How imposes fuels Israel’s attacks on journalists in Gaza and Lebanon

The apparently targeted killing of three media workers in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Friday renewed calls for an end to impunity for Israel’s abuses.

Advocates say the growing death toll of journalists killed by the Israeli military in the expanding conflict is the result of the failure of the international community — particularly the US, Israel’s main backer — to hold the country accountable.

The killing of the media workers in Lebanon came days after Israel baselessly accused several Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being members of Palestinian armed groups, raising concerns about their safety.

“The events of the past few days are alarming and should serve as a wake-up call to the US government and other states that have the power to hold the Israeli government to account and end this violence,” campaigner Rebecca Vincent said. director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Friday’s deadly attack in Lebanon targeted a compound where several journalists and media workers were staying – in an area far removed from the fighting. There was no warning before the strike, which destroyed several buildings and left cars marked “press” covered in rubble.

“It is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as 18 journalists representing seven media outlets were present at the location,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary wrote on social media.

The killings add to one of the deadliest records for journalists covering a conflict in years.

At least 128 journalists and media workers are among the tens of thousands of people Israel has killed in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon over the past year – the deadliest for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began to pursue crimes. more than four decades ago.

According to Palestinian officials, the death toll is even higher, with 176 journalists killed in Gaza alone.

“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time hitting a compound housing 18 members of the media in southern Lebanon,” CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement. statement to Al Jazeera.

“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators held accountable.”

Labeling journalists as “terrorists”

Israeli officials have regularly vilified journalists killed in Gaza, accusing them without evidence of being members of Hamas and other groups.

Israel this week accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being “operatives” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – sparking fears it could preemptively justify targeting them. Al Jazeera categorically rejected the Israeli accusations.

Israel has killed several Al Jazeera journalists and their family members in Gaza since the start of the war, including the network’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Samer Abudaqa.

Critics accuse Israel – which has banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to hide the truth about its war crimes there.

CPJ has repeatedly documented “Israel’s pattern of killing Palestinian journalists with baseless ‘terrorist’ labels following their crimes”.

The latest threat to Al Jazeera journalists comes as calls have mounted for Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza. Earlier this year, more than 70 media and civil society organizations signed an open letter calling on Israel to grant access to journalists, a recent demand. it echoed by dozens of American parliamentarians.

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and analyst, said Israel does not want the world to see what is happening in Gaza.

“On the one hand they don’t allow international journalists and on the other hand they assassinate those journalists who are there,” Buttu told Al Jazeera. “And then, they sort out those journalists who are there and sort of label them as targets.”

Buttu pointed out that under international law, people can only be considered legitimate targets in war if they are combatants engaged in fighting – accusing someone of being affiliated with an armed group, whether true or not, does not make them a legitimate target .

She added that Israel is “inverting international law” by labeling people as members of Hezbollah and Hamas to justify killing them.

Raed Jarrar, director of advocacy at US rights group DAWN, said Israel’s accusations against Al Jazeera’s journalists were a “deliberate tactic to intimidate and silence those who are exposing their ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in northern Gaza”.

“This campaign against journalists reporting on atrocities only further proves Israel’s desperation to cover up its war crimes and systematic genocide against Palestinians,” Jarrar added.

Impunity breeds impunity

While Israel has targeted journalists at an unprecedented rate during the ongoing war, it has killed dozens more in the years leading up to it. But there was no consequence for these crimes and this impunity paved the way for the current escalation, analysts say.

Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera that “the deadliest place to work these days for journalists is where Israel is waging war.”

The think tank posted a video earlier this year, documenting the lives of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Just before the release, one of the journalists it features, Sami Shehadeh, lost a leg in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp where he was filming.

Hassan said the lack of accountability for the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh – who was an American citizen – by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022 was a “harbinger of things to come”.

For months after Abu Akleh’s killing, US lawmakers and lawyers called for an independent US investigation into the incident.

While American and Israeli media outlets reported that the US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the shooting, US officials never publicly confirmed it and no findings were made public. No one was punished for killing Abu Akleh.

“If justice could be denied to Shireen by her own government, how can we expect justice for Palestinian journalists in Gaza or other journalists working in the killing fields of Palestine and Lebanon?” Hassan said.

“The US State Department and the White House recognize the extremely important role that journalists play in telling the truth. Unfortunately, they do not place the same emphasis or value on truth or civilian life when the truth reveals Israeli war crimes or the civilian target is a Palestinian or Arab journalist.”

The US often emphasizes the so-called “rules-based order” when criticizing the policies of Russia and China, but has maintained unconditional support for Israel despite well-documented abuses, including the killing of journalists.

Washington gives Israel at least $3.8 billion in military aid annually, and President Joe Biden has approved an additional $14 billion in aid to the U.S. ally to help finance the current war.

While the US and other countries have failed to curb Israel’s attacks on journalists, supporters have also criticized the world’s media for inadequate attention and outrage over Israeli attacks on the press.

“There are a lot of people who are complicit in this. It’s not just the governments, which are certainly complicit, it’s also the fact that we haven’t heard the international outrage from other journalists,” said Buttu, a close friend of Abu Akleh.

“These Palestinian journalists, these Lebanese journalists, their lives are no less dignified than those of international journalists, and the fact that we haven’t seen any kind of outrage is unbelievable.”

But some alternative media outlets have been outspoken in condemning attacks on journalists by Israel.

This week, the US-based progressive publication Jewish Currents issued a statement in support of the six Al Jazeera journalists targeted by Israel.

“As a journalistic institution, we generally refrain from making statements or asking others to take action, but our position as media workers compels us to stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza,” it said.

“The normalization of Israel’s blatant targeting of journalists has implications for reporters around the world.”

The publication added that the targeting of Palestinian journalists “should be treated as a crisis for the international media.”