Audio Transcript

Excerpt from a Dr. Ibrahim Rabaia interview with Bob Lederer

Atlanta, Georgia | June 18, 2025

Thank you for this opportunity. When we talk about the Palestinian media, I can say that we are passing through a very, very difficult time. I am Ibrahim Rabaia. I am the director of the Palestinian Media Coordination Group, which includes the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the Publishers Association, and the Radio Stations Association, besides the Birzeit Media Development Center.

Since October 8, 2023, we lost around 226 media workers in Gaza and the West Bank. Actually, this is the most difficult period for the Palestinian media ever. Even though we had very, very difficult violations before—and every year we recorded in our media institutions, mainly the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, thousands of violations against Palestinian media—most of these colleagues were killed by systematic targeting in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) recorded evidence about this systematic targeting in Gaza.

Also, around 440 were injured; some lost their limbs, and it is difficult to deal with their injuries in Gaza due to the collapse of the health sector. The PJS worked with international partners and institutions to send several people outside for treatment, but this became impossible since the collapse of the last ceasefire.

Around 47 journalists remain in detention now, out of 80 the PJS recorded as of last May. Most are under administrative detention with no charge. When we talk about this component mainly, this is where the censorship and the restrictions on media lie. Most of these colleagues are from the West Bank, and most were arrested due to their media work, their media products, and also their activities on social media platforms.

When we talk about administrative detention, this is the situation since October 8, 2023. It is mainly based on opinion due to Israeli restrictions—military restrictions mainly—which target the journalists themselves and the media outlets. They prevent specific outlets from working in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel—for example, Al Jazeera. They are also preventing international media from entering the Gaza Strip, along with more restrictions on the West Bank these days. The PJS has reported unprecedented rates of torture and humiliation against the colleagues who were arrested in this period.

We talk also about the media sector itself in Gaza. Now, the media sector in Gaza is completely destroyed. We lost around 82% of our media outlets in Gaza. For example, the publishers and the radio stations’ early estimated losses are around $125 million. This includes institutions, buildings, instruments, equipment—everything.

Also, displacement forced media workers to move from the north, where 85% of the media outlets were concentrated, to the south, where there is no infrastructure. So, we established—mainly the PJS with UNESCO and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)—solidarity centers. These are places where the basic needs of journalists are available so they can work. Even these places are not safe because there is monitoring and censorship of the media production coming from Gaza and even from the West Bank.

The PJS also worked on supporting the journalists themselves. We are talking about around 4,000 members supported for their personal needs. These are their priorities, including tents, food, and what they need in this very difficult situation.

Additionally, we are talking about the situation in the West Bank. The situation in the West Bank is more complicated because we have two kinds of censorship. The first is military censorship by the Israeli forces and military institutions. This is dynamic; they change everything. They have created a legal framework that can be translated or clarified in several ways, giving them a wide framework to use as they want. So, there are no clear restrictions for Palestinian journalists.

The second is informal censorship which comes from the settlers and their institutions. Their platforms and hate speech target journalists by name. We recorded several cases of attacking and targeting Palestinian journalists in Palestinian media institutions; the most recent was the attack on Issam Rimawi. Issam Rimawi is one of the prominent photographers here in Palestine. He was covering a settler attack against one of the villages around Ramallah. They knew him because they had shared his photo and used hate speech against him. When they saw him, they targeted him and “broke his head.” He was in the ICU for a week, and this was one of the most difficult recent cases. Issam said he has never witnessed such violations or systematic targeting in at least 20 years of covering the West Bank. He says there is an unprecedented escalation against Palestinian journalists in the West Bank.

This is not the only case. There was targeting of journalists in several areas in the West Bank, such as Jenin and Tulkarem, on different occasions. As you know, there has been an Israeli operation against Jenin since last January. There was systematic targeting of specific journalists there, preventing them from entering specific areas such as the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps, and arresting journalists in the field for hours or days.

As I mentioned regarding Al Jazeera, they are preventing journalists from working in the field—not only the outlet itself, but the workers. We are also talking about the AI era, where there is systematic censorship of Palestinian journalists and content through AI. In recent weeks, the spokesman for the Israeli army spoke about 3,000 recorded cases based on social media content for Palestinians, including journalists. Each time, they come to the house of the journalist and arrest him, regardless of whether he is in Area A, B, or C. They reach anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza to arrest Palestinian journalists.

There were also reports about using AI for systematic targeting. I think Human Rights Watch recorded this before, mentioning the “Lavender” AI app and other apps used to reach intellectuals and activists in Gaza, including journalists. Because of this systematic targeting, the PJS recorded high rates of fear among Palestinian journalists. They need protection; they need international support; they need a code of ethics and more pressure on the Israeli authorities to implement international laws and codes for protecting journalists in such situations in the West Bank and Gaza. Thank you.