Sunday, January 7: Journalism is Being Killed
A press vest can be protection, or it can be a target
Some of the bravest journalists reporting from Gaza are reaching their breaking point.
Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Najar announced his decision to stop reporting in Gaza and focus on relocating what remains of his family to a secure area. Al-Najar said, “My journalistic coverage ends here, as the search for safety with my family is a thousand times better than searching for news to convey to a world that does not know the meaning of empathy or humanity.”
There were estimated to be ~1,000 journalists working in Gaza prior to October 7th. That number has dropped dramatically week after week, as the apartheid state of Israel has killed more than 10% of them. Targeting and airstriking journalists is just part of their larger push to exterminate Palestinians where they have thus far succeeded in killing ~1% of the total Gazan population.
As we reported months ago, Israel had already killed most of journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family back in October in a targeted airstrike. This was obvious retaliation for his brave and unceasing coverage of the genocide in Gaza. Earlier today the apartheid regime killed his eldest son, Hamza, also a journalist, as he traveled through a supposed “safe zone” covering the Khan Younis area. In paying tribute to his son, Wael Al-Dahdouh said, “There is nothing harder than the pain of loss. We are full of humanity and they are full of bloodthirst and hatred." Hamza, much like the rest of Wael’s family, was targeted and murdered by an apartheid regime that doesn’t want the world to know about its crimes. The zionist colonial project wants us to believe that all we can do is stand by and observe as it destroys and devours a territory and extinguishes the native population.
Meanwhile, it’s absurd to even mention this in the same breath, but it legitimately makes me feel insane that former vice president Mike Pence made the effort to sign an Israeli bomb with a message of his support knowing that just a few hours later it’ll be dropped on children. Those lunatics that stormed the Capitol on January 6th didn’t have much rhyme or reason, but I wouldn’t shed a tear for Mike Pence if they did get their hands on him.