Trying to ‘scare journalists from reporting’
Palestinian journalist Taghreed el-Khodary has said Israel’s brazen “extrajudicial killing” of Anas al-Sharif is also an attempt to intimidate other reporters in Gaza from doing their jobs.
“I speak to journalists on the ground in Gaza and many of them are receiving calls from the Israeli army asking them to stop reporting,” el-Khodary told Al Jazeera from Cairo. “The story here is about stopping the Palestinian narrative. For the first time in history, the Palestinian narrative has emerged very strongly.
“By killing journalists, they are scaring others from reporting,” she continued, adding that many reporters will be forced to question their career paths. “I know one journalist that says, ‘I only want to write. I don’t want to be in front of the camera, because the moment I am in front of the camera, Israel will kill me.'”
She added: “This is a criminal act by Israel.”
Aftermath of deadly Israeli strike on journalists’ tent camp
Gaza media ban lets Israeli authorities claim ‘fake news’
Israeli journalist and writer Akiva Eldar says barring both foreign and Israeli reporters from entering Gaza allows the government to accuse the media of spreading “fake news” about conditions in the territory.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv, Eldar said: “You can come up with all kinds of explanations, pretexts why they don’t allow [journalists into Gaza]. But, you know, we are in the same boat. Israeli journalists are not allowed to go there.
“And I think that the reason is that this way they can blame the international media for fake news. Like Netanyahu said, he accused the media of telling stories about famine that doesn’t exist.”
Eldar noted that international journalists have appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court against the ban, but the court “dragged their feet for months” and will not hear the case until October, giving the government “full protection”.
Jeremy Corbyn condemns ‘relentless killing’ of Palestinian journalists
The former leader of the UK’s Labour Party has described the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza as “sickening beyond words” and “a desperate attempt to silence the truth about Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity”.
“Shame on all those who empowered Israel to murder with impunity,” the member of parliament said in a social media post.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for accountability, the National Press Club has urged an inquiry and the Freedom of the Press Foundation has appealed for action to halt further attacks on the media.
Sixth journalist killed in Israeli attack last night
A sixth journalist, Mohammad al-Khaldi, was killed in last night’s air attack outside al-Shifa Hospital alongside the five Al Jazeera staff, Reuters reports, quoting hospital staff.
Press rights group Reporters Without Borders described al-Khaldi as “the creator of a YouTube news channel”.
