Egyptian and Palestinian journalists attend a memorial service for Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza. File | Photo Credit: Getty Images
On Monday (August 26, 2024), about 60 media and rights organizations urged that European Union (EU) to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel and impose sanctions on it, accusing it of carrying out a “massacre of journalists” in Gaza.
“In response to the unprecedented numbers Journalists killed “Given the continued violations of press freedom and other repeated breaches by the Israeli authorities since the beginning of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organisations are calling on the EU to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible”, the groups said in a joint statement.
The call comes ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on August 29.
The letter said the period following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s devastating retaliatory strike on the Gaza Strip “has been the deadliest for journalists in decades”.
It said, “More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by Israeli armed forces in Gaza since 7 October. At least 30 of them were killed in the course of their work; three Lebanese journalists and one Israeli journalist were also killed during the same period.”
“The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, whether committed deliberately or negligently, is a war crime,” it said.
The EU’s association agreements with non-member countries are treaties that govern bilateral relations, including trade.
Julie Majerczak, head of RSF’s Brussels office, said Article 2 of the agreement requires “respect for human rights and democratic principles.”
“The Israeli government is clearly trampling on this article. The European Union, which is Israel’s major trading partner, should draw the necessary conclusions from this and do everything possible to ensure that the (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu government stops the massacre of journalists and respects the right to information and freedom of the press by opening media access to Gaza,” he said.
Signatories included the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch (HRW).