ISRAEL is trying to justify the potential deaths of six journalists it accused of being terrorists in an attempt to silence its critics, a Palestinian journalist has claimed.
Reem Al Rikhawi told the Sunday National that a raft of allegations levelled at what are said to be some of the few remaining journalists in Palestine were consistent with a “pattern of behaviour” by Israel.
Since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, which triggered 13 months and counting of brutal retaliation, 128 journalists have been killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Israel as of Friday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The organisation said the media death toll meant the war was the “deadliest period for journalists” since it started collecting data in 1992.
Al Rikhawi (below), who left Gaza to work as a journalist and now lives in London, said Israel was deliberately targeting journalists.
Last week, the Israeli military alleged that six journalists working for Al Jazeera in Palestine were secretly members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) – claims the broadcaster has called “fabrications”.
The Sunday National has probed the claims by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Evidence Tel Aviv has used to back up its claims has included inconsistencies – including one document which shows one of the accused journalists had been dismissed from the PIJ.
Al Rikhawi said: “Israel has this extreme impunity to come out with whatever claims they want, they’re usually not credible, they’re usually not verified by independent sources.
“It feels like they’re throwing mud and they’ll see what sticks.”
She said the six journalists named by the IDF were being made “very, very vulnerable” by the allegations in an already fraught situation in Gaza – some critics of Israel compared the announcement to a hit list.
Highlighting the effective media blackout by Israel on Gaza, which has meant the world has relied on citizen journalists for news from the region, Al Rikhawi said that Al Jazeera was the only outlet reporting on the ground from the “besieged” Palestinian province.
EXPOSED: 6 Al Jazeera journalists have been exposed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 23, 2024
The IDF has disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in Gaza confirming military affiliation of six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad… pic.twitter.com/quVmr2zE8B
She said: “If it wasn’t for Al Jazeera and social media activists, we would not have been able to see a lot of things that we’ve been seeing on TV. It’s an attack on Al Jazeera because it’s the only and strongest-standing media outlet in Gaza. It is a way for them to completely silence the media so they can continue with their atrocities.”
The announcement from the IDF came shortly after Al Jazeera earlier this month investigated clips posted by Israeli soldiers online which the broadcaster showed evidence of war crimes including “the murder of unarmed civilians”.
Soldiers also filmed themselves making “crass jokes and […] rifling through women’s underwear drawers”, the broadcaster said.
Shortly before the investigation was published, the IDF raided and ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Al Rikhawi argued the list was part of a broader attempt by Israel to conflate Palestinian civilians with terrorist groups in a bid to create “the path to commit more atrocities”.
The 39-year-old also pointed to complaints from the CPJ and other press freedom organisations which have highlighted historic issues with Israeli intelligence claiming that Palestinian journalists are terrorists.
One example is Ismail Al-Ghoul (below), who was decapitated aged 27 in a targeted Israeli airstrike in August.
Controversially, IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee published a document he claimed had been found on Hamas computers showing that Al-Ghoul had received a Hamas military ranking in 2007 – when he would have been just 10 years old.
Al-Rikhawi said: “They don’t even feel the need to justify themselves, they don’t even feel the need to check the facts and actually make it sound a bit more realistic.
“The journalists in Gaza are just civilians and I find it very sad that Israel deals with Gazans as a very easy target because they can just stick their names with Hamas and that’s all it takes.
“They are journalists who are struggling, who are targeted, who have family members dying, who are starving equally with the people.”
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