Israel’s top court postpones petition demanding media access to Gaza
Israel’s Supreme Court has pushed back the hearing of a petition filed by an organisation representing international media outlets in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, demanding independent access for journalists to Gaza.
Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from entering the devastated territory, taking only a handful of reporters inside on tightly controlled visits alongside its troops.
On Thursday, Israel’s top court began the hearing of a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) seeking access to Gaza. The State Attorney acknowledged “the situation has changed” and requested a further 30 days to examine the circumstances. No date has been set for the next hearing.
Speaking outside the courtroom ahead of the hearing, Nicolas Rouget, an FPA board member said: “We have a right to inform the public, the people of the world, the Israeli public, the Palestinian population.
“We feel we must stand … by our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, who have been the only ones able to inform the public about this conflict over the last two years,” he added.
Examine what circumstances?
Israel continues to deny foreign journalists access to Gaza Strip
International journalists are still not being granted free access to report from Gaza. The FPA reacted with disappointment on Thursday and accused Israel of using delaying tactics.
Access to the Gaza Strip is entirely controlled by Israel. Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war more than two years ago, foreign journalists have only been able to visit the Gaza Strip sporadically with the Israeli army, and they were only shown very specific areas.
Palestinian journalists continue to bring the world news from the ground, risking their lives to do so – more than 200 have been killed by Israel since October 2023, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded.
World knows what’s happened in Gaza in last 2 years thanks to ‘remarkable’ local journalists
Israel has argued for the past two years that the foreign press cannot enter Gaza because it poses a threat to Israeli forces on the ground, and they could not guarantee the safety of these journalists because of the indiscriminate bombing campaign at the time.
There were some journalists who were going in, but only through Israeli military embeds, where the military showed them exactly what they wanted them to see and sold this different narrative.
But it’s worth mentioning that Palestinian journalists on the ground have been covering the war for the last two years, some of whom have paid the ultimate price, as nearly 300 journalists and media workers have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, including some of our own colleagues here at Al Jazeera and their families.
They have been reporting day after day for more than two years, knowing the risks and also facing what Palestinians endure there every day – the starvation, the fear for their safety and their families.
So what the FPA is arguing is that they want to show the world what has happened in Gaza. But the world has been seeing it over the past two years thanks to these remarkable journalists on the ground inside the Gaza Strip.
Except Western media has mostly ignored it all and keeps repeating Israeli propaganda.
Hamas urges admission of international media to Gaza
In a statement on Telegram, the Palestinian group says that Israel’s continued barring of foreign press “clearly reveals this entity’s [Israel’s] insistence on continuing to impose media blackout on the horrific crimes and widespread destruction caused by the Zionist war machine in the Strip”.
