9\5\2013

5\2013

ICHR is gravely concerned over breaking up a peaceful assembly by force and prohibiting journalists from covering the event, and detaining some of them.

On the eve of Tuesday 7\5\2013, the police assaulted the people who were participating in a peaceful rally organized by the PFLP in protest against the Israeli raid on Syria.  The police tore down the placards and pictures the participants were holding and seized five of them in the Police Station of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. It transferred them, then, to the Investigation Police Unit Office in the city for one hour.

Some of the citizens who were subject to beating due to their participation in that peaceful assembly were (Hashim Biok, Maan Yahya Ghalban, Adnan Mahmoud Faqawi, Hijazi Abu Shanab, Ibrahim Saleh Siqli and Raed Shahin). In the same context, the cameras and recording tapes of  journalists (Ahmad Ghanim Abdulazeez Al-Afifi, Udai Abu Shama, Muhammad Abu Taha, Eyad Ababa) were expropriated. They were also subjected to beating and detention. Some of them were released later.

ICHR stresses that the right to peaceful assembly and the right  to freedom of press and media are guaranteed under the Palestinian basic law, the public meeting law No. (12) of 1998, and the relevant international human rights conventions.

In light of that, ICHR demands the competent authorities to abide by law, maintain public freedoms, respect the freedom of peaceful assembly and stop interfering with journalists’ work. It also demands them to adopt the appropriate measures to punish perpetrators in accordance with the provisions of the law.