Dr Mohamed Kirat
By Dr Mohamed Kirat
In a press release last Tuesday, the Doha Centre for Media Freedom denounced deliberate and systematic targeting of journalists seeking news and facts about the war in Gaza to disseminate to the world. As for the right to know and freedom of the press, Israel is conducting systematic violations by killing, harassing, controlling and putting pressure on journalists from all over the world to prevent them from presenting the truth to the world. As Israel announces the withdrawal of its troops from the Gaza Strip, 13 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, seven of them in connection with their work. This is the highest toll since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. More than 1,800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 67 Israelis (including three civilians) have so far been killed in this operation, to which a political solution seems far away.
“Whether these journalists and media workers were killed in indiscriminate air raids or were deliberately targeted, their deaths should be independently investigated and those responsible should be identified,” said Reporters Without Borders assistant research director Virginie Dangles.
“Journalists should not be targeted by belligerents, who must respect the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1738, adopted in 2006.”
Continuing confrontations in the Palestinian Territories and many cities in Israel are marked by Israeli authorities’ flouting of basic rights, including freedom of information, freedom of speech, human rights and civil liberties.
Covering the military conflict in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian media, including Hamas broadcast stations, find themselves in the Israeli army’s crosshairs. Following a month of a conflict in which more than 1,800 Palestinians as well as 67 Israelis have been killed, the Israeli Defense Forces at dawn on July 29 bombed the headquarters of Al Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, located in the Nasser neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City. Despite the destruction of some equipment, the station continued broadcasting via clandestine studios. Forty-five minutes later, the Hamas radio station, Al Aqsa, came under fire. Located in the Al Shourouq building in the Rimal neighbourhood of downtown Gaza City, the station went off the air after the attack. No employees were wounded. The building houses a number of media bureaus, many of which were damaged. The offices of Al Aqsa TV in Burj Al Shourouq had been hit by Israeli rocket fire two days earlier as well.
“Attacks against civilian targets constitute war crimes and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions,” Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of the press freedom organisation said during “Pillar of Defense,” the 2012 IDF operation in Gaza. “Those responsible must be identified.”
While the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip is the major focus of events, the people of many West Bank cities are infuriated by the toll inflicted by “Protective Edge.” Palestinian journalists were among the injured. On July 26, journalist Rami Al Khatib, as well as Moaz Mish’al, a photographer for Agence Anatolia, a Turkish press agency, were wounded by rubber bullets while covering confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli troops. The day before, journalist Thaer Abu Baker was wounded by Israeli gunfire in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
Zionist propagandists have neutralised public opinion, making people all over the world believe that Israel has been attacked and oppressed by Hamas -- “a terrorist Palestinian organization”, and that innocent Israeli civilians are being targeted.
The American media, for instance, has turned into a Zionist megaphone, rationalising the murder of children playing on the beach or hiding in UN schools and shelters. Like Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany, the Israeli Prime Minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, has become a regular on US and international news networks, decrying “missiles raining on Israel”. The Zionists want viewers all over the world to believe that Israeli residents are under constant threat and that Israel is a democratic state surrounded by dictatorships and terrorists organisations.
In its coverage of the Gaza war, the US media and major world networks are ignoring Israel’s moral culpability in targeting residential neighbourhoods and killing civilians. For instance, American journalist and Israeli army reserve officer Jeffrey Goldberg claimed: “Dead Palestinians represent a crucial propaganda victory for the nihilists of Hamas.”It’s a propaganda theme as old as Israel is. Who could have forgotten former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir’s preposterous statement: “I can’t forgive the Palestinians that they force us to kill their children.”
The current Israeli Prime Minister echoed the same sentiments on CNN. “They want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can… They use dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead, the better,” he said.
It is ironic that this statement is being offered by a Zionist who has exploited the “pile up” of dead Jews for the last 70 years. Zionists built museums in almost every Western capital with black and white photos of starved dead bodies dumped in ditches to justify stealing Palestinian homes. The Palestinians continue to suffer today because of Zionism’s use of those 70-year-old photos. Zionist propagandists want viewers to believe that the ground invasion into Gaza was necessary to destroy hostile tunnels. This is a lie and a distortion of truth. The tunnels were built for defensive purposes and were used effectively by fighters to inflict a heavy toll on the invading Israeli army. Malcolm X, the legendary American black activist once said: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”.
The writer is a professor of public relations and Mass Communication at the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University.
