On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalists, Palestinian Journalists are at the Heart of Israeli Targeting

Author: Nihad Abu Ghosh

In most countries around the world, especially those with reasonable margins of freedom and democracy, a press card can serve as a means to facilitate the life and mission of its holder, allowing access to places that are generally difficult to enter. Sometimes it provides financial discounts in hotels and transportation, in addition to the respect that the cardholder receives, whether it is issued by an institution, a journalists' union, or a regional federation like the Arab Journalists Union or the International Federation of Journalists.

However, the situation is unfortunately not the same in most Arab countries, where a press card indicates that you are suspicious in the eyes of the authorities and security agencies, and it can prevent you from entering the country, especially if it is listed under the profession. It can also lead to delays and detentions for several hours at the border, and you may be subjected to questioning as if you are coming on a security mission, and you must prove that you are coming for a regular visit: tourism, visiting relatives, or other reasons except for journalism.

Restrictions are even greater for the Palestinian journalist, who combines two identities: the Palestinian identity and the profession of journalism, both of which are crimes that must be punished. The situation becomes even more precarious and complicated if this unfortunate journalist has security records in a certain country or is known for critical opinions and problematic positions. Therefore, do not believe all the speeches and claims that celebrate the Palestinian journalist and praise him, which will intensify on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Journalists, observed on the 26th of each year. The International Federation of Journalists established this day in 1996 following the Al-Nakba and the violence faced by journalists from the occupying state, in solidarity with Palestinian journalists who are often at the forefront of targeting by the occupation forces. They are generally individuals who are not welcomed by most Arab security authorities, as the journalist is suspicious and accused until proven innocent, or until they obtain heavy assistance to help them enter the concerned country.

If journalism is described in every country in the world as "the profession of troubles," in Palestine it is "the profession of dangers." This is not a metaphorical statement but is confirmed by the language of numbers and statistics. Before the war on Gaza, the documented number of martyr journalists between 2000 and 2023 reached 55 journalists, who were not killed in battlefields as "collateral damage" according to the Israeli army's expression and as narrated in the film (Naza), but were targeted because they were journalists, as was the case with the martyr Shireen Abu Akleh, an icon of Palestinian and global journalism, in addition to hundreds of cases of injuries and arrests – there are currently about 40 journalists detained – and severe beatings, destruction of tools, cameras, and recording devices, which journalists face daily at the hands of the occupation forces and their security agencies.

We can list a number of reasons for the targeting of journalists, including the nature of Palestine as a hot and ongoing conflict zone, and the necessity for journalists to be present at the scene of events for direct coverage. However, the most important and central reason has always been the targeting of journalists to obscure the truth and hide what is happening from the eyes and ears of the world, monopolizing the narrative, limiting it to the Israeli propaganda machine, and to journalists who accompany occupation soldiers in their armored vehicles, thus unifying the image they convey with what is seen through the scope mounted on the rifle, cannon, and tank.

During the war on Gaza, there was an unprecedented qualitative shift in all wars around the world; targeting journalists became a systematic policy that the spokespeople for the occupation do not hesitate to acknowledge, justifying it by claiming that journalists were covering the activities of the Israeli army, or that they belong to certain resistance factions, or are fighters disguised as journalists. Thus, Israel killed more than 262 journalists during the war on Gaza, constituting about 20% of the total journalistic body in the Gaza Strip, a huge and frightening percentage that reaches about five times the ratio of the number of martyrs in the sector to the general population, based on an estimate that the number of martyrs reached 80,000 martyrs out of two million people present in the sector during the genocide war.

With further research and scrutiny, we can find other horrifying ratios for the targeting of specific categories of the population, such as medical teams, civil defense personnel, university professors and academics, and police officers. These targetings indicate the far-reaching goals of this war, including the elimination of elements of awareness and the foundations of community building, health, and survival within a plan to prepare Gaza for the broader scheme of displacement.

Israel would not have been able to continue this systematic killing without the silence over its previous crimes and the (un)civilized world's tolerance of the crimes of killing journalists and finding excuses and justifications for everything Israel does, which some European leaders still view as "a flower blooming in the desert," as Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said during her visit to Israel after the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh. This was echoed by European leaders repeatedly regarding Israel's right to defend itself. After all this, we find among these pretenders of civilization and progress those who applaud and cheer for Benjamin Netanyahu when he delivered his speech of lies and rhetoric in a nearly empty hall.