Israel’s war on journalism
The war in Gaza has proved by far the most deadly for journalists this century. Some argue Israel is deliberately targeting them, writes Jeremy Rose.
Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq’s first published story dealt with what he described as Israel’s murder of his brother Ayman in 2014. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would call it self-defence or mowing the lawn – a common phrase in Israel for the periodic attacks on Gaza aimed at depleting Hamas’ military capacity.
The essay – published on the We Are Not Numbers website – describes Ayman coming home, in the early 2000s, after five of his primary school mates had been killed by Israeli soldiers, and another 12 injured while playing.
By the time Israel invaded Gaza in what it dubbed Operation Cast Lead, in 2008, Ayman was in secondary school and once again he saw friends being killed.
Operation Cast Lead left 1400 Palestinians dead, 46,000 homes destroyed and more than 100,000 homeless. Thirteen Israeli soldiers died during the invasion.
The blockade that followed the war left Ayman and Ahmed’s disabled taxi-driver father unemployed as the supply of petrol dried up. As the eldest son, Ayman took on the role of breadwinner.
Then, in 2012, Israel again “mowed the lawn” in Operation Pillar of Defence – and once again hundreds were killed and thousands left homeless.
“When this war was over, Ayman was not the same,” Ahmed wrote.
His older brother joined Hamas’ armed resistance force – the Al Qassam Brigades.
It was a decision that would cost him his life. In 2014 Israel yet again invaded Gaza and Ayman was killed by a missile fired from an F16 as he made his way to battle the IDF
The world is divided on what to call the likes of Ayman. To Palestinians he’s a martyr, a freedom fighter, and a patriot to Israelis he’s a terrorist.
Some will praise him for his decision to join the armed struggle. Others will condemn him.
Ahmed chose another form of resistance: journalism.
In 2014 he helped set up We Are Not Numbers, a website that provides a platform for young Gazans to share their stories, in English, with the outside world.
Later he teamed up with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham to bring the stories to an Israeli audience in Hebrew, a project called Across the Wall.
On October 21 of last year the IDF dropped a bomb on Ahmed’s family home, killing 21 members of his family – including 14 of his nieces and nephews all under the age of 13.
The house was in the south of Gaza in an area Israel had declared a safe zone.
Ahmed heard of the massacre in the UK, where’s he’s on scholarship.
He’s been tirelessly telling people the stories behind the numbers ever since.
But as we enter the seventh month of what a leading Holocaust scholar, Hebrew University professor Amos Goldberg, last week declared to be a genocide, the numbers tell other important and horrific stories.
The media has been updating the death count daily – currently it’s over 35,000, the vast majority women, children and civilian men – but there are other numbers that are less well known.
The Gaza media office says more than 140 journalists have been killed so far. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists has confirmed 92 Palestinian, five Lebanese and two Israeli journalist deaths since October 7.
Even the lower figure makes it by the far the deadliest war for journalists in the 21st century. Goldberg includes the targeting of journalists in his carefully argued case for declaring the assault of Gaza to be genocidal.
“What is happening in Gaza is genocide because the level and pace of indiscriminate killing, destruction, mass expulsions, displacement, famine, executions, the wiping out of cultural and religious institutions, the crushing of elites (including the killing of journalists) and the sweeping dehumanisation of the Palestinians — create an overall picture of genocide, of a deliberate conscious crushing of Palestinian existence in Gaza.”
Ahmed Alnaouq is far from alone among Gaza’s journalists in having multiple family members murdered.
Al Jazeera’s bureau chief, Wael Al Dahdour - probably Gaza’s best-known journalist - lost his wife, son, daughter and grandchild, when an Israeli air strike hit their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp on October 25 last year.
On January 7 his son, Hamza Al Dahdouh, also a journalist, was killed by an Israeli air strike while travelling in a car, marked “press”, along with a colleague.
The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement in December saying it was alarmed by journalists in Gaza reporting death threats and subsequently their family members being killed.
Reporters Without Borders and a group of UN experts, including four special rapporteurs, have both asked the International Criminal Court to investigate whether Israel is targeting journalists.
If journalists are being targeted it is inevitable their families will also fall victims to Israel’s bombs.
Yuval Abraham - the Israeli journalist who partnered with Ahmed Alnaouq on the Across the Wall project - recently published an investigation on the progressive +972 website, revealing an AI programme called Lavender that identified 37,000 suspected militants in the first weeks of the war.
The article, based on interviews with six IDF intelligence officers, said Israel systematically targeted those on the kill list while they were home - usually at night.
