By Mohamed Maged
GAZA
A Palestinian NGO on Monday organized a campaign to plant an olive tree in memory of each journalist killed during Israel's recent onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Press House-Palestine, a Palestinian NGO devoted to defending press freedoms in the Palestinian territories, is carrying out the project in the courtyard of its Gaza headquarters, where it plans to plant 17 olive trees in memory of the 17 journalists killed over the course of the 51-day onslaught.
According to the independent Union for Local Palestinian Radios, 16 Palestinian journalists and one Italian journalist were killed during Israel's war on Gaza, which finally ended on August 26 with a cease-fire agreement signed in Cairo between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions.
"This event is organized with the aim of honoring the journalists killed during the war," Belal Gadallah, chairman of the board of Press House-Palestine, told Anadolu Agency.
The campaign, he added, "reflects the esteem that the Palestinian press has for the martyrs."
He called on international rights groups to raise the issue of Israel's practice of targeting journalists in international forums, with the aim of stopping Israeli attacks on innocent people in general and journalists in particular.
Olive trees have a symbolic importance in the Levant, where they grow in abundance. The tree is also frequently mentioned in the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
Israel's recent onslaught on Gaza left 2,147 Palestinians dead and 11,000 injured – the vast majority of them civilians – while partially or completely destroying thousands of residential structures across the territory.
According to Israeli figures, 67 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were killed over the course of the operation – the highest military death toll suffered by Israel since it lost 119 troops in its 2006 war on Lebanon.
By Mohamed Maged
www.aa.com.tr/en