By Dr Mohamed Kirat
In a press release last Tuesday, the Doha Centre for Media Freedom denounced deliberate and systematic targeting of journalists seeking news and facts about the war in Gaza to disseminate to the world. As for the right to know and freedom of the press, Israel is conducting systematic violations by killing, harassing, controlling and putting pressure on journalists from all over the world to prevent them from presenting the truth to the world. As Israel announces the withdrawal of its troops from the Gaza Strip, 13 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, seven of them in connection with their work. This is the highest toll since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. More than 1,800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 67 Israelis (including three civilians) have so far been killed in this operation, to which a political solution seems far away.
“Whether these journalists and media workers were killed in indiscriminate air raids or were deliberately targeted, their deaths should be independently investigated and those responsible should be identified,” said Reporters Without Borders assistant research director Virginie Dangles.
“Journalists should not be targeted by belligerents, who must respect the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1738, adopted in 2006.”
Continuing confrontations in the Palestinian Territories and many cities in Israel are marked by Israeli authorities’ flouting of basic rights, including freedom of information, freedom of speech, human rights and civil liberties.
Covering the military conflict in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian media, including Hamas broadcast stations, find themselves in the Israeli army’s crosshairs. Following a month of a conflict in which more than 1,800 Palestinians as well as 67 Israelis have been killed, the Israeli Defense Forces at dawn on July 29 bombed the headquarters of Al Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, located in the Nasser neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City. Despite the destruction of some equipment, the station continued broadcasting via clandestine studios. Forty-five minutes later, the Hamas radio station, Al Aqsa, came under fire. Located in the Al Shourouq building in the Rimal neighbourhood of downtown Gaza City, the station went off the air after the attack. No employees were wounded. The building houses a number of media bureaus, many of which were damaged. The offices of Al Aqsa TV in Burj Al Shourouq had been hit by Israeli rocket fire two days earlier as well.
“Attacks against civilian targets constitute war crimes and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions,” Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of the press freedom organisation said during “Pillar of Defense,” the 2012 IDF operation in Gaza. “Those responsible must be identified.”
While the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip is the major focus of events, the people of many West Bank cities are infuriated by the toll inflicted by “Protective Edge.” Palestinian journalists were among the injured. On July 26, journalist Rami Al Khatib, as well as Moaz Mish’al, a photographer for Agence Anatolia, a Turkish press agency, were wounded by rubber bullets while covering confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli troops. The day before, journalist Thaer Abu Baker was wounded by Israeli gunfire in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
Zionist propagandists have neutralised public opinion, making people all over the world believe that Israel has been attacked and oppressed by Hamas -- “a terrorist Palestinian organization”, and that innocent Israeli civilians are being targeted.
The American media, for instance, has turned into a Zionist megaphone, rationalising the murder of children playing on the beach or hiding in UN schools and shelters. Like Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany, the Israeli Prime Minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, has become a regular on US and international news networks, decrying “missiles raining on Israel”. The Zionists want viewers all over the world to believe that Israeli residents are under constant threat and that Israel is a democratic state surrounded by dictatorships and terrorists organisations.
In its coverage of the Gaza war, the US media and major world networks are ignoring Israel’s moral culpability in targeting residential neighbourhoods and killing civilians. For instance, American journalist and Israeli army reserve officer Jeffrey Goldberg claimed: “Dead Palestinians represent a crucial propaganda victory for the nihilists of Hamas.”It’s a propaganda theme as old as Israel is. Who could have forgotten former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir’s preposterous statement: “I can’t forgive the Palestinians that they force us to kill their children.”
The current Israeli Prime Minister echoed the same sentiments on CNN. “They want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can… They use dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead, the better,” he said.
It is ironic that this statement is being offered by a Zionist who has exploited the “pile up” of dead Jews for the last 70 years. Zionists built museums in almost every Western capital with black and white photos of starved dead bodies dumped in ditches to justify stealing Palestinian homes. The Palestinians continue to suffer today because of Zionism’s use of those 70-year-old photos. Zionist propagandists want viewers to believe that the ground invasion into Gaza was necessary to destroy hostile tunnels. This is a lie and a distortion of truth. The tunnels were built for defensive purposes and were used effectively by fighters to inflict a heavy toll on the invading Israeli army. Malcolm X, the legendary American black activist once said: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”.
The writer is a professor of public relations and Mass Communication at the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University.
