Skyline International for Human Rights condemned in a statement on Monday the Israeli army’s arrest of the Palestinian researcher and writer, Yasser Manna, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The group stated that the arrest is a continuation of Israel’s policy of restricting freedom of opinion and expression and silencing critics of the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.
#PalestinianTerritories: The #Israeli army's arrest of researcher #YasserManna is part of its strategy to restrict freedom of opinion and expression.
More: https://t.co/im5iDrtGQg pic.twitter.com/BVll4d6MIs
— Skyline International for Human Rights (@skylineforhuman) May 8, 2023
An Israeli army force arrested 34-year-old Yasser Manna on Sunday night as he was passing through the Za’tara checkpoint, south of Nablus, WAFA reported.
According to the statement, Manna – a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Studies on Israeli Affairs – had been arrested several times in the past. He spent five years in Israeli prisons and was released in 2021.
Manna’s arrest, according to Skyline, comes in the context of the escalation of Israeli attacks against media professionals and opinion makers in the Palestinian territories.
Skyline stated that this month, “Israeli forces arrested, detained, or summoned and interrogated five journalists, forcing them not to cover the army’s violations”.
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“These arrests and the unjustified attacks and repression that preceded them constitute a flagrant violation of the rules that guarantee freedom of opinion, expression and journalistic work,” the group added.
“The international community’s silence regarding Israeli forces’ violations of the right to freedom of expression, opinion, and journalism preluded for more violations and increased the likelihood that Israeli perpetrators would go unpunished.”
(PC, WAFA)
