How Israel Inadvertently Empowered Palestinian Media – OpEd

 May 14, 2024  

By Ramzy Baroud

By granting its 2024 World Press Freedom Prize to Palestinian journalists covering the Israeli war on Gaza, UNESCO has acknowledged a historic truth.

Even if the decision to name Gaza’s journalists as laureates of its prestigious award was partly motivated by the courage of these journalists, the truth is that no one in the world deserves such recognition as those covering the genocidal war in Gaza.

“As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression,” Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals, which made the recommendation for the award, truthfully described the courage of Gaza’s journalists.

Courage is an admirable quality, especially when many journalists in Gaza knew that Israel was seeking to kill them, often along with their families, to ensure the horror of the war remains hidden from view or, at best, contested as if a matter of opinion.

Between Oct. 7, 2023, and May 6, 142 Palestinian journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli bombardment or were assassinated or executed. This is higher than the number of journalists killed in the Second World War and the Vietnam War combined.

This number does not include many bloggers, intellectuals and writers who did not have professional media credentials. It also excludes the many family members who have been killed along with the targeted journalists.

But there is more to Gaza’s journalists than bravery.

Whenever Israel launches a war on Gaza, it almost always prevents international media professionals from entering the Strip. This go-to strategy is meant to ensure the story of the crimes that the Israeli army is about to commit goes unreported.

The strategy paid dividends in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09. The true degree of the atrocities carried out in Gaza during that war, which resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 Palestinians, was largely known when the war was over. By then, Israel had concluded its major military operation and the corporate mainstream Western media had done a splendid job in ensuring the dominance of the Israeli political discourse on the war.

Israel’s behavior since that war has remained unchanged: barring international journalists, placing a gag order on Israeli journalists and killing the Palestinian journalists who dared to cover the story.

The August 2014 war on Gaza was one of the bloodiest for journalists. It lasted 18 days and cost the lives of 17 journalists. Palestinian journalists, however, remained committed to the story. When one fell, 10 seemed to take their place.

The Occupied Territories have always been one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. The Palestinian Journalists’ Union reported that between 2000 — the start of the Second Intifada — and May 11, 2022, the day Israel murdered the iconic Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, 55 journalists were killed by the Israeli army.

That number might not seem too high if compared to the latest onslaught on Gaza but, as per international standards, it was terrifying. And it was based on an equally disturbing logic: killing the storyteller is the quickest way to kill the story itself.

For decades, Israel, an occupying power, has managed to depict itself as a victim in a state of self-defense. With few critical voices in the mainstream media, many around the world believed Israel’s deceptive discourse on terrorism, security and self-defense.

The only obstacle that stands between the truth and Israel’s engineered version of the truth is honest journalists — thus, the ongoing war on the media.

What Israel did not anticipate is that, by blocking international media access to Gaza, it would inadvertently empower Palestinian journalists to take charge of their own narrative.

“Interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place,” late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said wrote in “Covering Islam.”

Like any other form of intellectual interpretation, journalism becomes subjected to the same rule of positionality in academia, as in the relationship between the identity of the researcher and the social or political context of the subject matter.

Palestinian journalists in Gaza are both the story and the storytellers. Their success or failure to convey the story with all its factual and emotional details could make the difference between the continuation or the end of the Israeli genocide.

Though the war is yet to end, Gaza’s journalists have already proven to be deserving of all the honors and accolades, not only because of their courage but because of what we actually know about the war, despite the numerous and seemingly insurmountable obstacles created by Israel and its allies.

Most people all over the world want the war to end. But how did they acquire the information that made them realize the extent of the horror in Gaza? Certainly not through Israel’s cheerleaders in the mainstream media. Rather, it was through Palestinian journalists on the ground using every means and every available channel to tell the story.

These journalists include self-taught youngsters, like 9-year-old Lama Jamous, who wore a press vest and conveyed the details of life in displacement camps in southern Gaza, reporting from Nasser Hospital and many other places with poise and elegance.

As for the accuracy of information provided by these journalists, they were certainly professional enough to be verified by numerous human rights groups, medical and legal associations and millions of people around the world who used them to build a case against the Israeli war. Indeed, all we know about the war — the death toll, the degree of destruction, the daily human suffering, the mass graves, the famine and much more — came from these Gaza-based reporters.

The success and the sacrifices of Gaza’s journalists should serve as a model for journalists and journalism around the world, as an example of how news about war crimes, sieges and human suffering in all its forms should be conveyed.

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Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com

Why have student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza gone global?

Neha Gohil and Jon Henley

THE GUARDIAN 
Wed, May 8, 2024 



The largest protest in mainland Europe was at the University of Amsterdam, where riot police were called in to break up a tent camp an encampment.Photograph: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters


University campuses around the world have been the stage of a growing number of protests by students demanding academic institutions divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

The protests, which first spread across college campuses in the US, have reached universities in the UK, the rest of Europe, as well as Lebanon and India.

The students say they are voicing their opposition to, what they describe as, their university’s “complicity” in Israel’s assault on Gaza that has killed more than 34,700 people. Israel said its military offensive was a response to the attack by Hamas militants on 7 October, when about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

More than 2,500 demonstrators have been arrested in the US so far, with protests on college campuses attracting global media attention and reaction from Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza.

More protests are expected, with the Israeli assault on Rafah drawing international condemnation. Some students have begun hunger strikes in protest against their university’s “silence and inaction”.
Where are the protests happening?

