ISRAEL IS WIPING OUT GAZA’S JOURNALISTS: A TRIBUTE

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DECEMBER 14TH, 2023

Source

Mnar Adley

I recently became the recipient of the Women and Media Award from the Women’s Institute of the Freedom of the Press. While it’s truly an honor to receive this recognition for the journalism that I direct at MintPress News, it’s nearly impossible for me to revel in this accolade when my heart is weighed down heavily by the ongoing turmoil in Gaza.

As a Palestinian-American journalist who has lived under the oppressive shadow of Israeli occupation and witnessed firsthand the relentless brutality of the apartheid regime, I cannot remain silent as my people face relentless oppression and violence.

I want to dedicate this award to the fearless journalists in Gaza who are risking their lives to show us the raw reality of life under Israeli bombs.

Since October 7th, the death toll stands stark and horrific – Israel is systematically taking out journalists, one by one, and killing their families. The Israeli military has already claimed the lives of at least 82 Palestinian journalists in Gaza. These courageous individuals, committed to unveiling the truth, have become direct targets of a regime desperate to cloak its genocidal actions from the world’s scrutiny.

Israel doesn’t want the world to see the reality of its genocidal onslaught in Gaza, so it’s assassinating the messengers.

In most parts of the world, wearing a flack jacket marked “press” gives you protection. But right now in Palestine, it may as well be a target, as Israel has turned Gaza into what the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has called a “cemetery for journalists.”

And you’d think mainstream corporate journalists would talk about the targeting of journalists in Gaza, but they’re not. If legacy media outlets like the New York Times or CNN cover Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza, they don’t have the basic journalistic integrity to say who killed them and fail to point out that Israel is systematically targeting them.

Corporate media are whitewashing Israeli crimes and playing the fool, pretending not to understand where the missiles come from. They pretend not to hear the genocidal rhetoric emanating from Tel Aviv. And even as Israel makes Gaza the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist, they ignore what is in front of their eyes, manufacturing consent for ethnic cleansing.

Brave women have lost their lives trying to document the Israeli onslaught. Women like Alaa Taher Al-Hassanat, a presenter for the AlMajedat Media Network, whose house was bombarded by Israeli missiles on November 20.

Or Salma Mkhaimer, killed alongside her child in an Israeli air strike on her house in Rafah, Gaza.

And Freelance journalist Ayat Khadoura was also killed in her home by an Israeli air strike. In her “last message to the world” posted on Instagram, she said: “We used to have big dreams, but now our dream is to be killed in one piece so they know who we are.”

This only continues a long history of Israel systematically targeting journalists since its founding in 1948.

Just last year, Israel went so far as to murder our beloved Shireen Abu-Akleh, an American citizen and recipient of the same Women and Media Award that I’m receiving today. And in 2021, it blew up the Associated Press building in Gaza. Yet throughout all this, Israel continues to get a free pass in corporate media.

Despite the hardships, many journalists are risking their lives working around the clock to document the genocide in Gaza. Journalists like Motaz Azaiza, Younis Tirawi, Muhammad Smiry, Motasem Mortaja, Wael Dahdouh, and Hind Khoudary, to name a few, speak truth to power, chronicling the horrors in Gaza.

These people show us in real-time the courage it often takes to be a journalist. And because of that, dozens pay the ultimate price for their bravery.

This award I humbly dedicate to them—the fallen journalists who were mercilessly taken by Israel and those who, against all odds, continue to broadcast to the world the unimaginable horrors of life under incessant bombings.

As for journalists like myself, we vow to carry on their legacy and amplify their voices in the West. We will repeat their message of hope and truth while we challenge and confront the very system perpetuating my people’s destruction, supported directly by our governments and their lapdog media.

If wars can be ignited by deceit, then let us rally for peace through unwavering truth.

Roger Waters Fends Off ‘Antisemitism’ Smears in Germany Ahead of Live Shows

November 10, 2022

Pink Floyd rock legend Roger Waters. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Pink Floyd rock legend Roger Waters has reaffirmed his commitment to perform in Germany next year as part of his This Is Not a Drill world tour in spite of vicious smears against him from German politicians and media outlets accusing him of antisemitism.

On Friday, Waters wrote on Facebook to his fans saying The Mayor of Munich, some members of the Green and SDP political parties and others “have been slandering me, accusing me of being an anti-semite and also a Putin apologist. I am neither of those things. Never have been and never will be.”

Waters, known for his outspoken commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as a proud supporter of rights for Palestinians, has been attacked by German officials attempting to have his upcoming shows canceled.

