On December 28, 21-year-old journalism scholar Shatha Al-Sabbagh was assassinated close to her house in Jenin. Her household accused snipers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) deployed within the camp of taking pictures her within the head. Al-Sabbagh had been energetic on social media, documenting the struggling of Jenin residents in the course of the raids by Israel and the PA.
Only a few days after Al-Sabbagh’s assassination, the authorities in Ramallah banned Al Jazeera from reporting from the occupied West Financial institution. Three weeks later, PA forces arrested Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamad Atrash.
These developments come because the Israeli occupation has killed greater than 200 media staff in Gaza and arrested dozens throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. It has additionally banned Al Jazeera and refused to permit overseas journalists to enter Gaza. The truth that the PA’s actions mirror Israel’s reveals a shared agenda to suppress impartial journalism and management public opinion.
To Palestinian journalists, that’s hardly information. The PA has by no means been our protector. It has all the time been a complicit associate in our brutalisation. That’s true within the West Financial institution and it was true in Gaza when the PA was in energy there. I witnessed it myself.
Rising up in Gaza, I watched how my individuals had been oppressed by Israeli forces and by the PA. In 1994, the Israeli occupation formally handed over the Strip to the PA to manage underneath the provisions of the Oslo Accords. The PA remained in energy till 2007. Throughout these 13 years, we noticed extra collaboration with the Israeli occupation than any significant try at liberation. For journalists, the PA’s presence was not simply oppressive, it was life-threatening, as its forces actively stifled voices to keep up its fragile grip on energy.
As a journalism scholar in Gaza, I skilled this suppression firsthand. I walked the streets, witnessing PA safety officers looting retailers, their conceitedness obvious within the brazen act of theft. In the future, after I tried to doc this, a Palestinian officer violently grabbed me, ripped my digicam from my palms, and smashed it to the bottom. This wasn’t simply an assault, it was an assault on my proper to bear witness. The officer’s aggression solely ceased when a bunch of ladies intervened, forcing him to retreat in a uncommon second of restraint.
I knew the dangers of being a journalist in Gaza and like different media staff, I discovered to navigate them. However the worry I felt close to the PA forces’ ambush factors was not like anything. That was as a result of there was by no means logic to their aggressive actions and no solution to anticipate once they would possibly activate you.
Strolling close to the PA forces felt like stepping right into a minefield. One second, there was the phantasm of security, and the following, you confronted the brutality of those that had been supposedly there to guard you. This uncertainty and rigidity made their presence extra terrifying than being on a battlefield.
Years later, I’d cowl the coaching classes of Qassam Brigades underneath the fixed hum of Israeli drones and the ever-looming risk of air strikes. It was harmful however predictable – rather more so than the actions of the PA.
Beneath the PA, we discovered to talk in code. Journalists self-censored out of worry of retribution. The PA was also known as “cousins of Israeli occupation” – a grim acknowledgement of its complicity.
Because the PA was preventing to remain in energy in Gaza after dropping the 2006 elections to Hamas, its brutality escalated. In Might 2007, gunmen in presidential guard uniforms killed journalist Suleiman Abdul-Rahim al-Ashi and media employee Mohammad Matar Abdo. It was an execution meant to ship a transparent message to those that witnessed it.
When Hamas took over, its authorities additionally imposed restrictions on press freedoms, however its censorship was inconsistent. As soon as, whereas documenting the brand new policewomen’s division, I used to be ordered to indicate my images to a Hamas officer so he might censor any picture he deemed conceited. I typically managed to bypass these restrictions by swapping my reminiscence playing cards preemptively.
The officers weren’t keen on anybody overriding their orders, however as a substitute of outright punishment, they resorted to petty energy performs—investigations, revoked entry, or pointless provocations. Not like the PA, Hamas didn’t function inside a system of coordination with Israeli forces to suppress journalism, however the restrictions journalists confronted nonetheless created an atmosphere of uncertainty and self-censorship. Any violation on their half, nevertheless, was met with swift worldwide condemnation—one thing the PA hardly ever confronted, regardless of its way more systematic repression.
After dropping management of Gaza, the PA shifted its focus to the West Financial institution, intensifying its marketing campaign of media suppression. Detentions, violent crackdowns, and the silencing of crucial voices turned commonplace. Their collaboration with Israel was not passive; it was energetic. From surveillance to campaigns of violence, they play a vital position in sustaining the established order, stifling any dissent that challenges their energy and the occupation.
In 2016, the PA’s collusion turned much more obvious once they coordinated with Israeli authorities within the arrest of outstanding journalist and press freedom advocate Omar Nazzal, who had criticised Ramallah for the way it dealt with the suspected homicide of Palestinian citizen Omar al-Naif at its embassy in Bulgaria.
In 2017, the PA launched a marketing campaign of intimidation, arresting 5 journalists from totally different retailers.
In 2019, the Palestinian Authority blocked the web site of Quds Information Community, a youth-led media outlet that has gained immense recognition. This was a part of a wider ban imposed by the Ramallah Justice of the Peace’s Court docket that blocked entry to 24 different information web sites and social media pages.
In 2021, after the violent loss of life of activist Nizar Banat within the PA’s custody sparked protests, its forces sought to crack down on journalists and media retailers protecting them.
On this context, the prospect of the PA returning to Gaza following the ceasefire settlement raises severe issues for journalists who’ve already endured the horrors of genocide. For many who survived, this might imply a brand new chapter of repression that displays the PA’s historical past of censorship, arrests and stifling of press freedoms.
Regardless of the grave threats that Palestinian journalists face from Israel and from those that fake to signify the Palestinian individuals, they persevere. Their work transcends borders, reflecting a shared wrestle towards tyranny. Their resilience speaks not solely to the Palestinian trigger however to the broader combat for liberation, justice and dignity.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
