Palestine: CFWIJ condemns the sexual harassment by a police officer against Stephanie Glinski

June 11, 2021- Freelance journalist, Stephanie Glinski reported sexual harassment by a police officer as she was covering a protest in Gaza. Stephanie shared the picture of the perpetrator on her Insta account. She said that the police officer grabbed her boobs while trying to push her away. Stephanie was photographing the protest. CFWIJ condemns the sexual harassment against the journalist. There have been numerous incidents of threats and violations against women journalists during the recent crisis in Sheikh Jarrah. We demand that law enforcement authorities take strict action against the harasser as officers with such immoral conduct pose threats to women journalists reporting on the ground. 

Stephanie shared in her Instagram stories that as she was capturing the protest, the harasser-police officer tried to push her away and grabbed her boobs. She said that her fellow journalists who saw this happening- told her that harassment from police officers is very common here. She approached that officer later regarding what he did. The officer arrogantly shunned her off and told her, “well then report it to the police.” Stephanie said she will register her complaint to the police and spread his image on social media. The journalist shared two pictures of the officer in her Insta stories. 

She also shared the on-ground coverage of the protest and was accidentally hurt by a water bottle thrown at someone else. Gaza has become one of the most challenging conflict zones for women journalists in the recent clashes. There have been numerous attacks on journalists where they even lost their life or fell injured. 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism has recorded 12 cases of different sorts of threats from November 2020 to June 7, 2021, in our report on Palestine. Out of these 12 cases, 11 were recorded in May and June. The killing of journalist Reema Saad is one of the most horrific cases as she lost her life in a targeted airstrike at her residence. Reema was four months pregnant when she was killed along with her kids and husband. 

CFWIJ condemns the persistent violations of the safety and freedom of the press in Palestine by Israeli forces. We demand that the government authorities respect the latest truce and stop targeting journalists for doing their job. We demand that Israeli law enforcement authorities apprehend the officer who sexually harassed Stephanie and hold him accountable for his immoral conduct.