JORDAN. THE HERITAGE OF JERASH COMING TO LIGHT
According to figures released by Reporters Without Borders, which monitors violations committed against news workers around the world, at least 105 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7 while carrying out their work. However, according to local Palestinian sources, the number is even higher, taking into account the thousands of people still under the rubble or missing, which would reach 130 news workers killed since the beginning of the Israeli military offensive, or 75% of all news workers killed in the whole of 2023.
The alarm is being raised by all the international organisations that monitor press freedom in the world, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which for months has been keeping up the alarm to request international protection for those who, today, are the only witnesses of what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
Already a few weeks after the beginning of the Israeli military operations, the Palestinian Press Syndicate had defined what is happening as a "journalistic murder": Palestinian information workers do not "die" under the bombs, but are killed, and have become a target of the Israeli armed forces.
In a context in which access to the international press is completely denied, Palestinian journalists are the only ones to witness what is happening, and they continue to do their job by reporting live on a genocide that affects them directly. Just think of the price paid by many of them, who are now displaced, who have seen their homes destroyed and their families exterminated: this is the case, among others, of Wael Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera veteran in Gaza, who lost his wife and children, including Hamza Dahdouh, also a journalist, who was killed by a targeted bombing of a press convoy.
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In this Instagram video, Wael Dahdouh expressed gratitude to the public after the great solidarity he received in the aftermath of the killing of his son Hamza. A loss that came after that of his wife, brothers and other relatives and colleagues.
Today we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, and our thoughts can only go to Gaza. The place where even the right to inform and be informed is constantly violated.
The ban on international press access to Gaza is indeed a very serious violation of freedom of the press and information in Europe and the West. At the same time, it is crucial to remember the invaluable information work being carried out daily by Gaza journalists, whose voices should be heard and amplified.
"The problem is not that Western journalists cannot enter Gaza," Hossam Shabat, a young Palestinian journalist, wrote recently. "The problem is that we Palestinian journalists are not respected. My colleagues and I risk our lives every day to report on this genocide. Nobody knows Gaza better than we do. If you care about what is happening here, amplify our voice. We don't need Western journalists to tell our stories: we are capable of doing it ourselves'.
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Hossam Shabat, in one of many live reports from Gaza
Youmna El Sayed, to whom our friend Rita Petruccioli dedicated the beautiful portrait on the cover for the 'Libere di Rompere' campaign, also told the Manifesto:
"In the West, it is thought that Palestinian journalists must necessarily be affiliated with some political group and therefore cannot be objective. This is ridiculous. When foreign journalists enter Gaza, they do it with the help of a Palestinian fixer, a Palestinian translator. They talk to Palestinian officials and the Palestinian population. Those are considered credible stories, but ours are not'.
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Youmna El Sayed, as an Israeli bomb explodes behind her back.
And so, we dedicate this 3rd of May to all the journalists in Gaza. To those who have lost everything, to those who have been killed, to those who after 6 months of uninterrupted massacres continue every day to do their work with professionalism and courage. And we renew our call to amplify their voices, the only direct witnesses of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian population.
