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The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has condemned the continued incarceration of five Palestinian journalists by Israeli authorities.

The five journalists come from across the West Bank and work for a wide variety of Arab media agencies. Their names are: Walid Khalid (‘Palestine’ newspaper), Nawaf Al-Amer (‘Al-Quds’ television), Samer Allawi (‘Al-Jazeera’, a satellite news channel), Osaid Amarneh (‘Al-Aqsa’ television) and Amer Abu Arafeh (‘Shab’ news agency).

Two of the men, Khalid and Al-Amer, have been sentenced to administrative detention whilst Allawi, who was the head of Al-Jazeera’s Afghanistan Bureau before his arrest on 9th August, has yet to be charged.

In its statement, MADA has called for the immediate release of all the journalists, describing their imprisonment as part of an ‘enduring disregard for international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territories’.

‘MADA demands the immediate release of these unlawfully detained journalists and additionally demands the international community in its capacity in formal human rights institutions [sic] and the bodies of the United Nations exercise [sic] real pressure on the Israeli government to expedite their release.’