UNITED NATIONS — Freedom of expression has been threatened more seriously in Gaza than in any recent conflict, with journalists targeted in the war-torn territory and Palestinian supporters targeted in many countries, it said Friday. a United Nations expert.
Irene Khan, the UN’s independent investigator on the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, highlighted attacks on the media as well as targeted killings and arbitrary detention of dozens of journalists in Gaza.
“The banning of Al Jazeera, the strengthening of censorship in Israel and the occupied territories seem to indicate a strategy by the Israeli authorities aimed at silencing critical journalism and obstructing the documentation of possible international crimes,” he said. she declared.
Khan also sharply criticized the “discrimination and double standards” that have led to restrictions and repression of pro-Palestinian protests and speech. She cited bans in Germany and other European countries, protests that were “harshly repressed” on American college campuses, and Palestinian national symbols and slogans banned and even criminalized in some countries.
The UN special rapporteur also highlighted “the fact that dissenting voices are silenced and sidelined in academia and the arts”, with some of the world’s top academic institutions failing to protect all members of their community, “whether they are Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli, Arab”. , Muslim or other.
While social media platforms have been a lifeline for communications to and from Gaza, Khan said, they have seen a surge in misinformation, disinformation and hate speech – Arabs, Jews, Israelis and Palestinians are all being targeted online.
She stressed that Israel’s military actions in Gaza and its decades of occupation of the Palestinian territories are matters of public interest, scrutiny and criticism.
Khan earlier presented his report on “the global free expression crisis resulting from the conflict in Gaza” to the General Assembly’s human rights committee.
She said Israel responded, explained the country’s laws and “took the position that the conflict in Gaza was not really of global importance and that my mandate should not be interested in it.” The Israeli mission to the UN declined to comment on its press briefing.
Surprise attacks in southern Israel carried out by Hamas fighters who controlled Gaza on October 7, 2023 killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and led to the kidnapping of around 250 others, around 100 of whom remain as hostages. The Israeli military offensive in retaliation killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters but says the majority were women and children.
Khan, former secretary general of Amnesty International, noted that “no conflict in recent times has threatened freedom of expression as seriously and as far beyond its borders as Gaza.”
She said the attacks on the media “are an attack on the right to information of people around the world who want to know what’s going on out there.”
Khan said she had called on the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council to take action to strengthen the protection of journalists “as essential civilian workers.”
“Journalism must be considered as essential as humanitarian work,” she said.
The news industry has changed, Khan said, and the issue of access to conflict situations for international media representatives – who have been banned from Gaza by Israel – must also be affirmed. “It needs to be clarified that it is not acceptable to simply deny access to international media,” she said.
Without naming any countries, Khan asked why nations that pride themselves on being champions of the media have remained silent in the face of unprecedented attacks on journalists in Gaza and the West Bank.
“My main message is that what is happening in Gaza sends signals to the whole world that it is acceptable to do these things because it is happening in Gaza and Israel enjoys absolute impunity – and others around the world will believe that there will be absolute impunity. , too,” Khan said.
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