The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its annual report released a few weeks ago provided to the world a highly informed perspective on the situation in Gaza in relation to journalists and media workers with its chief executive Jodie Ginsberg aptly stating, among other things, that “What’s important to remember about this war is that Gazan journalists are the only journalists able to report on what’s happening inside Gaza.
International journalists have not been able to get in, have not been allowed in, except on very, very controlled trips that are overseen by the Israeli military.” That precisely is the reason they are deliberately targeted by the occupation forces. It is pertinent to recall here that not long ago, i.e., in May of 2022, a highly respected Palestinian-American journalist, Abu Akleh, working for Al Jazeera, was targeted and shot dead while she covered, wearing a blue vest clearly marked as PRESS, an Israeli raid on the Janin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera had relentlessly pursued the case, leading to the relevant UN body calling on the US and the Israeli governments to investigate the murder so the perpetrator(s) could be held to account. Nothing came out of it, though, because Israel then, as now, has been given a free pass by Western powers to kill Palestinian journalists and other civilians, an overwhelming number of them children. Noting what she described as Western “hesitancy” to show solidarity with those targeted and killed in Gaza, the CPJ chief rightly termed it “sadly unsurprising” that Israel is “the country, the issue that has divided international media, international politicians [American and European leaders versus most others] more than anything.”
It is vital therefore that an independent body like the CPJ investigate Israel’s war crimes against journalists and bring it to justice. Considering how the Western governments continue to turn a blind eye to these unforgivable atrocities, that won’t bear the desired results at this point in time. The least CPJ can and is doing is to rigorously document attacks against journalists, to be later used as evidence and presented to the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court.
For that the CPJ can also count on the support of another journalists body, Reporters Without Borders, which has strongly condemned the toll the Israeli army is taking on journalists lives, urging states as well as international organisations to increase pressure on Tel Aviv to cease the carnage. It is important to note that CPJ has pointed out that as of March 11, 2024, its preliminary investigations have shown at least 95 journalists and media workers were among the more than 31,000 killed by Israel since October 7, 2023 — with more than 30,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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