According to Berliner Zeitung, Samuel Salzborn, the anti-Semitism commissioner of the Social Democratic Party, called for the cancellation of his upcoming concert in Berlin in May 2023.

The German official recently described the musician as “one of the loudest voices in the music business, spreading anti-Israel anti-Semitism,” in the German newspaper B.Z, according to Tagesspiegel.

Salzborn has been criticized himself for his “deep intolerance against Palestinians” by Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah in the Electronic Intifada, following a Tweet he made in October 2019 (now deleted) which said:

“When you’re sitting in the train and the people next to you start talking about ‘Palestine’ without any apparent reason, it means it is time to either get off the train, put on your headphones, or scream at them”.

Abunimah said the tweet appears to be “a pure expression of his disgust even at the thought of Palestine or Palestinians existing.”

An article published last week in Jüdische Allgemeine smears Waters even more viciously, the article titled “Jew hatred on tour” says the Bavarian anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle recently called on the city of Munich to cancel the contract for the planned concert in the Olympiahalle if Waters did not distance himself from the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement encouraging non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law.

In the same article, Sigmount Königsberg, the anti-Semitism commissioner for Berlin’s Jewish community is quoted as saying Waters is “an anti-Semite, a hate preacher with music that demonizes Israel.”

Likewise, Uwe Becker, Spaenle’s Hessian counterpart says Waters is, “a bad example of aggressive, Israel-related anti-Semitism” and that he is not welcome in the state.

Dear German fans,
I’ve heard there is a rumor going round that I may not be coming to Germany on my European tour, because of opposition from the Israeli Lobby. RUBBISH! I WOULDN'T MISS MY GIGS IN GERMANY FOR ANYTHING!

Read more: https://t.co/NnADgM43DE pic.twitter.com/V7wk8y7TXq

— Roger Waters ✊ (@rogerwaters) November 4, 2022

Waters is not unique in having weaponized allegations of antisemitism wielded against him in Germany. The Euromed Human Rights Monitor recently expressed  concern over the “anti-Arab purge in German media.”

Waters has become an outspoken critic of Israel’s apartheid and oppression of the Palestinian people since he first visited the West Bank in 2006 and was approached by the BDS movement to support the campaign.

Speaking on Joe Rogan’s Experience last month, considered the world’s most popular podcast, Waters exposed Israel’s ongoing apartheid against the Palestinians saying, “now it is very difficult for anyone to have a conversation about Israel and Palestine without using the word apartheid because it is in the lexicon, and the problem is far more in the light.”

This year Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published reports asserting Israel is committing the crime of apartheid.

So far Waters’ tour has also illuminated Israel’s ongoing injustices against Palestinians, including the attacks made against Palestinian journalists. During his recent US shows, images of Israel’s apartheid wall were displayed as well as the name of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot dead by Israeli forces this year.

And it is not just adoring fans who listen to Waters’ informed perspective on Palestine, in 2012 he gave an extended address at the United Nations as part of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and has written many letters encouraging fellow musicians not to perform in Israel.

Last year, distinguished Palestinian historian, Professor Rashid Khalidi (Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University) suggested that young Palestinians should, “stop listening to old people for advice” on their activism at an event held by Palestine Dee Dive, before quickly correcting himself saying, “actually there is one older person you should still listen to, of course, his name is Roger Waters.”

Waters rounded off his to address  fans in Germany on Facebook, saying:

“Your Ruling Class and your media want to ban me from bringing my message of love and peace and revolution to enrich your lives. WELL I’M COMING, and together we will raise the roof on this charade”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

The Israeli occupation’s master plan against Palestinian Christians

19 Oct 2022

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Makram Khoury-Machool 

Shadi Khoury is a case among so many Palestinian children that are being harassed, tortured, and imprisoned for no reason other than being Palestinian.

The Israeli occupation’s master plan against Palestinian Christians

Five months ago, one of the most brutal killings of a human being took place; a crime was committed by the members of the Israeli occupation forces against the female journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian Christian. Two weeks before her assassination, during Easter, the occupation limited, separated, and violently prevented Palestinian Christians in particular from performing their acts of worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old city of Al-Quds; the holiest of Christian sites that is beyond imagination. 

Holy Christian sites, clergymen, and laymen Christians are being attacked, harassed, and arrested. Categorizing them into “sects” and not as a Nation, the occupation, and for at least seven decades, has craftily been implementing the divide and rule policy (between Christians and Muslims) aiming at ‘gently’ and indirectly emptying Palestine from its original Palestinian Christian community in particular in Eastern Palestine occupied in 1967 and chiefly from East Jerusalem. 

