Journalism Murdered in Gaza; No Witnesses

On Jan. 7, Israel targeted a vehicle travelling through a residential area in southern Gaza. The Israeli strike killed two journalists in the vehicle, Hamza al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, and seriously wounded a third passenger, Hazem Rajab. It's important to note that the areas of Khan Younis and Rafah, where the killing occurred, was previously designated as safe.

Hamza was the son of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's bureau chief for Gaza, who was also wounded by a previous Israeli airstrike that killed an Al Jazeera camera operator. In October, Israeli air strikes targeted and killed Wael's wife, daughter, son and grandson. Israel has strictly controlled the Palestinian population registry since 1967, and has the power to approve ID cards and passports. Israel knows where each Palestinian lives.

Israel has been particularly bloodthirsty in its months-long massacre, and has made journalists a repeated target of their killings. The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate has said that 102 Palestinian media workers have been killed since Oct. 7. Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists track a death toll of 77 journalists since the current escalation began (70 Palestinian, four Israeli, three Lebanese). The International Federation of Journalists maintains numbers closer to the CPJ, with 82 journalists as of Dec. 31 (75 Palestinian, four Israeli, three Lebanese).

According to the CPJ, this onslaught has led to the deadliest period for journalists since they began collecting data in 1992. Journalists in Gaza have been killed at rates higher than US soldiers in any war since WWII.

Despite these shocking figures, news agencies based in the imperial core that report on the genocide have not condemned Israel. Their coverage shows how little a priority the lives of their colleagues matter. At best, they'll receive a single story with problematic framing. At worst, they will be ignored.

Shortly before this latest targeted attack, The Intercept published a story that found CNN runs their Gaza coverage through their team operating in Jerusalem. CNN is electing to pass every piece of their Gaza news coverage through an agency that operates under the control of Israel, as all foreign news organizations operating in Israel are subject to the censor of the Israeli military. This story follows another which revealed a censorship order issued by the military that banned reporting on eight subjects.

Excellent reporting by The Breach has repeatedly shown that Canada's news agencies, in particular, have no interest in covering the conflict fairly. They evaluated data proving that Palestinian deaths were not as important as Israeli deaths in Canadian newspapers. CTV suppresses critical stories about Israel. CBC prioritizes Israeli guests and stated that the systemic eradication of Palestinians doesn't warrant the terms "brutal" or "murderous."

On Nov. 22, CBC News covered the fact that journalists were being killed disproportionately. Language was used passively. At the time of this story's publishing, the CPJ recorded 50 journalists killed, CBC News reported "the vast majority in Gaza" instead of the more declarative "the vast majority by Israel." Journalists "are dying" at an alarming rate. They "claim they're being deliberately targeted." "Observers say" journalists were being targeted. CBC News reached out to the Israeli military for comment, who said simultaneously that they would never target journalists and that some journalists were actually militants in disguise. Gaza officials were not reached for comment. Other than a version of the story intended for broadcast, there has been no follow-up.

In the CBC News story about the killing of al-Dahdouh and Thuraya, they quote Al Jazeera and reference the CPJ's numbers. They also cite the "Hamas-run Gaza government's media office" when they quote a number of 109. It then ends with a quote from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying their killings were an "unimaginable tragedy." The story doesn't feel it necessary to report the US funding of Israel or Biden bypassing Congress to sell weapons to the state that's killing journalists at an unprecedented scale.

In one instance, the silence on the targeting of journalists is truly remarkable. Global News has only published one story on their website regarding journalists killed in the conflict since they began their coverage on Oct. 10. The piece concerned the death of Issam Abdallah, a Reuters journalist who was killed by an Israeli tank in south Lebanon. Two subsequent investigations, one by Reporters Without Borders and one by Human Rights Watch, found that he was deliberately targeted by the Israeli military. Global News never published a follow-up.

Global News reported the killing of al-Dahdouh and Thuraya in a short broadcast package concerning Blinken's diplomatic visit to Qatar. While the piece mentions US being Israel's biggest ally, and cites CPJ figures, no mention is made of the overall targeting of journalists by Israel.

News outlets that utilize reporting from The Associated Press have de facto fallen into downplaying the killing of Hamza al-Dahdouh, as well. The Associated Press story begins by stating "an apparent [emphasis added] Israeli airstrike" is responsible for their killing. CTV News and the Toronto Star carried this version.

At times, reporting on this latest killing has reached levels of self-parody. Agence France-Presse ran the headline stating "Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 2 journalists killed in Israeli strike." This headline was published in multiple outlets that include France 24, Yahoo News, Arab News and Al-Monitor.

During the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent memory, editorial boards in Canada have been conspicuously silent. The latest editorial published by the Globe and Mail on the topic declared protestors a threat, rather than prioritizing the threat arising from the mass killing of journalists. Of course, the editorial boards of the Globe and Mail, National Post and the Toronto Sun have all declared they support Israel since October. Neither the mass genocide or the slaughter of Palestinians, including journalists, have swayed their commitment.

Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has shown news media outlets for their true, imperialist bias. Even so, this framing is not new. Israel has previously deliberately killed journalists, and even bombed the offices of outlets giving favourable coverage, and yet the news media still lends favourable coverage towards Israel. All news media we consume operates within the system of imperialist capitalism. Whether they are publicly-funded operations, in the case of CBC or Agence France-Presse, or private companies operating on a for-profit basis, they are all incentivized to cover this conflict in a particular way. We've seen what consequences are inflicted upon individual journalists who speak out. Though material analysis of these factors may result in an abstraction of the process, moments of devastation like Israel's genocide of Gaza bring their consequences into tangible reality.

Journalism, for all its faults, is the reason we know anything about the current affairs of the world. For this reason, journalistic entities and workers in the field have always been the targets of far-right militarism. This is also the reason Israel is targeting and killing journalists and their families. It's clear that Israel has been losing the propaganda war in recent years, especially since October. Reports on violent acts like their recent attacks on hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent have shown how exterminationist their tactics truly are. Their Western allies allow them to conduct this genocide, including their mass killing of journalists, in exchange for an ally in the region that helps them maintain economic and geopolitical dominance.

These countries operate under the same material dynamics that incentivize news outlets to downplay (or completely ignore) this war on their own colleagues and workers. Journalism threatens Israel's dominance. If it didn't, there would be no utility in targeting them and their families. Israel and their allies know the threat journalists pose to the country's continued existence. The people in charge of these news organizations know, too.