Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said today, Tuesday, that "women and male journalists are soldiers of truth and witnesses of history and the present before the international courts of conscience and the courts of history."

This came in his speech, on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas, before the General Conference of the Journalists Syndicate 2023, "The Martyr Sherine Abu Aqleh Conference", which was held in the halls of the Red Crescent in Al-Bireh in conjunction with the Gaza Strip.

Shtayyeh stressed that the press is the eye of the truth in Palestine, and it is in confrontation with those who want to extinguish the light of the truth.

He added, "The press is one of the most important tools for activating democracy in any society, and a tool for maintaining democratic frameworks, a lever for change in societies, and a maker of public opinion."

Shtayyeh affirmed the government's commitment to freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and thought, and the right of the press to investigate and access information, noting that the Council of Ministers formed a committee to study the conditions of journalists working in the profession of searching for trouble, protecting them, and providing the best conditions for their work to perform their mission with professionalism and responsibility dictated by the laws of the profession.

He pointed out that Palestine is living in abnormal conditions, and despite that there are many media outlets that reflect political pluralism, indicating that it is unreasonable for Israel to hold 5 elections in four years and to deprive us of our right to vote by depriving us of our electoral right in the city of Jerusalem, and despite that we conducted Student, syndicate, union and municipal elections.

Shtayyeh stressed, on behalf of the journalists, the need to fight for the democratic right, just as we are fighting to end the occupation and its colonial tools, and that the government is working to achieve national unity on the basis of unity of purpose and unity of struggle tools, based on an agreed struggle and political program.

He pointed out that the Israeli sniper who killed Sherine Abu Aqleh wanted to kill a witness to become a martyr, and to join the 50 journalists who preceded her to the top, including the martyr Yasser Murtaja, stressing that the government will remain loyal to the blood of the martyrs and that it will follow up on the court file by all means.

In the same context, the press movement in the Gaza Strip organized a stand today, to demand a halt to the union elections procedures, and to initiate steps to reform the union.

The Administrative Court in Gaza had allowed the General Conference of the Journalists Syndicate to be held without holding elections, and set a session to decide the case on Wednesday, 5/24/2023.