Despite targeting many Palestinian Christian figures including assassinations, the Israeli occupation spread the most vicious propaganda, claiming (chiefly amongst ignorant segments in the West) that it is “protecting” Christians in the Holy Land. 

The criminal lie that the Israeli occupation “protects” Palestinian Christians was smashed yet again in the early hours of October 18, 2022, when Israeli occupation elements, in a group of 12 persons consisting of “soldiers” and Shabak (Secret services), conducted a dawn-raid at the house of Palestinian Christian Maestro Souheil Khoury after breaking the gate at the entrance of the compound where the whole family lives, to arrest his son Shadi Khoury, a sixteen-year-old child, a pupil at the Quakers “Friends School” in Ramallah. They beat him so hard until he was bleeding and dragged him across the room and along the path on the way out of the house barefoot and blindfolded, not allowing the parents to see where the blood was coming from.  Shadi was taken to the interrogation section in the notorious Maskobiyeh “Moscovan” Israeli secret police compound in which they interrogate mainly Palestinian residents of occupied Al-Quds. 

Shadi’s grandmother Samia, 89, told us that Shadi is being “interrogated” without the presence of either his parents or a lawyer; “a tactic used systematically to terrorize children into submission, and ultimately using their own words to incriminate them.”

Shadi is a case among so many Palestinian children that are being harassed, tortured, and imprisoned for no reason other than being a Palestinian seeking to live in dignity and freedom in their own country. 

Back in July 2020, the Israeli occupation arrested Shadi’s parents (Souheil and Rania Elias). Rania is the director of the Jebus Cultural Center (Jebus is an ancient name of Al-Quds, given by the Jebusites, the ones who first built the city) and her husband Souheil Khoury is the director of the National Conservatory.

The arrest of Shadi is not a random act; rather, it was “perfectly” calculated. The occupation is working diligently to separate Palestinian cultural organizations (especially those based in Al-Quds) from their international financiers. The easiest thing the occupation can do is describe the Palestinian people as “terrorists” and “murderers”, thus reincarnating the Euro-Western anti-Semitic past, triggering Western guilt and preventing the latter from sympathizing with the Palestinian victim. The West would “prefer” to settle its problems “with its own victim” first because it can always be extorted with such accusations. 

The new “regulations” of finance imposed by the EU in early 2020 go well in line with the policies, practices, and decisions of the occupation in October 2021 against Palestinian NGOs and are yet another testament to this kind of pressure policy that can lead to ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in their own home.

This is why the occupation invents ties and fabricates links between “terrorism” and culture, forming fierce campaigns led by Zionist lobbies in the media, demanding an end to what it calls the indirect “financing of Palestinian terrorism,” which constitutes a burden for the backers and financiers of any cultural activity.

Through this dirty game, the occupation attempts to don the robe of the “classy, music-connoisseur intellectual,” the defender of the bastion of civilization against the barbarians.

The occupation has understood that culture, with its many building blocks, is a (political) power that goes hand in hand in the fight alongside another kind of political power (the military), and this is what the occupation dreads. The occupation would love nothing else than to have the Palestinians remain within the confines of military power (the occupation in the “legitimate” uniform of its soldiers – against the “terrorist” Palestinian without an official uniform) because it is easy to attack this kind of power and promote a negative image of the Palestinians. The occupation has invested billions of dollars across the decades in crystallizing this image in order to weaken the other forms of power in the Palestinian’s possession.

Although the occupation reiterates in all international events and before donor states always that Palestinians (in ’67 occupied Palestine) teach their children to be “anti-Semitic” and anti-“Israel”, including in their educational programs (the last time was in a hostile question against Palestine in the UK Parliament in July 2020), with the aim of targeting the backers of Palestine’s educational institutions, the persecution in occupied eastern Al-Quds takes on a different form.

The Israeli occupation hasn’t stopped (since the expulsion of half of the Palestinian people back in 1948) using violent “solutions” against Palestinians, not even sparing cultural leaders, such as poets and writers including the grand uncle of Shadi Khoury the late poet and writer Kamal Butros Nasser in April 1973. In Palestine, cultural counter-hegemony is considered an “act of terror”, whereas the “moralists” of the West call for arming Ukrainians to defend their country against the Russians. Stop looking for “double standards” and start looking for hidden intentional brutality unless we choose to establish yet another mental health global hospital to treat “Western” hypocrites. If we do, we won’t be asking the EU for funding.

The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.

• What Media Should You Read??

