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Alert

Journalists and media workers assaulted by occupation forces

(MADA/IFEX) - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the attack on Reuters photographer Nayef Alhishlmon and several Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation forces, on the morning of 27 June 2009, in the village of Safa (Hebron).

Alhishlmon said that he was covering volunteer work by Palestinians, Israelis and international groups in solidarity with the village of Safa when an Israeli soldiers severely beat him in the chest and his right hand. He fell to the ground and one of his cameras broke. The occupation forces prevented an ambulance from getting to Alhishlmon, who stayed on the ground for about half an hour suffering from severe chest pains. His brother Najeh, with the help of other journalists, transferred him to the Alia hospital, in the city of Hebron, for treatment.

Najeh, who is a freelance photographer, said that he and Agence France-Presse photographer Hazem Bader, Reuters cameraman Yusri Aljamal and his assistant Mamoun Wazwaz, Associated Press cameraman Fadi Hamad and EPA photographer Abdul Hafeez Alhishlmon were pushed and kicked by the soldiers.

MADA considers this new attack on Palestinian journalists a flagrant violation of media freedom, and calls upon the international community to put pressure on the Government of Israel to stop its violations of media freedom in Palestine.