| It is said that one of the first casualties of any war is truth. The responsibility of professional, independent journalists to monitor events, and verify, analyze, and inform the general public cannot be overstated. Where serious violations of human rights, war crimes, and atrocities are common, the presence of journalists, particularly international journalists, is of vital importance, as they can often prevent, or ameliorate the most egregious violations by their very presence This service comes at a cost; 68 journalists were killed worldwide in 2022. Since evil prefers to operate in the dark, away from public scrutiny, every army or armed group attempts to hide or excuse the crimes of its own members in situations of war. In Israel’s recent onslaught on Gaza, which began as a retaliation for the attacks of October 7, seeking revenge for the humiliation of its army and security services, Israel immediately moved to prevent access by foreign journalists to its area of operations. In fact, Israel informed the Egyptian authorities that it would close the border crossing if Egypt allowed any foreign journalists to enter. One CNN TV crew recently snuck in for a day to visit the Emirati Field Hospital and reported on what she called a “glimpse into hell.” No other western TV journalist has been allowed in, except for those who agreed to embed with the Israeli army, were severely controlled, and signed an agreement to allow Israeli oversight of their reporting. Without international journalists, brave local journalists have stepped forward. Some started as bloggers and “citizen journalists,” recording, documenting, and publishing on social media outlets their experiences in Gaza. Others are full-time professional journalists connected with television networks, like Al Jazeera and Al Mayadeen. They have been deliberately targeted, their press vests and helmets becoming beacons for Israeli snipers and tank crews. As of this writing, almost 80 of these heroic journalists have been killed. This is more journalists killed than in any other warzone in over 30 years, yet we do not hear about them. Many of them have had their homes targeted and destroyed, and they have lost whole families. In October, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh lost his wife, children, and grandson in a targeted airstrike on his home. Last week, he lost his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who held Belgian citizenship, but refused to leave Gaza to help get the truth out. The journalists in Gaza wake up each day not knowing whether they will survive. Besides risking life and limb, there is a second kind of heroic journalism which is displayed by Israeli journalists, like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, who also insist on telling the truth despite the threats, wrath and anger received from their own society. While the Arab press and the social media is filled with reports of these heroes, the mainline media in the USA and Israel still ignores them, barely mentioning their reports much less their sacrifice. The Israeli narrative has to be protected, the logic goes, and if journalists challenge that narrative they become an enemy to be silenced. I just heard an Israeli minister on Israeli TV news say, in Hebrew, that we cannot allow journalists to report on what is happening. Even if they are neutral and present both sides, they would be serving Hamas, his argument went, and we must not allow that. News outlets were pressured to accept Israeli claims uncritically, and if they dared ask for verification or showed any legitimate journalistic skepticism, they were immediately attacked as antisemitic and “terrorist sympathizers.” The complicity and responsibility of the Western world in this ongoing genocide is sealed with the reports of these journalists. We all have to answer at one time for our crimes, either to history or a higher power, and we will not be able to say, “We did not know,” as many Germans tried to say following the Holocaust. In our case, thanks to these brave journalists, we do know. |
