Monday, May 13^th | 11:00-12:30
Location: The Palestinian Museum
Language: Arabic

An invitation to attend a meeting with Palestinian journalist and photographer Yousef Qutob

For World Press Freedom Day, including marking the Second Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Shireen Abu Akleh

In 1993, when the internet was only starting to make independent online digital platforms possible, the United Nations General Assembly declared that the third of May of each year would be commemorated as “World Press Freedom Day”. Since October 7th, 2023, Palestinian journalists have been martyred and wounded at a rate that can only be understood as systemic. Meanwhile, World Press Freedom Day this year is being pushed forward under the theme “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis”. This is a continuation of not only the United Nations but the world’s neglect concerning the fate of over 140 martyred Palestinian journalists thus far, who were targeted as part of the genocide and annihilation of the Palestinian people as a whole.

We at the Palestinian Museum have decided to redirect the compass of this day to shift our focus to put press freedom, as it applies to us, in its proper and morally urgent context. Thus, we invite you to participate in World Press Freedom Day under our title, “The Press Confronting Genocide” at 11:00 on Monday, May 13th, 2024, at our headquarters in Birzeit. On this day we will discuss with Yousef Qutob the reality of the Palestinian press to face the truth of the losses the Palestinian press movement has incurred not only since October 7th but in the decades prior. For this, the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive will provide us with our launching point from the present.

Qutob will offer us insights gleaned from decades of valuable experience starting from Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) training camps in Jordan in the 1960s and along his journey through Beirut, southern Lebanon, Tunisia, and Gaza, the invasion of Ramallah in the West Bank during the Second Intifada, and the 2015 uprising. Through this event, we hope to encourage students, journalists, and all those interested to peruse the variety of sources and archival collections for your work and projects. We also encourage visiting the Museum’s artistic demonstration for Gaza and browsing the other collections of the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive. Overall, we will learn how we Palestinians did and continue to resist genocide through photographs from across the history of the Palestinian cause.
 