Israel demands full impunity for killing Shireen Abu Akleh – and the Biden administration agrees

 SEPTEMBER 10, 2022 

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER YAIR LAPID (RIGHT), US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, AND ISRAELI MINISTER OF DEFENSE BENNY GANTZ AT THE CEREMONY WELCOMING BIDEN TO ISRAEL ON JULY 13, 2022. (PHOTO: KOBI GIDEON/ISRAEL GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE)

By Mitchell Plitnick

Source

Despite the best efforts of the Israeli and American governments, the spirit of Shireen Abu Akleh simply won’t go away. 

Shireen’s family won’t let her memory fade into the background in Washington or Tel Aviv as the memories of so many thousands of Palestinians have in the past. Neither will the broader Palestinian and Palestine-advocacy communities. But perhaps the most crucial group that is keeping Shireen’s spirit hovering over the politics of Israel’s policies, especially in Washington, are her fellow journalists. 

Israel’s “report” on Shireen’s murder, as expected, admitted that one of its soldiers was responsible for her death, but duplicitously said that it was the result of an errant bullet during an exchange of fire with Palestinian “terrorists.” 

That this is nonsense has been clearly established. The exchange of fire at the time of Shireen’s killing was blocks away. The Israeli military unit involved in the murder was the elite Duvdevan unit, a highly-trained bunch who do not fire wildly, but at targets, generally Palestinian people. The bullet which killed Shireen penetrated a small opening between her helmet and bullet-proof vest, with word “PRESS” clearly written in both the front and back. All of this is substantial proof of, at the very least, an intentional killing. 

But in the wake of the report being published, we saw a very clear, and very disturbing, demonstration of where the Israeli government under Yair Lapid and the U.S. administration of Joe Biden stand, not only the issue of Shireen’s murder but of the entire relationship between Israel and its benefactor and protector in Washington. 

Israel had long since made it clear that it would not prosecute the soldier who murdered Shireen Abu Akleh. In response, the State Department and Secretary of State Antony Blinken modified their very humble request, reducing it to a simple review of Israel’s rules of engagement when their soldiers entered a Palestinian area under their iron-fisted occupation. 

But even this was too much to ask in Israel’s eyes. “I will not allow an IDF soldier that was protecting himself from terrorist fire to be prosecuted just to receive applause from abroad,” Lapid stated. “No one will dictate our rules of engagement to us, when we are the ones fighting for our lives. Our soldiers have the full backing of the government of Israel and the people of Israel.”

Lapid’s message had two intended audiences. The first was the Israeli public, which eagerly gobbles up any example of an Israeli leader defying what they see as the United States ordering them about. Most Israelis would draw the line at any action that might jeopardize the absolute and lock-step U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support. But, to date, reactions from the Biden administration indicate Israel has not even approached such a line.

This is evidenced by the reaction of Lapid’s second audience, which is the Biden administration itself. State Department Spokesman Ned Price’s initial reaction to Israel’s initial report—an obvious whitewash that Israel, in its hubris, made no effort to disguise—made it clear that the U.S. was unwilling to press Israel about Shireen, but needed also to appease some in the Democratic Party who were unwilling to simply forget about her. 

“We welcome Israel’s review of this tragic incident, and again underscore the importance of accountability in this case, such as policies and procedures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future,” Price said. And when Israel made it clear they would not do this, Price’s understudy, Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel, repeated an embarrassing mantra: “To reiterate, we continue to underscore the importance of accountability in this case, and we’re going to continue to impress our Israeli partners to closely review its policies and practices on the rules of engagement, and consider additional steps that will mitigate risk in this circumstance.”

One could almost feel sorry for Patel, being hung out to dry in front of experienced foreign policy reporters with nothing but this tissue-thin line to offer. Under a series of questions from journalists, he could do nothing but continue to repeat himself, despite the fact that what he was describing was not only the opposite of accountability, but was the United States government once again choosing to shirk its responsibility to protect its citizens from a foreign government that has killed them with impunity. 

That was what Patel had to defend. Shireen Abu Akleh was only the latest American citizen to be killed by Israel. Nearly twenty years ago, it was activist Rachel Corrie, crushed under a U.S.-made and supplied, but Israeli-modified Caterpillar armored bulldozer. Twelve years ago, it was 18-year old Furkan Dogan, killed by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara as it tried to bring food and supplied to people being starved by Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Six year ago, Mahmoud Shaalan was gunned down while his hands were in the air at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank. Earlier this very year, Israeli forces ripped 78-year old Omar Assad from his car, abused him, handcuffed and blindfolded him, causing such stress he died of a heart attack. 

