Palestinians Show Solidarity With Photographer Shot in the Eye

Hundreds of people across social networks and many social movements and journalists have shown their outrage after a Palestinian press photographer was blinded in the eye by a bullet fired at him by Israeli border police during Friday's clashes in the West Bank.

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Muath Amarneh, 32, a freelance photographer from the Bethlehem refugee camp in Dheisheh, was covering the protests in the city of Surif along with several of his colleagues when he was hit.

The photos of Amarneh with his bloody eye, his press vest on and his camera in his hand were broadcast over the weekend in social media, prompting widespread denunciation by Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and also around the world.

Palestinian journalists and activists from all territories published photos of themselves in social media with one eye covered, with the hashtag "Muath's Eye" in Arabic.

Even the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh showed his solidarity with Amarneh during a cabinet meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday also covering his left eye.

In addition, protests and sit-ins were organized in Bethlehem, the hometown of Amarneh, the city of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, and Gaza City.

Hundreds of journalists took part in the sit-in in Bethlehem, wearing their press vests and symbolically wearing eye patches.

"I came to the protest today in solidarity with Muath and all the other Palestinian journalists," Hamad Taqatqa, 27, a local journalist and friend of Amarneh, told Middle East Eye.

Israeli forces violently dispersed the Bethlehem protest, throwing sound grenades and tear gas at journalists approaching the Israeli permanent military base at the northern end of the city.

However, Taqatqa and other journalists insist that whatever happens, they will continue to work and will not be deterred by the actions of Israeli forces.

"Their eyes are our eyes. We are all Muath," he said.

"Maybe today it was his turn to be shot, but tomorrow it could be any one of us," he continued. "But that won't stop us. We will be on the ground every day to send a message to the occupation that no matter what you do, we will continue to show your true face to the rest of the world.

According to a report published by the Palestinian Journalists' Union (PJS), Israeli forces have committed 600 rights violations against Palestinian journalists between October 2018 and October 2019 in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds and the Gaza Strip.