Demonstrations have been staged at nearly 140 college campuses in the US, spanning 45 states and Washington DC since protests began at Columbia University in New York.

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Columbia about a week ago when more than 100 students were arrested after police officers entered the campus.

The university called on the police to tackle demonstrators who had occupied Hamilton Hall, renaming it Hind’s Hall, after a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza.

Afterwards, Joe Biden, rejected claims that the protests were non-violent. “Destroying property is not a peaceful protest; it’s against the law,” the US president said.

Biden added: “There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.”

Since then, students at about 14 UK universities have also set up encampments.

Hala Hanina, a Palestinian student who has been involved in protests at the Newcastle University, said: “It’s so important for the student community and British community that they are fighting for justice.”

More than a dozen students at Princetonand 10 students at Edinburgh have said they will begin a hunger strike in protest at their university’s policies.

Prof Peter Mathieson, the principal and vice-chancellor at Edinburgh, said: “We have very recently been notified of the intention of an unknown number of students to commence a hunger strike as an indication of their strength of feeling and determination around issues related to Palestine and Israel.

“While we recognise their bodily autonomy, we appeal to them and others not to take risks with their own health, safety and wellbeing. We are in daily contact with the protesters to ensure they are aware of the health and wellbeing support available to them.”
What is the situation in mainland Europe?

Small protests have taken place at universities including in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, although most were swiftly cleared by police.

The largest was at the University of Amsterdam where riot police, acting at the request of university authorities, city hall and public prosecutors, moved in early on Tuesday morning to break up an encampment that had sprung up on Monday.

Police used a mechanical digger to break down barricades of pallets and bicycles erected by the protesters and used batons to disperse the crowd – 125 of whom refused to leaveand were arrested. Most were released after a few hours.

The university said: “We share the anger and bewilderment over the war, and we understand that there are protests over it. We stress that within the university, dialogue about it is the only answer.”
What are the student protesters calling for?

Many want universities to sell off shares, assets or other investments in companies linked to Israel and its war in Gaza, a move known as divestment.

Activists say universities and colleges investing in Israeli companies or organisations doing business in Israel are “complicit” in the war in Gaza.

The protesters are also calling for a ceasefire, for universities to acknowledge the conflict in the besieged Palestinian territory as a “genocide” and to “condemn the destruction of all of Gaza’s universities”.

Some students have also fused their demands on Gaza with their calls for universities to help tackle the climate crisis.

More than 100 students occupied Ghent University in Belgium calling for concrete action to meet the institution’s 2030 climate plans, as well as demanding it cuts ties with companies connected to the Israeli military.

The university did not respond to a request for comment but its director, Rick Van de Walle, posted a statement saying its ethical policies would not change, adding: “No deviation from the existing human rights policy will be used with regard to one particular country, in this case Israel.”

How have universities responded?

There has been a varied response from academic institutions to student protests, ranging from dramatic crackdowns to negotiations.

Brown University in Rhode Island brokered an agreement with students last week that the institution’s highest governing body, the Corporation, would vote on divestment from companies affiliated with Israel during a meeting in October. In return, students cleared the encampments.

Northwestern University in Illinois and the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, have also reached agreements with students, while Columbia has called off its main graduation ceremony.

An occupation at Goldsmiths in London also came to an end after the university agreed to the students’ demands, including the renaming of a lecture hall after the Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, humanitarian scholarships for Palestinian students and a review of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

British government tries to avert the type of unrest seen on American campuses



Pro-Palestinian students and demonstrators shout slogans at the campus of SOAS University of London as students occupy parts of university campus in London, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

BY DANICA KIRKA
 May 9, 2024

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday called for an end to antisemitism on campus as he met with university leaders in an effort to prevent the type of unrest seen on American campuses in recent weeks.

Sunak summoned the vice chancellors of Britain’s top universities to his Downing Street offices after the government said “antisemitic abuse” was disrupting learning amid a growing number of pro-Palestinian protests.

Ahead of the meeting, Sunak warned of “students and academic staff being targeted, threatened, and assaulted simply for being Jewish.”

“We will always protect freedom of speech and the right to protest,” Sunak wrote in the Times of London. “But just as importantly, universities have a profound duty to remain bastions of tolerance, where such debate takes place with respect for others — and where every student feels safe and at home, whatever their faith or background.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have built encampments at about a dozen U.K. universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, over the past two weeks as some students and academics call on the institutions to cut ties with Israel over the conflict in Gaza.



Pro-Palestinian student protests spread across Europe. Some are allowed. Some are stopped

While the protests have so far remained relatively small and peaceful, some Jewish students are expressing concerns about antisemitism.

Sunak’s office said he had invited vice chancellors from some of the U.K.’s top universities to discuss efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus. Vice chancellors are the top academic and administrative officials at British universities.

As part of the effort, Sunak announced that the government would provide an additional 500,000 pounds ($623,000) to the University Jewish Chaplaincy Service to support Jewish students.

The number of antisemitic incidents at the U.K.'s 142 universities tripled last year as tensions rose over the war in the Middle East, according to the Communities Security Trust, which works to combat antisemitism in Britain.

That mirrors the trend seen across Europe and the U.S. following Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7 and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to major Jewish organizations.

Hamas and other militants abducted around 250 people in the attack and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians. They are still believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of some 30 others.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, displaced around 80% of the population and pushed hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, Palestinian officials say.

