Following Israeli incitement against Palestinian journalist and human rights activist Maha Al-Husseini, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) withdrew the Journalism Courage Award from her. The Palestinian Journalists Protection Initiative strongly condemns this decision.
The Journalists Protection Initiative stands in complete solidarity with journalist Al-Husseini, after the aforementioned award was taken away from her due to her bias toward the truth, the suffering of the victims in the Gaza Strip, and her exceptional contribution to exposing Israeli crimes.
Al-Husseini was declared the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) Journalistic Courage Award winner for her reports on Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip that she sent to the British website Middle East Eye.
Husseini was one of three recipients of the Courage in Journalism Awards, announced by the Washington-based foundation, which it says honours remarkable bravery in the pursuit of reporting.
The Journalists Protection Initiative affirms that journalist Al-Husseini’s outstanding work in publishing dozens of stories since the Israeli war on Gaza began in October, including a report that exposed the field executions of Palestinians by Israeli forces, cannot be diminished by the IWMF’s announcement that it is withdrawing the Courage Award from journalist Al-Husseini for caving in to Israeli incitement.
The report gained particular attention after South Africa presented it as proof before the International Court of Justice in its Israeli genocide case.
The Palestinian Journalists Protection Initiative emphasizes that the decision to withhold the award from journalist Al-Husseini is a clear bias in favour of Israel at a time when it is actively violating the freedom of journalism by killing Palestinian journalists and pursuing them in various ways. It also violates professional norms and journalistic ethics.
The Initiative calls on the Union of Arab Journalists and other international organisations concerned with the protection of journalists to take action against attempts to exclude and restrict them, given the number of Palestinian journalists who have been killed or injured while performing their work in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli war.
