The Southlander Condemns Israel’s Genocide in Gaza and Assassinations of Palestinian Journalists
Last weekend, Israel carried out a deliberate attack that killed six Palestinian media workers.
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The Southlander strongly condemns the assassinations of journalists in the occupied Gaza Strip and across Palestine. Last weekend, Israel carried out a deliberate attack on a media tent sheltering press members just outside of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. The drone attack killed six media workers, including Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, correspondent Mohammed Qreiqa, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal. Also killed were freelance cameraman Momen Aliwa and freelance journalist Mohammed al-Khalidi.
This was Israel's single deadliest attack on journalists since the genocide began.
Since October 2023, at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed, according to the United Nations. This is the largest mass killing of journalists ever recorded. Grimly, Palestinian journalists – many in their 20s – have resorted to writing their obituaries in advance.
These war crimes and crimes against humanity are not isolated incidents – they are part of a systematic genocide that has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to a litany of human rights groups, including Israel-based organizations.
This could not have happened without the full-blown political, economic, and material support from the United States — worth at least $22.8 billion between 2023 and 2024. The U.S. federal government’s funding, arming, and enabling of Israeli's genocide in Palestine is directly tied to the Southland’s own elected representatives, whose support and complacency are bought through Israeli lobbying.
While Israel's attacks on journalists have increased dramatically since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 deadly attack in Israel, they did not start then.
During “The Great March of Return,” Amnesty International reported that 115 journalists were injured, and two were killed between 2018 and 2019. Without these journalists, we would not have known about Israeli snipers targeting children during this event.
In 2021, the Israeli government bombed the building of the Associated Press (AP) in Gaza. Press freedom groups claimed it was an attempt to censor coverage, according to the AP.
In 2022, an Israeli sniper shot and killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while she was reporting and wearing a press vest in the occupied West Bank.
The deliberate attacks on media workers not only murder family members and deprive the world of vital information, but they also violate fundamental principles outlined in the Geneva Conventions and United Nations resolutions, which recognize journalists as civilians in conflict zones. The UN Security Council Resolution 2222 calls for the protection of journalists and an end to impunity for crimes against the press.
This unprecedented assault against truth has helped to manufacture global consent for the genocide in Gaza, where over two million people, around half of whom are children, are currently being starved to death by the Israeli government.
We also condemn the majority of the Western mainstream media for remaining silent or publishing misleading reporting on the deliberate Israeli attacks on Palestinian journalists and their families.
Israel has historically smeared members of the press who expose their war crimes and other crimes against humanity; smears that have been parroted by mainstream media. “The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has a longstanding pattern of making unsubstantiated claims that many of the journalists they have deliberately killed in Gaza were terrorists,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, at an Aug. 11 rally held in Ramallah, called for “international press institutions to take urgent action to protect Palestinian journalists, hold the [Israeli occupation’s] leaders accountable, and ensure they do not escape punishment.”
As U.S. residents and journalists, we have an obligation to these courageous Palestinian journalists; they are our colleagues and the voices of a people being targeted for extermination. For generations, they have risked their lives to show us the reality of the illegal Israeli occupation. Our statement condemning Israel’s attempts to annihilate journalism in Gaza follows one made by LA Public Press earlier this week.
To our colleagues in the press: We echo the call by Writers Against the War On Gaza to end the legitimization of targeting Palestinian journalists, end racist editorial biases, and publish editorials condemning Israel's serial murders of media workers.
Worldwide, press freedom is at its lowest point since Reporters Without Borders began tracking it more than 20 years ago. We stand against the erosion of press freedom, whether in Gaza or in Los Angeles — where we are suing the LA County Sheriff’s Department for injuring two of our reporters while covering protests.
The Southlander stands by Anas Al-Sharif’s final will and message to the world, published by his colleagues upon his assassination: “I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland.”
Below is a video posted to social media in February of Al-Sharif and his daughter.
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