The war has inflamed tensions around the world, triggering pro-Palestinian protests including encampments on U.S. college campuses where disruption and confrontations with counter-protesters have attracted police intervention. Israel and its supporters have branded the protests as antisemitic, while critics of Israel say it uses such allegations to silence opponents.

By calling in the vice chancellors, Sunak has inserted himself into the debate about balancing the right of free speech against the right of all students to pursue their education without fear of intimidation.

Sally Mapstone, president of the higher education trade body Universities U.K., said universities have a duty to provide a safe environment for everyone on campus and they are taking that responsibility very seriously amid recent tensions.

“We want to work with government (and with the Department for Education) to do everything we can to generate a culture which de-escalates the tensions that we are seeing at the moment and allows reasoned debate without the opportunities for harassment, which are concerning,” Mapstone, who is also vice chancellor at the University of St. Andrews, said in an interview with the BBC.

Mapstone added that she did not think antisemitism was an intrinsic problem at British universities.

“But I do think the universities are crucibles of ideas and debate,” she said. “And when tensions are running high across the country, as they demonstrably are, then universities, because they’re full of young people with very strong and impassioned views, become a focus for those sorts of debates.”

UK PM spooked as students at elite universities join pro-Palestine movement

Students at several universities including Oxford and Cambridge are camping out and calling for their colleges to divest from companies supporting Israel.

By Edna Mohamed

AL JAZEERA
Published On 9 May 2024

London, England – At 3am last Wednesday, as the rain poured down, pro-Palestine students at Bristol University set up an encampment opposite a study centre on campus.

Eugenia and five other student activists who had met at previous protests put four tents together. But despite the cold, more sprung up over the next few nights.

“It’s now grown to at least 20 tents, with loads of people rotating in and out, usually about 30 [people] at the camp during the day. But it’s sometimes more if we have a specific event on,” Eugenia, an organiser with the Bristol for Palestine group, told Al Jazeera.

“Staff and students stopping by to express support and ask how they can get involved is also so encouraging,” said Eugenia. “The movement to divest and fight for a free Palestine is so much bigger than the university executives like to pretend.”

The encampment has communal supplies, such as food, face masks, COVID-19 tests, and books on Palestinian history. There are also flyers explaining protester rights as well as leaflets on how Bristol is “complicit in the genocide”.

At the heart of their demands, the students are calling for their university to cut ties with companies that are contributing to Israel’s war efforts, including BAE Systems.

The British defence firm partially manufactures F-35 fighter jets that have been used by the Israeli military in Gaza.

“My university has millions of pounds in partnerships with companies that arm Israel. I do not think it is complicated to think that an institution’s complicity in violent settler-colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide is bad,” said Eugenia, who added that they have been in contact with their peers at the University of Warwick in England and those protesting in the United States and Canada.

University security workers have asked them to leave but they have not been threatened with any disciplinary action.

“Although, we wonder if this will change after [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak’s meeting with UK vice-chancellors.”

Students at the University of Bristol have called on their school to divest from companies linked to Israel’s military [Courtesy of Eugenia, Bristol for Palestine]

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his cabinet on Tuesday there had been an “unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism” on campuses across the United Kingdom.

He is meeting university bosses on Thursday.

“Universities should be places of rigorous debate but also bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community,” Sunak said.

Earlier this month, the Union of Jewish Students, which says it represents 9,000 people in the UK and Ireland, said pro-Palestine encampments “create a hostile and toxic atmosphere on campus for Jewish students”.

Thousands of students across Britain have joined the global student-led protests against Israel’s latest and deadliest war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed about 35,000 people in just seven months. The historic Israel-Palestine conflict escalated after Hamas, which governs the Strip, attacked southern Israel. During its assault, 1,139 people were killed and hundreds were taken captive.

Britain has not witnessed the kind of violent scenes on campuses the US has, including heavy police crackdowns and clashes between protesters and counter-protesters.

The British students say their rallies are peaceful and are joined by many Jewish undergraduates and scholars.

On Tuesday, the Jewish Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London said it stood “shoulder to shoulder” with those rallying for Gaza.

Sunak’s announcement came after the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which have long taught the British elite, joined the protests on Monday. The majority of British prime ministers have studied at Oxford, including Sunak and his four predecessors, while several others have graduated from Cambridge.

At the time of writing, neither the University of Bristol nor the University of Cambridge had responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The Cambridge for Palestine group said Trinity College, Cambridge University’s second-largest college “has invested millions in companies directly supporting Israel’s genocide”.

Middle East Eye recently reported Trinity invested more than 60,000 pounds ($75,000) in Elbit Systems, an Israel-based international military technology company and defence contractor, and millions in Caterpillar, a US-based heavy equipment company which supplies the Israeli army with bulldozers. Other companies reportedly include General Electric, Toyota, Rolls-Royce, Barclays Bank, and L3Harris Technologies.

“Our solidarity is particularly important now given that these decades of ethnic cleansing have culminated in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, including the destruction of every university in Gaza.”
‘It starts with students and spreads from there’

In some cases, universities have reached deals with their dissenting students.

In Ireland, for instance, Trinity College Dublin agreed to divest from Israeli companies linked to illegal settlements after just a few days of student protests.

On Friday, Goldsmiths, University of London conceded to the five demands of activists who have held protests throughout the war in Gaza.

