This morning Israel’s Shin Bet raided the Bethlehem (occupied West Bank) home of the bureau chief of Al Mayadeen Media Network (AMMN), Nasser al-Lahham. He was arrested, his family belongings were ransacked, electronic devices were damaged, and his phones were seized. Later today AMMN issued a statement that the arrest was carried out with “brutality and repression” and issued a call for al-Lahham’s immediate release. They situated Israel’s latest action as part of “its persistent hostility toward journalism, journalists, and the right to report the truth.”
Nasser al-Lahham is a well-known and respected voice in Palestinian media, with more than 30 years of experience in journalism. AMMN said that his “arrest drew immediate condemnation from across the Arab world, with media figures, press freedom advocates, and political movements expressing solidarity.” AMMN called for press organizations “to take a stand against what it described as the Israeli occupation’s ‘escalating war on media,’ citing a systematic pattern of arrests, censorship, and the deliberate killing of journalists, especially in Gaza, as part of this campaign.” As late June, the Gaza Government Media Office put the total of journalists killed in Gaza at 228.
Otherwise, AMMN reported that the “Israeli government has renewed its ban on Al Mayadeen’s operations, confiscated its broadcasting equipment, and blocked its websites, in a crackdown against the network, amid the continued genocide in the Gaza Strip and the broad, ongoing assaults against the West Bank.”
