LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists finds that Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel faced systematic beatings, starvation and other forms of abuse, including rape. Researchers from CPJ interviewed 59 journalists released by Israel between October 2023 and January of this year. The report comes after far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir boasted about the worsening conditions for Palestinian prisoners.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ITAMAR BEN-GVIR: (Non-English language spoken).
FADEL: There, Ben-Gvir is telling lawmakers in 2024 that "there used to be a paradise here for terrorists, lamb, meat, chocolate, marmalades. Today they get the bare minimum, according to the law, by the book." In a statement to NPR, the Israel Prison Service said it, quote, "categorically rejects" the allegations described. Sara Qudah, CPJ's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, told me about her team's findings.
SARA QUDAH: The tie the hands of the journalists behind their backs, and then they hang them for a very long time. Some journalists, they were actually raped, not just exposed to sexual violence or harassment. Most of the cases - and we are talking about the vast majority of the journalists who were in prison - they were extremely starved and deprived from adequate food.
FADEL: How many were actually ever charged with a crime?
QUDAH: So the vast majority of the journalists - and we are speaking about 80% of them, which makes 48 of the journalists we spoke to - were never charged with any crime.
FADEL: Is there any one story that you heard that stands out to you?
QUDAH: Of course. For me, the story of Sami Sai was one of the hardest stories when he described how he was raped and when he said that they broke me from inside. But this is not the only story. All the stories, they were sad. They were inhumane.
FADEL: Did you take your findings to Israeli authorities, and did they respond?
QUDAH: Of course we did. We did send several right-of-response emails to the Israeli police, to Ben-Gvir and to that ministry. We received no response from them.
FADEL: If you, generally - and in this case, with this report - don't get a response from the Israeli government, what can a report like this do? I mean, will it create accountability or action that will protect them in the future?
QUDAH: This is the entire reason behind this report. Documentation is very important, but documentation alone will not achieve justice. It's the first step. Today, after we see this lack of accountability, we call on the international community to protect the journalists inside Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank. We call on the Israeli authorities to release the 30 Palestinian journalists who are still held in Israeli prisons. And we also call on the international community to protect those journalists, to conduct a transparent, independent investigation into all these credible allegations of torture, sexual violence, starvation and medical neglect, which are all prohibited under the international law.
FADEL: Sara Qudah of the Committee to Protect Journalists. She's the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. Thank you, Sara, for speaking with us.
QUDAH: Thank you, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