Israel has never been held accountable, nor held anyone accountable, for the deaths of these American citizens. Lapid’s words made it clear they would not stand for anything less than total impunity regarding these murders. 

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett clarified Israel’s stance. “At any given moment,” Bennett tweeted on Tuesday, “there are Palestinian terrorists trying to murder Israelis. Not the other way round. We are not trigger-happy, but our moral duty is to hit terrorists and thereby save lives.” The army, Bennett stated must be “detached from any pressure, internal or external.”

Sifting through the blatant racism and dishonesty of Bennett’s characterization of Israeli military innocence and Palestinian bloodthirstiness, he is plainly stating that an Israeli soldier can shoot any Palestinian any time she or he wishes, and the very nature of their respective identities as Israeli soldier and Palestinian “terrorist” places the Israelis above reproach. And above any kind of law. 

Lapid’s message got through to both the Israeli public and the Biden administration. But how well is that message playing more broadly in the United States? 

Democratic hawks like Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez—who was in Israel earlier this week—have been remarkably quiet about Shireen lately, but even Menendez, earlier this year, expressed concern over her killing and called for a credible investigation of her death. The silence of pro-Israel Democrats is indicative of the difficult position Israel has put them in, and it has left a vacuum which is amplifying the more critical Democratic voices. 

Outgoing Rep. Marie Newman, for example, tweeted, “The @StateDept’s response to Israel’s statement refusing to prosecute the soldiers responsible for killing Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh is woefully inadequate. I expect nothing short of a US investigation that leads to accountability. It’s the least we can do.”

Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), who earlier this year introduced the “Justice for Shireen Act,” said the Israeli report fails to “address the key questions around Shireen Abu Akleh’s death and falls short of what we expect when a U.S. citizen is killed on foreign soil.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva, said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken “has a responsibility to hold Israel accountable and demand justice for [Abu Akleh’s] death,” and that “the silence is damning and deafening. We need justice for Shireen.”

Perhaps most important was the statement of Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who, while at the progressive end of the Democratic Party is still closer to the center than the Representatives who spoke out and is up for re-election this November (albeit in a race that he is universally seen as safe for him). Van Hollen tweeted, “The crux of the “defense” in this IDF report is that a soldier was “returning fire” from militants. But investigations @NYTimes @AP @CNN @washingtonpost & @UN found no such firing at the time. This underscores need for independent US inquiry into this American journalist’s death.”

There is no factual argument that can refute what these Members of Congress have said, which is why Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill are trying to avoid engaging with them. Indeed, if anything is to be critiqued it is the call for an impartial U.S. investigation. As unlikely as the investigation is, impartiality should it come about is even harder to imagine. 

It is crucial, however, that these calls be supported. Shireen’s murder must remain on the agenda past the November elections. Until then, even the hardiest Democrats are going to tone down criticism of their President and Secretary of State. 

But in two months, that pressure will be lifted. And the Biden administration must be taken to task for its behavior here. As hypocritical as it was for Biden to fist-bump Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, it’s important to recall that, as important a figure as Jamal Khashoggi was, he was a U.S. resident, not a citizen. 

Shireen Abu Akleh, like Rachel Corrie, Furkan Dogan, Mahmoud Shaalan, and Omar Assad before her, was an American citizen. Foreign countries are not supposed to be allowed to murder American citizens with impunity, especially when they are killed for doing their jobs as reporters. 

But Yair Lapid brazenly stated that Israel must be allowed to do just that. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken supported Lapid in that statement, in effect. That’s something that Shireen’s fellow citizens can’t allow. 

Roger Waters Pays Tribute to Palestinian Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during Concert

August 25, 2022

Roger Waters paid tribute to Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a concert. (Photo: via WAFA)

The legendary star of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, recently paid a tribute to slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a concert in New York.

The 78-year-old songwriter and composer displayed Abu Akleh’s name across the concert’s backdrop along with words saying that her crime was “being Palestinian” and that her punishment was “death”.

English musician @rogerwaters paid tribute to Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by an Israeli sniper while she was covering a military raid into Jenin, during his conecert in New York on Saturday night. pic.twitter.com/kfGuxxGom1

— Palestine and MENA Info Center (@PALMENA_IC) August 23, 2022

On May 11, while covering an Israeli army assault in the northern occupied West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, Abu Akleh, 51, was murdered by a bullet to the head fired by an Israeli sniper.

Last week, Palestinians around the world marked 100 days since Abu Akleh’s killing.

Waters has been vocally advocating for Palestinians and their rights and is known for his support for the BDS movement.

(WAFA, PC, SOCIAL)