Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1200 mostly civilians and took more than 200 hostages, workers around the world have been focused on the massive, Nazi-like ethnic cleansing being carried out in Gaza by the Israeli fascists and their U.S. imperialist partners. Millions have taken to the streets to oppose this racist genocide that threatens to become a much wider war. As of December 29, about 22,000 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of thousands injured and more than 1.5 million have been displaced, mostly children.
Bosses kill workers exposing their genocide
Within this mass destruction of an unarmed civilian population, there is another target besides Hamas, a war against journalists and journalism. Of the 1,200 Palestinian journalists and media workers based in Gaza at the start of the war, 95 have been killed. Reporters Without Borders stated, “The Palestinian territory has been subjected to a veritable eradication of journalism.”
Most of the media workers were specifically targeted by the Israeli military. According to information collected by the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS), at least 84 of the 95 were killed in “surgical” or sniper Israeli attacks that targeted either their homes or the area where they were covering news stories. Some received direct and specific threats to their lives from the Israeli military before they were killed. Hundreds of family members have also been killed in targeted strikes on journalists’ homes.
On October 25, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh lost his wife, daughter, son, and grandson in an Israeli airstrike on the home where they were sheltering in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Al-Dahdouh remained in Gaza City to continue his coverage of Israeli atrocities, despite threats made against him.
On November 8, a Zionist group published a false report that photojournalist Yasser Qudih and three other photographers had prior knowledge of the October 7 attacks. Reuters published one of Qudih’s photos and categorically denied the false claims. Even though the group withdrew its false accusations, on November 13, four Israeli missiles targeted Qudih’s home in southern Gaza and killed eight of his family members.
On November 22, Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif received multiple phone calls from Israeli military officers instructing him to stop reporting and leave northern Gaza and that he was under surveillance. On December 11, an Israeli airstrike targeted his family home in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, killing his 90-year-old father.
On December 6, 2023, Al Jazeera correspondent Momen Al-Sharafi lost 22 family members—including his parents, siblings, their spouses, and nieces and nephews—in an Israeli airstrike on the home in Jabalia refugee camp where they had sought refuge.
Israel has not permitted foreign journalists into Gaza. On December 19, the Foreign Press Association (“FPA”) in Jerusalem, representing about 370 journalists from 130 media outlets in more than 30 countries, filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court requesting immediate access to Gaza. Because foreign journalists have not been able to enter Gaza, Palestinian journalists are the world’s only media eyewitnesses to the war crimes being committed by Biden and Netanyahu.
U.S. reporters against genocide fightback
This war is also being carried out, on a less violent but no less important level, within the U.S. Award-winning New York Times magazine writer Jazmine Hughes was forced to resign from the Times after signing a letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Nine reporters for the Los Angeles Times were suspended for 30 days from the regular beats for also signing a ceasefire letter. This intimidation and retaliation are creating a chilling effect in newsrooms around the country, already battered by mass layoffs, where media workers are afraid to speak out.
Media workers in three major unions are working together to overcome this fear. Workers have attended marches and rallies against the war and are planning a three-union, “Know Your Rights” panel to encourage media workers to speak out. Also, a report is being produced that will document retaliation taken against media workers for opposing Israeli/U.S. genocide in Gaza.
Two of these unions, the NewsGuild-CWA (the largest U.S. union of staff journalists) and the National Writers Union (a union of freelance media workers and authors) contributed $10,000 each to the International Federation of Journalists’ Safety Fund to provide journalists in Gaza and the West Bank with helmets, flak jackets, battery charges and whatever else they need.
As we enter the New Year, the Dark Night of imperialism and growing wars is getting darker. The international working class is shackled by racism, nationalism, and religion without a mass communist movement to lead us. As the night gets darker, our light must burn brighter. Fighting back is winning. In the heat of class struggle our ideas can come to life and create the conditions for building a mass international Progressive Labor Party.