Martyred Palestinian Journalists since October 7th, 2023

Mustafa Ayad, Tareq Abu Skheil, Amina Hamid, Mohammed Al-Jamal, Salem Abu Toyor, Abdul Wahab Abu Aoun, Mohammed Abu Skheil, Mahmoud Issa, Mohamed El-Reefi, Abdul Rahman Saima, Mohammad Khader Salama, Mohammad Tashreen Yaghi, Zaid Abu Zayed, Mohammad Raslan Shanioura, Angham Ahmed Adwan, Alaa al-Hams, Yasser Mamdouh Al-Fadi, Nafez Hamdan, Rizq Al-Gharabli, Mohammed Abdul-Fattah Atallah, Issam Al-Lulu, Iyad El-Ruwagh, Karam Abu Ajiram, Wael Fannouneh, Yazan Al-Zuweidi, Mohammed Jamal Sabahi Al Thalathini, Fouad Abu Khammash, Sherif Okasha, Ahmad Bdeir, Hiba al-Abadla, Abdullah Breis, Mohammad Abu Dayer, Akram Al-Shafi'I, Mustafa Thuraya , Hamza Wael Dahdouh, Ali Salem Abu Ajwa, Jabr Abu Hadros, Narmeen Haboush, Abdallah Hammad, Mohammad Khair Al-Din, Ahmad Maher Khair al-Din, Mohammad Younis al-Zaytouna, Mohammad Abdul Khaleq al-Af, Ahmad Jamal Madhoun, Mohamed Naser Abu Huwaidi, Mohammad Ramadan Khalifa, Alaa Abu Muammar, Adel Zorob, Abdallah Alwan, Assem Kamal Musa, Mashal Shahwan, Rami Badir, Ali Fadl Ashour, Duaa Jabbour, Hamada Al-Yazji, Alaa Al Nimer, Haneen Ali Al-Qashtan, Samer Abu Daqqa, Ahmad Abu Absa, Abdul Karim Awda, Hanan Ayyad, Nermin Qawwas, Mohamed Abu Samra, Ola Atallah, Hossam Omar Ammar, Abdulhamid Al Qarnawi, Shaima al-Jazzar, Mahmoud Salem, Hassan Farajallah, Adham Hassouneh, PhD, Abdullah Darwish, Montaser Sawwaf, Nader Al Nazli, Mustafa Bakeer, Amal Zuhud, Mohammed Mo’een Ayyash, Assem Adli Al Bursh, Mohammed Nabil Al-Zak, Jamal Hanieh, Ayat Omar Khdourah, Bilal Jadallah Salem, Hassouneh Slim, Sari Mansour, Abdul Halim Awad, Mustafa Sawwaf, Amro Salah Abu Hayeh, Mahmoud Matar, Yacoub Bursh, Moussa Bursh, Ahmad Amin Fatimeh, Ahmad Qarra, Yahya Abu ‘Mnei, Mohammad Ghanem Al Jajeh, Mohamad Abu Hassira, Haitham Harara, Iyad Matar, Mohammad Bayyari, Mohammad Abu Hatab, Majd Fadel Arandas, Majed Ahmad Kashko, Imad Abdul Mohdi Al Whaidi, Mahmoud Jamal Abu Tharifeh, Nazmi Nadeem, Huthaifa Najjar, Yasser Subhi Abu Nammous, Mohammad Fayez Al Hassani, Dua’ Sharaf, Zaher Al Afghani, Jamal Faqawi, Salma Mkhaimar, Ahmad Abdul Hai Abu Mhadi, Saed Samir Al Halabi, Ali Nasman, Mahmoud Abu Tharifa, Iman Oqeili, Mohammad Imad Labad, Rushdi Sarraj, Ahmad Nahed Masoudl Hani Madhoun, Mohammad Ali (Abu Ahd), Ayed Ismail Najjar, Khalil Ibrahim Abu Athra, Samih Abdul Razeq Al Nadi, Rajab Naqib, Mohammad Jamil Balousheh, Issam Mohammad Bhar, Abdul Hadi Habib, Salam Khalil Mema, Hussam Mahmoud Mubarak, Ahmad Abdulrahman Shihab, Abdul Rahman Rabee Shihab,,, Mohammad Fayez Abu Mattar, Mustafa Al Naqib, Hisham Nawajha,, Said Radwan Taweel, Mohammad Rizeq Soboh, Anas Abu Shammaleh, Assad Abdul Nasser Shamallakh, Mohamad Tohami A Salhi, Ibrahim Lafi, Mohammad Sami Jarghoun, Abdulwahab Awni Abu Oun

Martyred Lebanese Journalists since October 7th:

Issam Abdallah, Hussein Aqeel, Rabih Maamari, Farah Omar

Yousef Qutob is a Palestinian photojournalist and member of the Palestinian News and Information Agency “WAFA” photography department between 1973 and 1974. Since then, he has worked as a war correspondent, documenting the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli war on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon from 1975 until the departure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leadership from Lebanon in 1981.

The Yousef Qutob Collection documents different stages of the Palestinian Question, especially the First and Second Intifada in 1987 and 2000 respectively. Qutob was especially interested in filming and documenting the activities of the Palestinian freedom fighters in Lebanon, such as their military training and celebrations of the revolution on the anniversary of the launch of Fatah in Beirut in 1979.

The collection contains photographs of Palestinian refugee camps and the wounded in the 1982 Lebanese Civil War and documents the work of the Samed Foundation. Others include scenes of military outposts of the Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank, the suffering of the Palestinians these entailed, and the 2015 uprising.
 

Samar Ozrail is a researcher and archivist who earned a Bachelor’s degree from Birzeit University in political science with a minor in public administration, and a Master’s in international studies from the same university. After graduating, she worked as a researcher with the late Samih Hamouda, PhD on several research studies, the most significant of which was research on the life of the activist Bassam Shakaa, the former mayor of Nablus. She worked on the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive project for five years, collecting more than 70 archival collections from the West Bank.