Two Western journalists in solidarity with Palestinian colleagues

JVL introduction

We have published numerous harrowing, informative, significant articles concerning Israel’s targeting of Palestinian media workers – a feature of Zionist attempts to deny Palestinians their reality over decades, violently accelerated over the past 22 months. But there always seems to be more that needs to be said.

In an article in the Irish Examiner, Barry Malone brings to the story his experience as a Western journalist who worked for Al Jazeera for almost a decade, now being inspired by the dedication of colleagues reporting on a genocide while also living through it. We do not have permission to publish the piece in full but you can read a summary below and follow the links to the original.

Another expert commentator is writer and film maker Richard Sanders, part of the Al Jazeera Investigations team, whose latest Double Down News video you can view below.

NWI

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Barry Malone: When Israel decides to silence the ‘voice’ of Palestinians (summary by NWI)

Many Western journalists do not regard Palestinian journalists as colleagues, “and that’s why those reporting from Gaza can be killed by Israel with  impunity.”

Western media talk as if these “local people” cannot be trusted, “that Palestinians are too close to the story to report it accurately” – something that would never be said of a British journalist reporting on Britain!

Malone describes the lives and deaths of Anas al-Sharif and so many other extraordinary figures from a place of professional and personal admiration.

He writes:

International journalists are now pushing for Israel to give them access to Gaza, having been barred for the duration of the conflict so far. They should be given that access. But the Western press corps, decked out in khaki chic, shouldn’t go to Gaza thinking it is their job to verify the devastation. It’s already been verified by the best and bravest journalists we have. The foreign correspondents must acknowledge they are standing on those shoulders, and that Palestinians will always be the authors of their own story.

Malone ridicules the Israeli claim that al-Sharif, who seemed to spend every waking moment standing in front of a camera, was an active Hamas operatives.

Here’s the thing: If Anas really was a target because of Hamas activity, the Israeli military could have killed him any time it wanted. They wouldn’t have needed any sophisticated intelligence to locate him. All they had to do was switch on the TV.

And yet world media credulously reports Israel’s accusations in a way they would never do if Russia killed a Ukrainian journalist and accused them of being a member of an armed group.

Malone records the frustration of Palestinian journalists let down by the way Israel’s relentless targeting of their comrades and friends has been reported and by a lack of solidarity from journalists in the West.

He quotes Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, writing on X after her colleagues were killed: “I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists. I will not sit on your global channels to be part of a segment you’ll forget by tomorrow.”

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Richard Sanders, writer and film maker, speaks to Double Down News

The SHOCKING Truth About Israel’s War on Journalism