'They Won't Stop Us': Journo Says He Risks His Life Covering Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

According to reports, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Information, Israel has been responsible for the death of at least 45 Palestinian journalists, covering clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians, since 2000. Their crime, says a local correspondent, was "telling the truth about Israel's crimes".

It's been ten days since Al Jazeera journalist Shirin Abu Akleh lost her life amid clashes between the Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed militias in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Abu Akleh was killed while she was doing her duty as a correspondent but Rami Al-Khatib, a Jerusalem-based journalist and cameraman, says this is far from being the only instance in which Palestinian journalists have been hurt while covering the decades' long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Risking Their Lives

Al-Khatib himself has been in the business for more than two decades. He has covered everything from the Second Palestinian Intifada back in 2000s to the more recent clashes revolving around the evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem neighbourhoods.

He has also filmed on the Temple Mount, or Haram A-Sherif, a plateau in the disputed city, holy for both Muslims and Jews, where Palestinians periodically clash with the Israeli security forces over their alleged violations of Palestinian rights to practice their faith.

"I have seen many terrifying things while covering the conflict," confessed Al-Khatib, reflecting on the coverage he has done over the years. "But the scariest situation happened to me during this year's Ramadan while I was covering the clashes at Al Aqsa mosque."

Family, friends and colleagues of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh carry her coffin to a hospital in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, Thursday, May 12, 2022.

© AP Photo / Mahmoud Illean

The area of the mosque has been a flashpoint for years and tensions around it often escalate during Ramadan, when thousands of Muslims arrive in the area to offer their prayers.

In mid-April hostilities have flared up again. Israeli security forces stormed the compound following alleged Palestinian provocations and the disruption of Jewish prayers at the Western Wall. Those clashes have left over 150 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers wounded. Al-Khatib, who was at the site for the coverage, was among those assaulted by Israeli law enforcement.

"Israeli soldiers know me well as they have seen me many times on the ground," he said. "That, however, didn't prevent them from beating me up and hurting my head. At some point, I felt their intention was to kill me in a brutal and inhuman way," he added.

Al-Khatib says this was not the only time he has faced death. He claims he encounters danger every time he is covering clashes in the region and the problem is that journalists like him have no protection from the brutality of the Israeli security forces.

"Of course we have all the protective gear but it is not a guarantee that we won't fall victims. Look what happened to Shirin. That helmet didn't stop a bullet from penetrating her skull."

Behind Bars

According to reports, citing the Palestinian Ministry of Information, Israeli security forces have killed more than 45 Palestinian journalists since 2000. Many of those were shot in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. But for Al-Khatib, the threat of death is just one of the dangers. The other one is the fear of arrest.

In the beginning of the year, it was reported that Israel was holding 17 journalists and media workers in prison, claiming their reports were inciting against the Jewish state. According to Addameer, an NGO fighting for the rights of Palestinian inmates, the Jewish state is also using the practice of detaining correspondents and holding them in captivity without a trial. Officials in Jerusalem have repeatedly denied these allegations, calling them Palestinian propaganda.

Arab Israeli protestors hold up Palestinian national flags during a demonstration near the city of Sakhnin in northern Israel, on May 5, 2022 ahead of the Palestinian marking of the 74th anniversary of the Nakba, the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation in 1948. -

© AFP 2023 / AHMAD GHARABLI

Al-Khatib says he has felt the arrests on his own skin on a number of occasions. The Israeli security forces have also harassed him and intimidated him to prevent him from doing his job. But that, he claims, hasn't broken his spirit.

"They are doing everything they can to stop us from telling the truth and informing the Palestinian and international audience about their crimes. It is scary but they won't stop us."