Israel’s targeting journalists is unprecedented
JVL Introduction
Veteran BBC journalist John Simpson has written this powerful piece about Israel’s targeting Palestinian journalists all the while not allowing journalists from other countries in – other than under strict Israeli military escort.
It is not only in Gaza, Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in Jenin before October 7th 2023, but more journalists were killed in Gaza since that date “than the total killed in the first world war, the second world war, the Korean War, the Vietnam war, the Yugoslav war of the 1990s and post-2001 war in Afghanistan, all added together. That number was only possible, many agencies have claimed, because the IDF and the Israeli government did nothing to discourage the idea that every journalist in Gaza was an active supporter of Hamas, and therefore an enemy.”
Now journalists are also be killed in Lebanon but Israel continues to claim that they are not targeting reporters. There has been no consequence for those who have killed journalists any more than killing health workers, aid workers, children. The situation is severe enough for yet another word to be invented out of the horrors we are witnessing: this time it is “journacide” to sit alongside “domicide” and “educide” because of the extreme nature and consequences of Israel’s programme of pulverisation as well as such targeted killings.”
LL
This article was originally published by The Nerve on Fri 10 Apr 2026. Read the original here.
John Simpson: Today, governments can get away with anything. Israel is getting away with journacide
There used to be some sense that killing a reporter would mean serious consequences. Now that understanding has vanished, writes the BBC’s world affairs editor
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In my observation, targeted killing of journalists is a consistent strategy of the truly terrorist state of Israel – because it always gets away with it.