Action led by the Goldsmiths for Palestine group has resulted in scholarships for Palestinian students and a commitment towards an ethical investment policy. A lecture hall will also be renamed after veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

Leonie Fleischmann, a senior lecturer in International Politics and Human Rights at City, University in London, said that as some students achieve their goals and more protests erupt, the “momentum” must be maintained.

“If we’re talking about the role of protests and pressure, they need to go beyond against what’s happening in Gaza (right now) to what’s next. So it’s a watch this space, in terms of the role of the protests on the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said.

“If we look at the anti-apartheid movement (in South Africa) and the Vietnam War, students across the globe were significant in creating change and influencing their governments to hold other governments to account.”

Danna, a student organiser at Goldsmiths, told Al Jazeera that negotiations with university management were “frustrating”.

“On the first meeting they had with us, they were kind of complimenting us and saying that they thought it was wonderful that we were expressing ourselves and it was very ‘Goldsmiths-y’ of us,” she said. “Later on, we found out through staff members that at the same time, they had been saying in meetings behind closed doors they’d been considering calling police on us.

”

Students at Goldsmiths University are pictured making a banner listing their demands [Courtesy of Goldsmiths for Palestine]

She believes that their demands were ultimately accepted because of the growing global student movement.

“It’s been the case time and time again throughout history that it starts with students and spreads from there.

“We definitely feel in solidarity with the students in the US and everywhere else. And I think for us all to be centring Palestinians right now is super important.”

CENSORED

Israel: Al Jazeera goes off air after government order

The Qatari TV network is no longer available in Israel after the Cabinet voted to suspend it. Israel has had a tense relationship with the broadcaster, accusing it of bias and incitement.

The Al Jazeera TV network was taken off the air in Israel on Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet voted to suspend the broadcaster's operations.

The decision follows a law — commonly referred to as the "Al Jazeera law" — passed by the Israeli Knesset that allows the closure of foreign broadcasters considered to pose a security threat amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

"My government decided unanimously: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will close in Israel," Netanyahu posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Al Jazeera on Sunday again rejected accusations from Israel that its reporting from Gaza was biased.

"The Netanyahu government has decided in a highly misleading and calumnious step to endorse the order to shut down Al Jazeera offices in Israel," the network said.

It called the move a "criminal act" that violates the human right of access to information.

"We confirm that we will pursue all avenues at international and legal organizations to protect our rights and crews," it added without elaborating.
What we know about the ban

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said on X that the order would take immediate effect.

According to Israeli media, the order can suspend broadcasting in the country for 45 days.

Al Jazeera's senior English correspondent in Israel, Imran Khan, said that alongside the TV channel, the website was also being blocked.

He said devices used for providing content to Al Jazeera were also banned, meaning his phone could be confiscated if he uses it for news gathering.

"It’s a wide-ranging ban and we do not know how long it will be in place for," he added, according to his statement on Al Jazeera's website.

"The background of this decision is not professional or journalistic ... it's political," said Waleed Omari, bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Israel and the Palestinian territories, adding that the network was preparing a legal response.
Israel's relationship with the Qatari broadcaster

Israel has had a tense relationship with the Qatar-based news organization, which has intensely covered the ongoing war in Gaza with a particular focus on the Palestinian side.

One of the few media organizations that has continued to function in Gaza since October 7, Al Jazeera has broadcast images and videos of deadly airstrikes and crowded hospitals under Israeli fire.

Israel has accused the network of working with Hamas.

Qatar, which owns the network, has been involved in mediating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas — a Palestinian militant group considered a terror organization by Israel, the US, Germany and other countries.

VIDEO Netanyahu pushes to shut Israeli office of Al Jazeera TV  01:31

Numerous journalists have been killed in Gaza during Israel's military offensive, including several who worked for Al Jazeera.

The death of the Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022 sparked global outrage. She had been reporting for the network during an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead.

Al Jazeera blamed the Israeli military for the death and took the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel has rejected the accusation.

ab/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP)

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera offices: A 'message' being sent to Qatar, expert says

Issued on: 05/05/2024 

Video by:FRANCE 24

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera, escalating Israel’s long-running feud with the channel at a time when ceasefire negotiations with Hamas — mediated by Qatar — are gaining steam. Qatar is currently hosting Hamas's leadership. “This has probably got a lot more to do with these negotiations, pressure, or some sort of message being sent to Qatar than it has to do with Al Jazeera as a television network,” said John Lyndon, executive director at the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

Gaza War: Palestinian journalists win top press freedom prize

“We have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression,” Mauricio Weibel, who chaired the jury, said in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day.

 (PHOTO CREDIT: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/05/1149301)

ByAgency Report
May 3, 2024

The Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza have been named winners of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
The top award for reporters who have witnessed the destruction of much of their homeland under Israel’s relentless bombardment came at the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

“In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances.

“We have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression,” Mauricio Weibel, who chaired the jury, said in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day.


World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on 3 May to raise awareness of the importance of press freedom and the right to freedom of expression for all other human rights.


The UN science, education and culture agency’s chief Audrey Azoulay, said the Prize reminded everyone of “the importance of collective action to ensure that journalists around the world can continue to carry out their essential work to inform and investigate.”

The ongoing conflict in Gaza is having grave consequences for journalists.

Since 7 October 2023, UNESCO has condemned and deplored the deaths of 26 journalists and media workers in the line of work, based upon information from its international NGO partners.

