International day of the press freedom 2012: Press under attack

Throughout the many years of the Intifada, I have been trying to describe the Israeli crimes against Palestinian people and the violence as well as the arrogance of the Israelis for refusing all international rules and resolutions. Also, I have attempted to describe the suffering of the Palestinian citizens, the oppression and humiliation that ordinary people suffer.

All the time I was saying and writing these things I wasn’t scared of being arrested by the Israeli forces. The reason for that is my firm and strong belief that if I were arrested or killed, this would be for the sake of my country and to defend it.

I and my friends in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip took part in the sit-ins and protests, writing and publishing our thoughts and beliefs without any hesitation.

However, after the division of the Palestine Territories in 2006 between the two biggest parties in Palestine, Fatah and Hamas, I had a new feeling of fear. It wasn't the fear of an Israeli occupation or the fear of society disapproving of our attempts to modify some of its manners; it was a strange type of fear, the fear that the censor inside of me might make a mistake.

What both governments have in common is the intellectual terrorism both of them exercise against journalists and bloggers.

Despite the slogan of freedom and democracy the two parties adopt, you have to be very careful of what you are writing about or going to write in Gaza and West Bank.

On the one hand, if you are living in West Bank, you mustn't write about the corruption and the failure of the Fatah government. Moreover, you mustn't write about the politically motivated arrests which are meant to mute the voices calling for freedom.

On the other hand, if you are living in Gaza, you won't dare to talk neither about the violations of the rights of the citizens nor about the repression exercised against media and against the freedom of assembly. Also, you can't talk about creating a community or an association which has been made almost impossible under the Hamas Government.

There is no big difference between the situations in Gaza or West Bank. What both governments have in common is the intellectual terrorism both of them exercise against journalists and bloggers who write and publish ideas that oppose their rule. A writer’s destiny in Gaza or the West Bank is imprisonment, torture or to sign a pledge not to write again and sometimes not to think at all. If what you wrote really annoyed the ruling party, then death under severe torture will be your destiny.

In spite of all of that we are trying to face and address all the attempts at repression and suppression of our voices, with courage, strength and belief. We feel the attempts to suppress our voices, to prevent us from writing and take away our rights are also a form of occupation. The effect is even bigger and stronger than the confiscating of our land.

As we resisted the Israeli occupation with our pens and our words, we will resist any person, entity or authority trying to take away the most precious thing we have… our freedom.

In addition to that we have to continue our mission and say the truth whatever it costs us, to be able to resist this intellectual occupation and to assure the freedom of expression.

We will still write and blog without fear. That is the way we have always done and it is the freedom fighters way.