A must-have message…to institutions concerned with the rights and protection of journalists Opinions

While the screens were filled with news of the martyrdom of two of our promising young martyrs in the Gaza Strip: Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh – the eldest son of the great and steadfast journalist colleague, Al-Jazeera’s first correspondent in Gaza – and Mustafa Thuraya, that wonderful young man who was full of love for Gaza and fascinated by its beauty, and who made every effort to photograph This beauty was shot from the sky by a drone, just before the hand of Israeli aggression extended to it to steal that beauty and replace it with destruction.

The occupation bombed a car in which the two journalists were, which led to their martyrdom and the injury of three other journalists. While we were watching and the world was watching, we received the news of the martyrdom of a third Palestinian journalist in Gaza City, Ali Salem Abu Ajwa, by bombing by the Israeli occupation, during his press coverage, raising the number of Our journalist martyrs reached one hundred and ten within three months.

During this time, while the number of martyrs increases, we turn right and left; In search of those who have always made us believe that they defend, protect and help journalists, and have built giant institutions on these great goals and noble values.

Dear Sirs: Where are you? Where have you been hiding for three months? Why do you remain silent with the silence of graves over this ongoing massacre against Gaza journalists, which has so far affected one hundred and ten colleagues who were kidnapped by Israeli shells, while they were in the field, in homes, or inside their cars clearly marked as carrying journalists, or even – sometimes – in centers? Displacement?

The massacre also continuously affected the families of journalists, with dozens of them martyred and hundreds injured! This number of martyred journalists is beyond imagination, and it is enough for us to make a quick comparison between this number and the number of journalists killed across the globe in 2022 and the year before, for us to be horrified.

Gaza in a quarter of a year provided 110 journalists as martyrs, while the number of journalists killed around the world in 2022 is 86, while the number reached 55 in 2021, according to the freedom of expression report presented by UNESCO, and the year 2022 has been called the bloodiest year for journalists. . What do we say about this massacre that journalists have been subjected to in Gaza for three months? And why do these numbers not arouse the anger of international institutions that call for freedom of expression and the protection of journalists? And why are their voices so timid and timid?

Who prevents you, in the face of the scale of the disaster, from screaming as we all scream, and as Wael Al-Dahdouh screamed and cried, for example? Who is preventing you from carrying out your role from which you gained your name and glory by saying that you will do what is necessary to protect journalists everywhere?!

If you failed or were unable to do so, then why do you not speak out to Gaza journalists at least because of your failure and inability, if not the reason for your failure and conspiracy?!

We have the right to remind you that you were not an hour late for the war in Ukraine. You sent delegations after delegations, support after support, support teams and the necessary tools and equipment to protect journalists. You held seminars, workshops and training, and you criticized Putin and Russia in the strongest terms for what happened to journalists there, which is not the case. It is compared to what the criminal occupation did against our journalists in Gaza. Why didn’t you do the same thing when this aggression against Gaza began? Why did you not challenge this occupation by sending your crews?!

You are hypocrites, liars, and deceivers. You should not wear the garb of defenders of a profession built on moral codes and linked to values. It is a journalist’s message to humanity about what is going on around him before it is a job to earn a living.

Why don’t you write about the crimes of the occupation? Why did you not urge foreign correspondents – who are members of your institutions, forums, unions and federations – to come to Gaza to cover the war and support their local colleagues? Perhaps you could provide some kind of protection or moral support for them by being by their side and conveying their voice and image?

Are you cowardly? Or does this war not concern you, or is the Palestinian journalist not of the same class of journalists who deserve your effort, your struggle, and your support, even though they are among the bravest journalists known to humanity, and among the most wonderful young men and women who have stuck to their land, their people, and their cause and presented to the whole world the clearest picture of the extent of the crime committed? committed by the occupation.

They deserve hats to be raised to them and awards given to them, but above all they need your ability to defend their safety and prevent attacks on them, stop targeting them and raise your voices on the need to stop the massacre against them… Will you do that before Israel annihilates the rest of them? ?!