UNESCO is supporting journalists reporting from conflict and crisis zones which includes distributing essential supplies to journalists in Gaza, and has established safe working spaces and provided emergency grants for journalists in Ukraine and Sudan.

2024 World Press Freedom is dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis.

Awareness of all aspects of the global environmental crisis and its consequences is essential to build democratic societies.

READ ALSO: Gaza: If this is not genocide, what then is it?, By Femi Fani-Kayode

Journalists encounter significant challenges in seeking and disseminating information on contemporary issues, such as supply chain problems, climate migration, extractive industries, `illegal mining, pollution, poaching, animal trafficking, deforestation, or climate change.

Ensuring the visibility of these issues is crucial for promoting peace and democratic values worldwide.

(NAN)

World Press Freedom Day: Gaza conflict deadliest for journalists

As the war in Gaza becomes the deadliest conflict for journalists, Al Jazeera looks at press freedom in the past year.

Colleagues and family members pray at the funeral of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa in Khan Younis, Gaza [File: Mahmud Hams/AFP]

By Hanna Duggal and Marium Ali
Published On 3 May 2024

Every year on May 3, UNESCO commemorates World Press Freedom Day.

It is being marked today at a particularly perilous time for journalists globally, with Israel’s war on Gaza becoming the deadliest conflict for journalists and media workers.


KEEP READING
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Arab world speaks out on killing of Al Jazeera journalist’s family

Lebanon and the War on Journalists

Missing Mexican journalist’s body found ‘with signs of violence’

“When we lose a journalist, we lose our eyes and ears to the outside world. We lose a voice for the voiceless,” Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement today.

“World Press Freedom Day was established to celebrate the value of truth and to protect the people who work courageously to uncover it.”
Deadliest period for journalists in Gaza

More than 100 journalists and media workers, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed in the first seven months of war in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Gaza’s media office has the number at more than 140 killed, which averages to five journalists killed every week since October 7.

Since the start of the war, at least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 others injured in Gaza. More than 8,000 others are missing, buried under the rubble.

“Gaza’s reporters must be protected, those who wish must be evacuated, and Gaza’s gates must be opened to international media.” Jonathan Dagher, Head of RSF’s Middle East desk said in a statement in April.
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“The few reporters who have been able to leave bear witness to the same terrifying reality of journalists being attacked, injured and killed … Palestinian journalism must be protected as a matter of urgency.”


Al Jazeera journalists killed and injured in Gaza

On January 7, Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, was killed by an Israeli missile in Khan Younis. Hamza, who was a journalist like his father, was in a vehicle near al-Mawasi, a supposedly safe area that Israel designated, with another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, who was also killed in the attack.

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According to reports from Al Jazeera correspondents, Hamza and Mustafa’s vehicle was targeted as they were trying to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings.Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, centre, hugs his daughter during the funeral of his son Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, who was killed in a reported Israeli air strike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2024 [AFP]

The Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemned the attack, adding: “The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza … whilst they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip, reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity.”[Al Jazeera]

On December 15, 2023, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa was hit in an Israeli drone attack that also injured Wael Dahdouh, while they were reporting at Farhana school in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Abudaqa bled to death for more than four hours as emergency workers were unable to reach him because the Israeli army would not let them.

Abudaqa was the 13th Al Jazeera journalist killed on duty since the launch of the network in 1996.Al Jazeera established a monument at its headquarters in Doha carrying the names of those who have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty [Al Jazeera]

In 2022, Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, renowned across the Arab world, was killed by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank while reporting.

Al Jazeera has called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for attacks on reporters.
How many journalists have been killed around the world in 2024?

So far in 2024, 25 journalists and media workers have been killed, according to the CPJ.

At least 20 of those killed were in Palestine. While two were killed in Colombia, and one each in Pakistan, Sudan and Myanmar.
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In 2023, more than three-quarters of the 99 journalists and media workers killed worldwide died in the Israel-Gaza war, the majority of them Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – to defend our right to the truth. Each time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a fragment of that truth,” CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said.

(Al Jazeera)

Where is press freedom most restricted?

To measure the pulse of press freedom around the globe, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes an annual index. It ranks the political, economic, and sociocultural context as well as the legal framework and security of the press in 180 countries and territories.

According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Eritrea has the worst press freedom, followed by Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran.

According to RSF, all independent media have been banned in Eritrea since the transition to a dictatorship in September 2001. The media is directly controlled by the Ministry of Information – a news agency, a few publications and Eri TV.

How many journalists are imprisoned?

As of December 1, 2023, 320 journalists and media workers were imprisoned, according to CPJ.

China (44 behind bars), Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22) and Vietnam (19) rank as having the highest number of imprisoned journalists.
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China has long been “one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists”, according to the CPJ.

Of the 44 journalists imprisoned in China, nearly half are Uighurs, where they have accused Beijing of crimes against humanity for its mass detentions and harsh repression of the region’s mostly-Muslim ethnic groups.

(Al Jazeera)
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

In Israel's war on Gaza, Palestinian women's bodies are battlefields

Israel's violence against Palestinian women is core to its settler colonialism because they sustain indigenous life and resistance, writes Farrah Koutteineh.

Farrah Koutteineh
04 Apr, 2024

The systemic violence and humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers goes back 75 years, writes Farrah Koutteineh. [Getty]

In recent weeks disturbing revelations of widespread sexual torture and rape of Palestinian women by Israeli forces invading Gaza have come to light.

