In the deadliest period for journalists in modern history, at least 131 media workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas on October 7, 2023. In almost all cases, Israel has insisted that the killings of journalists were not intentional. But international media organizations are shocked that Israel has labeled six Al Jazeera journalists as terrorists.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week said the six were Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. The IDF says its allegations are based on documents seized from Gaza detailing the names, identification numbers, and lists of members of the armed forces of the terrorist groups. TIME could not independently verify the authenticity and accuracy of the documents. Al Jazeera dismissed the allegations, describing the documents as false.
“The fear is that these six will now be targeted,” said Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF. “We repeat, that journalists are not terrorists and the mere publication of these documents does not prove that they are involved with them and does not give Israel permission to kill.” Earlier this year, RSF investigated the targeted killings in Israel of two other Al Jazeera journalists—Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi, who were killed by a drone strike on their car shortly after reporting live near the family home of Hamas political chief Ismail. . Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran that day. Israel asserted that al-Ghoul was a “military wing of Hamas and Nukhba terrorists,” referring to the group’s elite Nukhba Brigade. The RSF investigation noted “numerous inconsistencies” in Israel’s testimony, including the assertion that al-Ghoul obtained a military position in 2007, when he would have been 10 years old.
In a war where foreign journalists are not allowed to report from the ground, Al Jazeera and international media groups say Israel seems intent on blocking reporting from its front lines.
“What they’re trying to do is cover up what’s happening in northern Gaza,” said Mohamad Moawad, managing editor of the Arabic channel Al Jazeera, noting that the Israeli military’s allegations claim all but seven journalists remain in the north. , where Israel’s heavy-handed attacks have caused many deaths. “The aim is to shut down Al Jazeera’s broadcasts in northern Gaza…
Israel v. Al Jazeera
When the war broke out after the October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people inside Israel, most of Al Jazeera’s estimated 50 journalists in Gaza were driven south following Israel’s unprecedented order to evacuate the northern part of the Strip. Only a few chose to remain, among them six named by the IDF. “They have been strong,” said Moawad. “The journalist community in Palestine feels that they are committed to continue writing because if they don’t they will fail their community.”
Read more: A Palestinian Photographer Reflects on One Year of Life and Death in Gaza
Al Jazeera is the most popular news channel in the Arab world, but it has come under special scrutiny in Israel for what its critics say is the broadcaster’s willingness to present the views of Hamas officials without backing down. The channel is based and funded by Qatar, where the political leaders of Hamas are allowed to live and work; the state has historical ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization Hamas grew out of. Qatar is also home to a major US military base, and has served as a key mediator in efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, and the return of Israeli hostages still held there.
The Israeli government, however, regards Al Jazeera as a hostile force, and passed a new security law that used to close its operations in the country, a move condemned by media organizations inside and outside Israel, who fear the impact on journalists remaining in Gaza. They are all Palestinians, and as such they are more vulnerable than the international media which is banned from covering the war in person.
War Without World News
“I think it’s very important that people understand how that can’t happen,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “I have worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. I’ve talked to a lot of war reporters at that time, and none of them—who have covered some of the worst wars and genocides—remember that it was completely out of place and for so long.”
A number of American lawmakers renewed calls this week to allow American and international journalists unfettered access to Gaza. Those calls were not ignored by the Biden administration. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Israeli military has long denied allegations that it intimidates journalists in Gaza, with a spokesperson telling TIME last year that “the IDF has never, and never will, target journalists on purpose.” However, several independent investigations concluded that an Israeli soldier deliberately killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh as she reported from the West Bank in 2022. In Gaza, Samer Abudaqa, a network photographer, was killed by an Israeli airstrike at a school. Khan Younis in December. The following month, Hamza al-Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera reporter and cameraman, was killed walking between Khan Younis and Rafah and two other journalists when their car was hit by an Israeli strike. Al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were killed in July. At least two other Al Jazeera journalists, Fadi Al Wahidi and Ali Al-Attar, suffered life-threatening injuries; the network says Israeli authorities have refused permission for them to leave the Strip to receive necessary medical care.
CPJ, which monitors attacks on journalists around the world, has documented what it describes as a well-known pattern of Israel accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any concrete evidence to back up their claims. (Israel also applied the label to Palestinian human rights organizations, six of which it called “terrorists” in 2021, to international outcry). CPJ chief Ginsberg noted the timing of the IDF’s arrest of six Al Jazeera journalists in northern Gaza. “We can’t find physical documents—we rely entirely on what the IDF says they found—but to me it seems easy that they suddenly found these documents when they started doing that. [the Israeli human rights organization] “B’Tselem is calling for ‘ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza,’ and these are the few journalists left to report,” he said.
“This is a strategy that we see governments, especially authoritarian governments, use all the time,” added Ginsberg. “If you accuse a journalist of being a criminal or a terrorist, you cast doubt on the information you provide, and that is a deliberate strategy to make readers, listeners, and viewers doubt the authenticity of what that person says or shows. I think that’s what we’re seeing here … kind of gaslighting.”
Read more: Palestinian Journalists Offer Rare Insights into Life in Gaza. But How Long?
“It all created this perfect test storm,” said Vincent, of the RSF. “I have to believe that it was done on purpose. We reject you. And it’s not just in Gaza, either.” On Friday, three Lebanese journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Source link
