Ana Gomes, on behalf of the S&D Group . - Madam President, who is afraid of free media broadcasting? It looks like Israel is, considering the assault the Israeli defence forces and Ministry of Communication carried out at the end of February on the Palestinian Al-Watan TV and Al-Quds Educational TV, confiscating equipment and documents and holding journalists and employees for hours, on whatever pretext.

In doing so Israeli forces not only violated Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, which includes the right to impart information and ideas through any media, but Israel also committed a gross and glaring breach of the Oslo Accords.

Israel must be urged to immediately return the confiscated equipment, allow the resumption of work of those Palestinian TV stations and compensate them for the losses suffered. As this European Parliament resolution demands, this matter must be put on the agenda of the EU-Israeli Association Council.