to demand Amarneh’s immediate release and impose political and economic consequences for Israeli war crimes.
The group also called on international media to join forces “to condemn Israel’s persecution of colleagues in Gaza. Expand their coverage, to and give prominence to the plight of detained Palestinian journalists, whilst increasing the pressure on the demand for Israel to permit international journalists into Gaza to report from the ground.”
“From Burundi to Bethlehem, from Ghana to Gaza, we know the price journalists have paid for telling the truth under violent regimes.
“It is clear that israel is so threatened by the truth that their most feared enemy are the eyes and voices of the courageous Palestinian journalists Moath Amarneh must be freed now! All Palestinian journalists must be freed now!
“Journalism is NOT a crime. Killing journalists is THE crime!” AJAG added.