Two of those interviewed claimed that in the early weeks of the war it was permissible for 15 to 20 civilians to be killed for every militant targeted. Last Sunday Israel closed Al Jazeera’s office in occupied East Jerusalem, confiscating broadcast equipment and taking the channel off air.
The move comes almost exactly two years after an IDF soldier shot and killed the American-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israelioccupied West Bank for Al Jazeera.
Israel’s targeting of journalists and their families, the closure of Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem office, the imprisonment and alleged torture of journalists, and the refusal to let foreign journalists enter Gaza amounts to a war on journalism.
Justice for Palestine is holding a vigil to mark two years since the shooting of Shireen Abu Akleh and protest the ongoing killing of Gazan journalists at Wellington’s Midland Park, at 11:30am on Saturday, May 11.
If journalists are being targeted it is inevitable their families will also fall victims to Israel’s bombs.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about how the media needs to prove its value to society. I did film, TV and media studies at university, and I’ve always been partial to a good TV drama. But in my work with Amnesty International, I have come to value the media for more than entertainment and escapism. Journalists are essential to our work in putting an end to human rights violations.
The founder of Amnesty International, Peter Benenson, understood the critical role of the media back in 1961. In fact, he launched the Amnesty International movement by writing an op-ed about prisoners of conscience for a British newspaper.
Amazingly, this piece went “viral”
– in the pre-internet way – and was republished by newspapers around the world. By raising awareness of the shocking number of people who were being imprisoned for speaking truth to power, Benenson was able to mobilise a global community of people who wanted to help protect human rights.
Since then, Amnesty International has worked with journalists around the world to uncover human rights violations and to pressure those in power to uphold their human rights obligations.
Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, many of our successes have been achieved with help from the media. Last year, it was a sports journalist who alerted us to the news that Visit Saudi was poised to become a sponsor of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. When we launched a petition calling on then-Sports Minister Grant Robertson to speak out on Saudi Arabia’s egregious human rights record, it was journalists who spread the word.
And how did we know that the campaign was successful? When a journalist reported that the sponsorship deal had been dropped. Amnesty International is a people-powered movement, and journalists are some of the most valuable people I know when it comes to telling human rights stories.
Last Friday, we celebrated World Press Freedom Day as a crucial reminder of the right to seek, impart and receive information, and to honour the invaluable role that journalists play in protecting this freedom for us all. This year, the day was dedicated to the importance of journalism in the context of the current global environmental crisis. As the UN puts it:
“Awareness of all aspects of the global environmental crisis and its consequences is essential to build democratic societies.
Journalistic work is indispensable for this purpose.”
Amnesty International has been documenting ways in which climate change is threatening and undermining human rights for many years now. One of the main ways in which we do this is by writing and sending press releases about research we have undertaken with affected communities. It is journalists who can then bring the story to the world’s attention, and by harnessing this awareness, the Amnesty International movement can then hold governments and corporations to account.
In a report published last year, for example, Amnesty International worked with an organisation based in the Democratic Republic of Congo to detail how the expansion of cobalt mining operations has resulted in communities being forced from their land. While the transition to a renewable energy infrastructure is essential, communities living on mineral-rich lands are feeling the adverse side of the battery boom. Inspired by this report, TikTok influencers began urging people to quit vaping in solidarity with the people of the DRC, since vaping devices are often powered by cobalt-containing batteries.
This story was covered by Newshub’s journalists, helping to spread awareness beyond social media. But in two months’ time, Newshub will no longer exist.
It's not just human rights organisations like us who rely on the media to achieve our mission. Think about any of the charities you give to: how do you hear about their vital work? Now more than ever, NGOs are going to need the media to reach wide audiences, whether that’s for raising awareness of an issue or raising money to tackle that issue head-on. The UN’s recent review of New Zealand’s human rights record shows that this country is falling short in numerous areas, including access to health and education and in tackling family violence. Charities need journalists to help us hold the Government accountable, and to tell our stories of hope when the generosity of supporters means that we can make a positive difference in society.
When it comes to addressing the challenges faced by the media, most of the focus is rightly on the Government and the media industry.
But what can we, as citizens, do to keep the media afloat in the face of existential crisis? Dr Gavin Ellis has argued that public interest journalism should be considered a charitable purpose. For those who are able, I think we should put our money where our eyes are and pay for subscriptions to local media platforms. This not only helps to keep journalists in jobs, but it also helps to maximise the impact of any of the charities to which you currently donate.
The UN’s recent review of New Zealand’s human rights record shows that this country is falling short in numerous areas, including access to health and education... Charities need journalists to help us hold the Government accountable...