Israel's journalists refuse to see that a country that has killed more newspeople in this war in Gaza than have been killed in any other conflict in history will one day also turn its guns on them
A demonstrator holds a picture of Anas
Al-Sharif, one of four Al Jazeera journalists killed in an Israeli strike days
earlier, during a protest in solidarity with journalists in the Gaza Strip and
condemning the recent strike, organised by journalists outside Egypt's Press
Syndicate in Cairo on Wednesday.Credit: AFP/KHALED DESOUKI
Gideon Levy,
Haaretz, Aug 13, 2025 11:37
"If
these words of mine reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and
silencing my voice. … God knows that I exerted every effort and strength I had
to be a support and a voice for my people, from the moment I opened my eyes to
life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalya refugee camp. My hope was that
God would prolong my life until I could return with my family and loved ones to
our original hometown, the occupied Al-Majdal Asqalan. But God's will
prevailed, and His decree was fulfilled."
It was not
God's will that determined the fate of journalist Anas
Al-Sharif on Sunday, together with three other
journalists and two civilians, in the press tent adjacent to Gaza City's
al-Shifa Hospital. It was not the will of God, but rather a criminal Israeli
military drone that targeted al-Sharif, Al Jazeera's most prominent
correspondent in the war. Not God's will but rather Israel's will to execute
him on the grounds that he had led a "Hamas cell," without presenting
a shred of evidence to support this.
Many in the
world believed the military's version, just as they had believed that the
Israel Defense Forces did not kill Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh
in Jenin in 2022. Even those who want to believe that Al-Sharif was a cell
leader must ask: And what about the five people who were killed with him? Were
they deputy heads of the cell? One cannot believe anything that is said by an
army that massacres journalists so cold-bloodedly or a state that does not
permit free coverage of the war, not even the stories about the head of the
terror cell from Jabalya.
It is hard to
believe – or perhaps nothing is hard to believe anymore – how little interest
was shown here in the killing of four journalists. The Israeli press was split
between those who ignored the story and those who reported that Israel had
eliminated a terrorist. Equipped with zero information, nearly everyone
mobilized to tell the story that the Israel Defense Forces dictated to them and
to hell with the truth. And also to hell with showing solidarity to a brave
colleague.
Palestinians
recite the Fatiha over the grave of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif,
who was killed alongside other journalists in an Israeli strike, at a cemetery
in Gaza City on August Tuesday.Credit: AFP/BASHAR TALEB
The only
evidence presented was a photograph of Al-Sharif with Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.
This is indeed grounds for execution.
A million
times braver than any Israeli journalist, and less co-opted to serve the
propaganda of his state and his people than Nir Dvori and Or Heller, Al-Sharif
could have taught members of the Israeli media the fundamentals of journalism.
The chutzpah
of the press here knows no bounds: Al Jazeera is a propaganda network, scream
the reporters from the Israeli TV channels, who have given a bad name to
ultranationalist propaganda and the concealment of truth during this war.
If Al Jazeera
is propaganda, then what is Channel 12? And channels 11, 13, 14 and 15? Do they
have any connection at all to journalism in this war?
When journalism died, so too did truth and solidarity. Those who have killed more journalists in this war than have been killed in any other in history – 186 according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 263 according to B'Tselem – will one day also turn their guns on us, the Israeli journalists who do not find favor in their eyes. It's hard to understand how Israeli journalists fail to comprehend this. Or perhaps they plan to continue their submissive service to the Israeli propaganda machine, because in their eyes, this is journalism.
But this
week, the IDF shelled a press tent, and the scenes you didn't see were
horrifying: bodies of journalists were pulled from the burning tent, and their
Israeli colleagues cheered or were silent. What a disgrace, both personal and
professional. How is this less shocking than the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist
Jamal Khashoggi? Because they didn't dismember al-Sharif's body?
Al-Sharif's
friends and his will say that he knew he was a target. When the IDF began
making threats on his life in October, Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on
freedom of expression, said she was concerned for his fate. Al-Sharif, she
said, was the last surviving journalist in the northern Gaza Strip. That's
precisely why Israel killed him. "Do not forget Gaza," were the last
words in his will.
