LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the detention of Palestinian journalist Amer Abu Arafa by the Israeli Defense Forces and called for his immediate release.
Abu Arafa, a correspondent for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, was arrested at his home in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank shortly before dawn on Tuesday.
While reasons for his arrest were not immediately known, Abu Arafa recently carried out an investigation into Israeli policies toward Palestinians in Jerusalem, and reported extensively on the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
“Instead of taking steps toward accountability and respecting press freedom, Israeli authorities have doubled down on repression by tossing another Palestinian journalist into detention,” Justin Shilad, CPJ’s senior Middle East and North Africa researcher, said.
“Israeli authorities should release Amer Abu Arafa immediately and stop silencing Palestinian journalists.”
The Palestinian Authority-owned WAFA news agency also criticised Abu Arafa’s arrest, saying it “was part of a larger campaign of Israeli raids in the West Bank.”
This is not the first time Abu Arafa has been arrested by Israeli authorities. In 2011, he was detained for almost two years without charge after reporting on Israeli forces’ arrest of 120 Hamas members.
In 2017, Abu Arafa was one of five journalists arrested by Palestinian security forces for allegedly “leaking sensitive information to hostile parties.”
According to the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, Palestine ranks 170 out of 180 countries in terms of how freely its media can operate, down from 132 the previous year.
The conflicts in Jerusalem in May 2021 and the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip during which two journalists were killed make Palestine one of the most dangerous countries for reporters.
Abu Arafa’s arrest follows the assassination of Al-Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh last May.
The US-Palestinian journalist was fatally shot while reporting on an Israeli offensive in the city of Jenin. A US forensic investigation recently sparked controversy when it cleared Israeli forces of intentional wrongdoing.