Last week it was reported that a pregnant Palestinian woman had been kidnapped and held hostage alongside her family by Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital.

She was brutally beaten for several hours and after telling the Israeli soldiers she was five months pregnant, the beating only intensified. This was then followed by soldiers raping her in front of her husband and children, threatening to shoot any of them that closed their eyes during the ordeal.

These horrifying revelations are in fact nothing new when it comes to Israel’s continuous assault on Palestinian women’s bodies. This is a practice as old as Israel itself. When the settler colonial state of Israel formed just 75 years ago, mass rape of Palestinian women was part of its foundational project.

"Throughout settler colonial history, it has often been the bodies of indigenous women that have been viewed as the battlefields of settler colonial domination"

Zionist terrorist groups used mass rape to assert domination over the native Palestinian towns and villages it was ethnically cleansing.

The countless massacres of Palestinians that took place across the 1940’s during the Nakba, in order to create the state of Israel, from the Tantura massacre, to the Deir Yassin massacre, all document the mass-rape of Palestinian women.

Zionist terrorist groups would often rape Palestinian women in full display of an entire Palestinian village, to terrify others to flee.

The Israeli settlers who perpetrated such barbarity were never held accountable. Instead today they are hailed as heroes in Israeli society. In documentaries about these massacres they laugh and snigger over their role in mass-rape, even gloating that some of their Palestinian victims were as young as 14 years old.

As more of the unsubstantiated Israeli government statements about what really happened on 7th October are being debunked, notably their fictitious statements on alleged ‘mass rape’ of Israeli settlers, it is absolutely vital, now more than ever, to condemn Israel’s 75 year long targetted campaign of rape murder of Palestinian women.

During Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israeli forces committed some of their most unimaginable violence against Palestinian women.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 saw Israeli soldiers torture, rape, mutilate and murder over 3,500 Palestinian refugees, mostly women and children. Horrifying testimonies of survivors recall unthinkable mutilations of pregnant women’s bodies, testimonies that were actually stolen and appropriated by Israel supporters online.

They had deceptively proclaimed these brutally detailed testimonies of mass rape, mass mutilation and mass murder from Sabra and Shatila massacre survivors, were the testimonies of Israeli women on 7th October.

But these claims were then verified by fact checkers and shown to be unsubstantiated. Indeed, many were the stolen testimonies of Sabra and Shatila massacre survivors.

The lived experience of female Palestinian political prisoners exemplifies the intensified violence Palestinian women experience. They experience psychological, physical and sexual torture at the hands of Israeli prison guards. They are even documented cases of pregnant prisoners tortured to the point of miscarriage.

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Former Palestinian political prisoner Rasmea Odeh recalls a harrowing but unfortunately not uncommon nor unique female Palestinian experience whilst incarcerated. Odeh was arrested in 1969 by Israel, for being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

After her arrest she was brutally beaten, tortured and raped by Israeli prison guards. Israeli prison guards later arrested Odeh’s father, whereby they gave him the ultimatum to either be forced to watch guards sexually torture his daughter or do it himself, to which Odeh was forced to falsely confess, worried her father would have a heart attack.

Since 7th October it is estimated over 25,000 Palestinian women and children have been killed by Israeli forces. Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian women is not coincidental or abstract, it exactly underpins the violent settler colonial nature of its very existence.

Throughout settler colonial history, it has often been the bodies of indigenous women that have been viewed as the battlefields of settler colonial domination. European settler colonialism is constructed upon power and domination, not only upholding notions of white supremacy, but of violent misogyny.

"The humiliation and violence we are witnessing in Gaza and across occupied Palestine today is not a product only of the current war, it is a systemic byproduct of Israel’s settler colonial survival"

During the vast European colonisation of Turtle Island (US & Canada), violence against indigenous women became a central element of the colonial strategy for conquest and genocide.

Indigenous women were targeted with rape and femicide due to their ability to sustain their tribes through childbearing, and thus the survival of native populations depend on its women.

Indigenous women have always been seen as the demographic threat responsible for sustaining the indigenous population that settler colonial projects seek to dominate or exterminate.

Today across the US and Canada, indigenous women are at the forefront of gendered violence. Despite only making up less than one percent of the population, the murder rate of indigenous women is ten times higher than that of any other ethnicity.

In fact, over 80% will experience sexual violence in their lifetime and indigenous women are more likely to be raped or murdered than go to college. The roots of violence against indigenous women across Turtle Island experience today are deeply colonial.

The disturbing phenomenon of photos coming out of Gaza in recent months of perverted Israeli soldiers posing with Palestinian women’s underwear and lingerie is rooted in similar colonial misogyny.

Israeli settler society since its beginnings has been caught up in the same orientalist obsessions over Arab, Muslim and Middle Eastern women as its colonial predecessors.

Throughout France’s colonisation of Algeria, the modesty of Algerian women, most notably the veil, became a colonial fixation. Algerian women played a fundamental role in the decolonisation of Algeria: veiled women were not only active revolutionaries, but the veil empowered their very resistance by defying European misogynist ideals of women that confined their worth to their appearance.

Post-colonial writer Frantz Fanon summarises this fixation as, “This woman, who sees without being seen, frustrates the coloniser. The occupier was bent on unveiling…because there is in it the will to make this woman within his reach, to make her a possible object of his possession”.

