Palestinian Journalists Syndicate loans helmets and vests to shield reporters from attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
One hundred thirty-five journalists and media workers killed; more than 100 arrested, including 40 still being held without charges; nearly 900 violations altogether, including travel bans, destruction of equipment, and beatings—this is the daily reality of journalists in Palestine since October 7th, according to Rania Khayyat, communications officer of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a labor union for Palestinian media workers.
The worst violence is concentrated in the Gaza Strip, where journalists are subjected to Israeli bombardments, shootings, and a siege, which has killed more than 34,535 Palestinians, including 14,500 children, according to Al Jazeera at the time of this writing. But Palestinian journalists in the other Occupied Territories, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, nor Israel are spared from a litany of abuse from Israeli soldiers and settlers. Since October 7, settlers have launched at least 603 attacks in the West Bank, all with the aim of expanding illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, which is a blatant disregard of international law, according to the United Nations.
Amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and occupation of Palestine more broadly, PJS recently created a potentially life-saving lending library of sorts, loaning safety gear to reporters on assignment.
“We depend on two levels of safety,” explains Khayyat. “The first is awareness and education. We always try to provide safety awareness campaigns to teach journalists and increase their awareness of how to deal with violence and how to protect themselves in the field. The second level that we try to support them with is safety gear.”
Due to the likelihood of violence from the Israeli military and settlers, PJS recommends that Palestinian journalists working anywhere from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea wear both ballistic helmets and bulletproof vests clearly marked for press. Unfortunately, such equipment can cost more than $3,000 in the West Bank—the equivalent of nearly three months of average local wages, according to estimates by the US Department of State.
While PJS pushes all media outlets to provide such equipment to their reporters, Khayyat acknowledges that the costs are out of reach for all but the largest ones. “Only very big media outlets can afford it—the international or regional ones, such as Al Jazeera, for example,” she says.
For reporters at smaller outlets, as well as freelancers, PJS recently established a program to loan safety equipment. Reporters can borrow helmets and vests for the duration of their assignments, and then return them for colleagues to use, thereby increasing access to equipment that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. That said, the demand still outstrips the supply.
“To be honest, we don’t have enough for freelancers,” says Khayyat. “We are always receiving requests, from freelancers especially, for support with gear.”
With much of PJS’s funding diverted to providing basics to journalists in the Gaza Strip—at first, medical kits, power banks, and Internet connectivity; then as the Israeli siege worsened, food, clothing, and shelter—it has been able to obtain less than a dozen sets of helmets and vests. The goal, according to Khayyat, is to have up to 60 sets at PJS quarters throughout the West Bank to improve access for reporters.
While Khayyat hopes to continue fundraising for safety equipment, basic humanitarian aid remains the focus for now. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), of which PJS is a member, continues to collect funds to provide journalists in the Gaza Strip with basic humanitarian aid.
“The vast majority of journalists in Gaza—like the population—are currently in survival mode,” says Monir Zaarour, IFJ’s director of policy and programs for the Middle East and Arab world. “When they are not under direct threat of being killed or injured or displaced, they are overwhelmed by the task of securing the basic needs of their families and children: food, clean water and medication.”
There is also little hope of getting safety equipment through the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, which has limited the entry of anything Israel deems “dual-use,” or potentially beneficial to Palestinian militants, since 2007. Furthermore, Khayyat notes that more than 80 press centers in Gaza have been targeted and destroyed by the Israeli military since October 7th, meaning there are few places to house equipment. PJS itself was forced to abandon its headquarters in East Jerusalem and a branch in Gaza, for the relative safety of Ramallah in the West Bank due to the ongoing Israeli genocide. Today, the PJS office in Gaza shelters displaced Palestinian families.
The forced relocation of PJS underscores how an end to the Israeli occupation, rather than any amount of equipment, is ultimately necessary to provide meaningful safety for journalists in Palestine.
“End the occupation,” says Khayyat. “This is the main demand that we have, because most of our problems, most of the violations, most of the journalists that we are losing, it’s because of the occupation.”
“We need pressure,” she continues. “We need to lobby against Israel to abide by international laws, to stop the targeting of Palestinian journalists. … We need to hold the killers of Palestinian journalists accountable—not only the killer, any person who violates the rights of journalists, the right to work, the right to life.”
If you would like to support journalists in Gaza so that they can continue their work, please make a contribution to the IFJ’s International Safety Fund with the comment “For the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.”
