AFP dismisses West Bank correspondent following Israeli pressure

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The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reported that Agence France Presse has arbitrarily dismissed its West Bank correspondent Nasser Abu Bakr after being subject to "Israeli occupation dictates."

Abu Bakr is also the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and he has been working for AFP for more than 20 years.

The syndicate made a statement Monday saying, "This decision came after the successive campaigns of incitement against him, in light of his positions and being the head of the Journalists Syndicate, especially in the file of pursuing occupation leaders and bringing them to international courts for crimes and assaults against Palestinian journalists."

The statement added that Abu Bakr "was subject to a systematic campaign of harassment over the past five years, by the agency's management and its current and former managers to push him to resign and quit his job in it due to his union work and defending journalists."

The statement also said, "This arbitrary decision constitutes a disgrace to the French agency." The syndicate also called on the Palestinian Ministry of Information to "withdraw the accreditation of the agency’s office in Ramallah immediately."

Agence France Presse is yet to issue a comment regarding what was said in the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate's statement.

The recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip resulted in several Palestinian journalists being martyred and wounded, the last of whom was broadcaster Youssef Abu Hussein, who was martyred on the 10th and penultimate day of the aggression. Before that, both journalists Abdul Hamid Al-Kulk and Muhammad Abdel Moneim Shaheen were martyred.

In its raids, the occupation air forces targeted the Al-Jalaa residential tower and leveled it. It contained offices for television stations and Arab and international news agencies.