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French soldiers would often hold “unveiling ceremonies” of Algerian women, ceremonies of stark contrast to current scenes of Palestinian women in Gaza being forcefully stripped and humiliated by Israeli soldiers.

So the humiliation and violence we are witnessing in Gaza and across occupied Palestine today is not a product only of the current war, it is a systemic byproduct of Israel’s settler colonial survival.

Palestinian women who resist are amongst the most vilified in the world’s press and the most targeted by Israeli settler forces. Palestinian women like Leila Khaled, Rasmea Odeh, Shireen Abu Akleh, and Ahed Tamimi send tremors through the Israeli settler colony, as do all Palestinian women.

Because when indigenous women revolt, dissent, and resist, they strike settler colonialism at its core, simultaneously challenging its white supremacist and misogynist roots.

Indigenous women lead the way to liberation, and settler colonial states fear them for it.



Farrah Koutteineh is founder of KEY48 - a voluntary collective calling for the immediate right of return of over 7.4 million Palestinian refugees. Koutteineh is also a political activist focusing on intersectional activism including, the Decolonise Palestine movement, indigenous people's rights, anti-establishment movement, women's rights and climate justice.

Meta’s long-standing problem with “shaheed”

An overdue ruling from the Oversight Board.

By RUSSELL BRANDOM
This article originally appeared in Exporter, a weekly newsletter covering the latest on U.S. tech giants and their impact outside the West, with Russell Brandom. 

On Tuesday, the Meta-established Oversight Board released a new ruling on how Facebook moderates the Arabic word “shaheed,” which translates roughly to “martyr.” Meta had been automatically flagging the word when applied to a person on its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals list, taking it as an inherent call to violence. When the Oversight Board case re-examining the policy was announced, “shaheed” was responsible for more content removals than any other single word or phrase.

This week’s ruling found that Meta’s policy “disproportionately restricts freedom of expression and civic discourse” — which is a long way of saying it was taking down too much content that shouldn’t have been taken down. As it tried to stop users from glorifying terrorists, the company had instead made the entire topic of political violence off-limits to Arabic speakers.

Marwa Fatafta, who directs Middle East policy at Access Now, told me Meta’s treatment of “shaheed” is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the word is used. “It’s a word that comes from Islam, but it’s used by Arabic speakers regardless of religion,” Fatafta says. “At least in the Palestine context, you refer to anyone killed by the Israeli army as ‘shaheed’ — or anyone killed in an act of political violence.”

That could include people like Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera reporter killed by Israeli soldiers in 2022, but it could also include Egyptian protestors killed in Tahrir Square. Given the ongoing horror in Palestine, it would be difficult to talk about any of the victims without using some version of the word.

It’s tempting to read the decision as a response to the violence in Palestine, but the opposite is true: The board announced it was tackling the case last March, and delayed the decision in the wake of the October 7 attacks. Meta had launched its review of how the word was being moderated in 2020, but the review concluded without reaching a consensus. Without some kind of outside nudge, there simply wasn’t enough political will within the company to change the rule.

Part of the problem here is a simple language issue. Overreading the meaning of an Arabic word is easier when there are fewer native speakers of the language at high levels of the company. Even after the issue was raised, it lingered unresolved — perhaps because the company’s leadership didn’t see it as a priority. Such language bias is pervasive in the tech industry, where global tools are still mostly made by English speakers, and this is a prime example.

But the problem doesn’t end there. Fatafta described the policy as “a stigmatization of Arabic populations,” and it’s hard to disagree. Throughout the West, there’s a sad tendency to see Arabic speakers as only the perpetrators of political violence, never the victims. In Meta’s case, that tendency ended up being written into moderation policy and operationalized at a massive scale. It’s the kind of de jure discrimination that the Oversight Board was founded to address. The greatest frustration is that Meta couldn’t solve this problem on its own.


Russell Brandom is the U.S. Tech Editor at Rest of World.

US State Department voices support for free press after Israel's Al Jazeera closure law

'We've not always agreed with all of Al Jazeera's coverage, but it's a media organization that we engage with,' says spokesman

Rabia İclal Turan |01.04.2024 - 


WASHINGTON

The US State Department on Monday expressed support for free press after Israel’s Knesset passed legislation that allows the closure of Al Jazeera channel.

"We support the independent, free press anywhere in the world. And we think the work that the independent free press does is important everywhere in the world," said Spokesman Matthew Miller during his press briefing.

"And much of what we know about what has happened in Gaza is because of reporters who are there doing their jobs, including reporters from Al Jazeera," he added.

"We think it's well known that we've not always agreed with all of Al Jazeera's coverage, but it's a media organization that we engage with," he said. "What we will continue to make clear is that we support the work that the free press does".

Israel’s Knesset on Monday passed legislation allowing the closure of the Al Jazeera television.

Under the bill, the communications minister will be empowered to shut down foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if the defense minister identifies that their broadcast poses “an actual harm to the state’s security.”

Following the passage of the law, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi vowed that the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera channel would be closed down “in the coming days.”

Early Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “immediately act to close Al Jazeera” following the bill's passage in the Knesset.

Israeli parliament passes law paving way for Al Jazeera closure



Published: 01 Apr 2024 -
The Peninsula

Doha, Qatar: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to “act immediately to stop” Al Jazeera’s operations in the country after the Israeli parliament approved a law that grants senior ministers powers to shut down foreign news networks deemed a security risk, according to Al Jazeera.

“Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against Israeli soldiers,” Netanyahu wrote on X, on Monday. “I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity,” he said.

Meanwhile Al Jazeera in a statement said, in an escalating move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a frantic campaign against Al Jazeera, accusing it of harming Israel’s security, actively participating in the October 7 attack, and inciting against Israeli soldiers. Al Jazeera Media Network condemns these statements and sees as nothing but a dangerous ludicrous lie.

Netanyahu could not find any justifications to offer the world for his ongoing attacks on Al Jazeera and Press Freedom except to present new lies and inflammatory slanders against the Network and the rights of its employees.

Al Jazeera holds the Israeli Prime Minister responsible for the safety of its staff and Network premises around the world, following his incitement and this false accusation in a disgraceful manner.

The network stresses that this latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera, including the assassination of its correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, the killing of its journalists Samer AbuDaqqa and Hamza AlDahdouh, the bombing of its office in Gaza, the deliberate targeting of a number of Al Jazeera journalists and their family members, and the arrest and intimidation of its correspondents in the field.

Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue every legal step.

Netanyahu vows to ban Al Jazeera after Israel passes law

Legislation allows the news channel's offices in Israel to be closed


Protesters hold signs and flags calling for Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's to be removed at a demonstration in Jerusalem,
April 1, 2024. Reuters


The National
Apr 01, 2024
Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

The Israeli parliament passed a bill on Monday that gives ministers the authority to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country, a move which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to put into effect.

The law, which passed by 70 votes to 10, allows the government to shut down foreign channels and gives senior ministers the power to close the offices of foreign broadcasters in Israel.

Mr Netanyahu had said he would take “immediate action” to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel once the law passes.

Mr Netanyahu's Likud party said he asked “to make sure that the law to close Al Jazeera will be approved this evening” in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activities,” Mr Netanyahu said in a post on X after the law was passed.

The bill, which allows officials to ban foreign media that is deemed to be harmful to national security, had already passed its first parliamentary hurdle last month.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the move "concerning".

"We believe in the freedom of the press, it is critical. It is critically important and the United States supports the critically important work of journalists around the world,” she told reporters.

The US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Biden administration has "not always agreed with" Al Jazeera's coverage, but highlighted its vital work in Gaza.

“Much of what we know about what has happened in Gaza is because of reporters who are there doing their jobs, including reporters from Al Jazeera," Mr Miller said.

Israel had claimed in January that an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an air strike in Gaza were “terror operatives”.

The following month it said another journalist for the channel, wounded in a separate strike, was a “deputy company commander” with Hamas.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and accused Israel of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the besieged enclave where Israeli forces have been fighting Hamas since October.

Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu was killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza in December. The attack also wounded the channel's bureau chief in the enclave, Wael Al Dahdouh, whose wife and two children were killed in an Israeli strike in October.

His son Hamza Dahdouh, who was also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in another strike in January.

Since the war began, 90 Palestinian journalists have been killed and 16 more have been arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. More than 32,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in almost six months of war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

- With reporting from agencies

Knesset approves bill to shut down 

Al Jazeera in Israel

New law approved in second and third reading stipulates Communications Minister could act against foreign media channels in Israel should they be found to harm the country; White House spokeswoman criticizes bill

Moran Azulay|

YNET


The Knesset approved Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s bill ordering Qatari news network Al Jazeera to cease its operations in the country in a final reading on Monday. "Hamas mouthpieces won’t have any freedom of expression in Israel. Al Jazeera will be shut down in the coming days,” Karhi said in a statement.

The law promoted by Karhi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shut down foreign channels (including Al Jazeera, Al Mayadeen, and others), was approved by the Knesset Plenum in second and third readings.

The law stipulates the Communications Minister could act to shut down foreign media channels in the country should the prime minister find it is harming Israel after reviewing at least one security assessment on the issue and conditioned by the approval of the government or security cabinet.

Actions will be approved by orders signed by the Communications Minister, and will include: closing down the channel's offices in the country, confiscating broadcasting equipment, preventing channel reporters from broadcasting, removing the channel from cable and satellite providers in the country, blocking its websites in the country, and more.

"We have approved a quick and efficient tool to act against those who use the freedom of the press to harm Israel's security and IDF soldiers and incite terrorism during wartime," Karhi said in a statement following the law’s approval.

שלמה קרעי
(צילום: אלכס קולומויסקי)

Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the law on social media, writing on his X account: "Al Jazeera has harmed Israel's security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited violence against IDF soldiers. The time has come to remove Hamas' mouthpiece from our country. The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel.

 I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activities.”

Despite Netanyahu’s praise, other members of his Likud party criticized the bill’s wordings. "The bill as presented by the Communications Minister is both ineffective and damaging," Likud MK Amit Halevi told Ynet. "It’s absurd that our coalition will vote in favor of such a bill. It primarily reflects an extreme lack of judgment aimed at gaining popularity."

According to Halevi, the approved law in its current form isn’t effective. "The overwhelming majority of Al Jazeera viewers in Israel’s Arab sector watch it via satellite dishes or the internet, not Israeli broadcasters. The agency’s internet servers and offices will reopen in Ramallah if shut down in Israel.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized the law in a statement, saying, “We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important, and the United States supports the critically important work of journalists around the world, and that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza."

“So, we believe that work is important. The freedom of the press is important. And if those reports are true, it is concerning to us," she added.