By ignoring the killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, their Israeli colleagues are adding a moral insult to the ethical and professional injury of under-reporting or even ignoring the plight of Gaza’s civilian population for the past 690 days
Five more Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza on Monday in an Israeli army attack on a hospital in Khan Younis, bringing the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, to 189.
Their Israeli counterparts, for close to two years, until Monday, largely remained silent. The Union of Journalists in Israel posted on social media yesterday a rare statement saying that it was “deeply shocked.” But there was no expression of solidarity or collegiality with Palestinian journalists, no outrage, no action.
Many years ago, when I covered the West Bank and Gaza for Haaretz, I relied heavily on the accurate and professional reporting of Palestinian journalists, who devoted much time and effort – without any financial compensation – to helping Israeli journalists get the story.
Most of them were proud Palestinian patriots, who believed that by telling the Palestinian story to the Israeli public, through the Israeli media, were serving their cause.
I was not the only one. My colleagues, fellow West Bank and Gaza correspondents, did the same. I had a Palestinian colleague in Nablus, who during the first intifada covered most of the northern West Bank for the major Palestinian daily, al-Quds. He used to receive three or four phone calls from Israeli reporters almost every evening, only to brief all of them with the same news of the day. In the background, we could hear his wife preparing their four children for bed. He sacrificed entire evenings, repeatedly, for years, to help us out.
Our professional relationships often morphed into real personal friendships. We relied on our Palestinian colleagues, and they often sought our help to negotiate with Israeli authorities, navigate Israeli bureaucracy, or simply to better understand Israeli society. A colleague at a Palestinian daily, who translated articles from the Hebrew press for a living, used to call me for help deciphering odd Hebrew expressions.
And when the authorities took unjustified, harsh measures against our fellow Palestinian journalists, we protested.
When the Israeli government decided to deport Akram Haniya, then editor of East Jerusalem’s daily al-Shaab, because of his support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, we launched an ad-hoc campaign to reverse the decision. Haniya was not accused of violence or incitement to violence. Israeli intelligence officials at the time told me that his activity was strictly political in nature. I then published an article in Haaretz headlined “We Are All Akram Haniya” and translated one of his short stories for Haaretz’s literary supplement.
Haniya was nevertheless deported. Later, he became one of the PLO’s chief peace negotiators with Israel.
Sure, these journalists were Palestinian patriots. Sure, they were committed to their people’s struggle for independence. But as professionals, their loyalty – like ours – was to the truth, to the facts.
I know, this was long ago. So much has happened to deepen the chasm between Israelis and Palestinians since, including October 7 and the ensuing catastrophic events. Yes, relations between Israelis and Palestinians are not like they once were.
But is it unreasonable to expect Israeli journalists to take action when 189 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, the most in any conflict ever documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists?
Is it too much to expect Israeli journalists to respond aggressively when their government assassinates five of their Palestinian colleagues in a tent in Gaza City (even if the official justification for the targeted killing was that one of the five was once associated with Hamas) as happened earlier this month?
Several journalists’ associations operate in Israel. None of them issued a statement regarding the assassination of Anas al-Sharif and his four Al Jazeera colleagues earlier this month. Few said anything about the killing of so many journalists in Gaza since October 7.
The Israeli media relies on Gaza’s journalists and uses their information. They need them. Can’t they do more than a statement on social media?
A handful of Israeli and international reporters enter the Gaza Strip embedded in IDF units. But the only reporters who still independently operate there are Gaza’s Palestinian journalists. They risk and sacrifice their lives to provide facts, footage and photos. Without them, Israeli news outlets – those who are willing to report on the situation in the Strip – are blind.
The obligation to express concern, to show a modicum of solidarity, is more than a matter of professional collegiality or journalistic sourcing. It’s a matter of humanity.
The blood of Palestinian journalists is no redder than the tens of thousands of other Palestinian noncombatants Israel has killed in Gaza. Indeed, many Palestinian journalists were not killed on the job but at home with their families. But, still, these are fellow reporters, colleagues.
By ignoring their colleagues in Gaza, Israeli journalists are adding a moral insult to the ethical and professional injury of under-reporting or even ignoring the plight of Gaza’s civilian population for the past 690 days.
Instead of pandering to the Israeli public’s dehumanizing of Palestinians, Israeli journalists should provide a model of humanity and compassion. You may say the expectation is naïve. I’d like to think that Israel’s mainstream media is still capable of voicing such concern.
Ori Nir is a Washington-based journalist. He previously served as Washington correspondent and covered Palestinian affairs and Israel’s Arab citizens for Haaretz.