Palestine: 'Sometimes you speak to people trapped under rubble who have posted their phone number'
This time last week I was at the ‘War in Gaza’ panel at a conference held by the Centre For Investigative Journalism.
I am still haunted by the words of Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir: ‘All the interviews you do now are with victims. Sometimes you speak to people trapped under rubble who have posted their phone number online. Maybe you want the interview but that phone battery is their lifeline.’
I cannot imagine the strain of doing an interview like this once, let alone every day. If the phone dies, the people holding it may die, so you hang up and maybe never know what happened to them.
Under threat of death Abu Bakr Bashir had to leave Palestine and now writes for NPR and The New York Times. You can also find him on AlQahera news TV.
So many journalists have been killed in Gaza and the ones who are left are refugees themselves. ‘It’s so dangerous, you often can’t even ask your colleagues to walk to the next tent to confirm things - they are all now in tents,’ Abu Bakr Bashir told us.
We also heard from Sherif Mansour who was the former Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has had to step back from the devastating work of counting the numbers of journalists killed in the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
He told us how 49.5% of all journalists killed worldwide are in one region: The Middle East.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 137 journalists and media workers have so far been killed in Israel and occupied Palestine during this conflict.
‘Palestinian journalists did not choose to be there,’ said Sherif Mansour. ‘Their deaths are a record of impunity by Israel - there is no accountability for this crime.’
Journalists must be able to go where it dangerous. The reporting must be done, the stories of Palestinians must heard.
I looked around the room, packed full of journalists many of whom I knew and tried to imagine what it would be like to lose 137 of these bright and brilliant story tellers who work hard to uncover injustice.
It’s an unimaginable loss and yet when it comes to Palestine and the death of 137 Palestinian journalists and media workers, as Sherif Mansour says, the international media has ‘showed complicity and bias’ in the face of the deaths of so many of our colleagues. ‘We need a reckoning in international media.’ he said. ‘We need to confront racism.’
As of 21st November 2024:
137 journalists and media workers were confirmed killed: 129 Palestinian, two Israeli, and six Lebanese.
47 journalists were reported injured
2 journalists were reported missing
74 journalists were reported arrested.
Multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.
More here: https://cpj.org/2024/11/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/
