Rula Hassanein

Rula Hassanein
Occupation	activist, and journalist

Rula Ibrahim Hassanein is a Palestinian writer, activist, and journalist from the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate. She has many writings and articles in many newspapers and news websites. She was arrested with 80 journalists from the [West Bank]] and Jerusalem during the war on Gaza, where she was arrested on March 19, 2024, according to a joint statement by the Commission of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club. An Israeli court refused to release Palestinian journalist Rula Hassanein, despite her premature baby being breastfed by her only.

education

Rula is a graduate of the Birzeit University with a major in Journalism and Media, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Media and Political Science and a MA in Contemporary Arab Studies from Birzeit University.

Career and Arrest

She has worked for a number of media outlets, including the Al Jazeera Arabic channel, the women’s website “Banfasaj,” the Palestinian women’s radio station “Radio Nisa FM,” and the “Jerusalem Center for Political Studies”. And She previously worked for the "Watan News Agency" as a freelance journalist until her arrest by Israelis soldiers. She was arrested as a result of the harsh campaign waged by the Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian journalists, as she was transparently covering the suffering of the Palestinian people with international and local media agencies. She is currently serving a period of detention in Hasharon Prison, and the lawyer of the Addameer Association submitted a request for her release due to her health condition and the conditions of her nine-month-old daughter, but the occupation refused. From New York, on May 8, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Israeli authorities to release Palestinian freelance journalist Rula Hassanein on humanitarian grounds due to the deteriorating health of her and her infant daughter since March, when she was arrested over comments she made on social media. “Israel must immediately release Hassanein on humanitarian grounds so she can care for her nine-month-old daughter,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “The occupation must allow Rula to respond to the charges against her in a civilian court, not a military court, as a civilian court is the appropriate venue for addressing concerns about material published by a journalist on social media.”