World / August 16, 2024

More Than 100 Journalists Come Together With Their Fellow Journalists in Palestine and Against US Complicity in Their Killing

A coalition has sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on the US to impose an arms embargo immediately.

Chip Gibbons and Nathan Fuller
Dozens of journalists protest, holding press badges and pictures of their colleagues Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi who lost their lives on duty in Gaza City, Gaza on August 01, 2024.(Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu via Getty Images)

On July 31, 2024, Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul was reporting from the Shati refugee camp in Gaza. Israel had just assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau and a negotiator in the Gaza ceasefire talks, in Iran. Israel’s killing left many bracing for a regional war, and the reporter headed to Haniyeh’s former home along with cameraman Rami al-Rif to cover the developing story. As they reported, the Israeli military carried out a strike on a nearby house. Al-Ghoul and al-Rif were asked to leave the area; they complied. Wearing blue press vests, they got in a car that also clearly identified them as press. Israel launched a missile strike on the car, killing both men. Photos of the aftermath showed al-Ghoul’s headless body still wearing the blue press vest.

It was never much of a mystery who launched the missile, but a day after the gruesome murder, Israel took credit. The official account of the Israeli military boasted that they had “eliminated” al-Ghoul. Preposterously, the post claimed that al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who “instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against IDF troops,” a claim vehemently denied by Al-Jazeera.

Throughout its 10-month war on Gaza, Israel has killed a staggering number of journalists. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, 160 journalists and media workers have perished at the hands of Israel. This is the largest number of journalists killed during a war in recorded history. By comparison, 69 journalists were killed during World War II, and 63 journalists were killed during the Vietnam War.

By arming Israel, the State Department bears responsibility for its killing of journalists. That is why we, as leaders of organizations dedicated to defending press freedom and free expression, have organized a coalition of journalists and journalism advocates to coauthor a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling on the United States to impose an arms embargo on Israel immediately.

More than 100 journalists, including four Pulitzer Prize winners, along with 18 news outlets and seven press freedom organizations, most of them American, have come together to take a stand in solidarity with their fellow journalists in Palestine and against US complicity in their intentional killing.

The high number of journalists killed is part of the shocking death toll. Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth and Israel has unleashed a bombing campaign that has exceeded the destruction of the Allied bombing of Dresden. Within the first month of the war alone, Israel dropped explosives on Gaza that were equivalent to two nuclear bombs in terms of tonnage. This genocidal bombardment has led to nearly 40,000 deaths.

But it isn’t just Israel’s indiscriminate killings that have resulted in the unprecedented killing of journalists. By Israel’s own admission, al-Ghoul was targeted directly. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate filed an amicus brief in support of an American lawsuit charging the Biden administration with violating the Genocide Convention. In the brief, they stated, “Evidence strongly indicates that the vast majority of the journalists and media workers killed since the start of the genocide were specifically targeted for assassination by the Israeli military.” Al Jazeera similarly has accused Israel of assassinating its journalists. While the scale of Israel’s killing of journalists is without precedent, Israel has a longer history of targeting Palestinian journalists. Israeli snipers were credibly accused of intentionally targeting journalists during the 2018 Great March of Return and independent investigations have found evidence that in 2022 intentionally killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Alkeh.

Israel’s assassination of journalists, like its wider military actions, are made possible by US support. The US provides the weapons and uses its diplomatic and political clout to make sure Israel is sheltered from any accountability when it uses those weapons to violate international law.

“Israel’s military actions are not possible without US weapons, US military aid, and US diplomatic support,” we write. “By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.”

The letter’s signers include some of the most well-known and most decorated journalists of our time: Laura Poitras, Kai Bird, James Bamford, Spencer Ackerman. Many of the signatories are contributors to the Nation and Jacobin. The journalists are joined by entire newsrooms, including Middle East Eye, Current Affairs, Mondoweiss, Drop Site News, Truthout, In These Times, Antiwar.com, and The Real News,and press freedom groups like the Courage Foundation, Defending Rights & Dissent, Roots Action, Project Censored, and Freedom of the Press Foundation. These influential reporters, outlets, and free-expression advocates recognize that Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza, who brave endless airstrikes, tanks, and snipers to show the world what’s happening, is a deliberate effort to shield their assault on Palestinians from global scrutiny—and therefore to shield themselves from international accountability.

The Nation Weekly

Fridays. A weekly digest of the best of our coverage.
By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You may unsubscribe or adjust your preferences at any time. You can read our Privacy Policy here.

After 10 months of indiscriminate bombing, we all must speak up. Only with contentious people around the world loudly condemning these horrific abuses can we hope to create the necessary international pressure to bring them to an end.

Earlier this year, Secretary Blinken called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists” while affirming “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.” But just 13 days after Israel killed Ismail al-Ghoul, and 12 days after the IDF justified his murder, the United States approved a $20 billion weapons package to Israel, to include fighter jets and other military equipment. Blinken’s words ring hollow, and the journalist death toll continues to rise.

Far too often, mainstream journalists have papered over Israel’s crimes, fearful of puncturing their facade of objectivity and losing their access to US and Israeli leaders. Leading newspapers have made widespread use of the passive voice to conceal culpability, declined to investigate claims of intentional targeting, and favored Israeli propaganda over Palestinian eyewitness accounts. Enough. We 113 journalists are taking a stand and stating the facts plainly: Israel is intentionally killing reporters amid its wider assault on Palestinian civilians. This is a war crime. The US is complicit, and it must stop today.

Chip Gibbons

Chip Gibbons is policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent. A journalist and researcher focusing on the US national security state, Chip is currently working on The Imperial Bureau, forthcoming from Verso Books. Based heavily on archival research and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, it tells the history of FBI political surveillance and explores the role of domestic surveillance in the making of the US national security state.

Nathan Fuller

Nathan Fuller is executive director of the Courage Foundation, which supports whistleblowers and journalists at risk. Nathan was a courtroom reporter for the Chelsea Manning Support Network and most recently campaigned for Julian Assange’s freedom.

More from The Nation

Let’s call the whole thing off: Justin Trudeau shaking hands with Donald Trump at a NATO summit in London to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary in December 2019.

Justin Trudeau’s Fecklessness Made Him an Easy Target for MAGA Manifest Destiny Justin Trudeau’s Fecklessness Made Him an Easy Target for MAGA Manifest Destiny

The United States probably won’t annex Canada. But Trump’s imperial dreams are already destabilizing the world.

Jeet Heer

A view of debris of destroyed buildings as the scale of destruction, caused by Israeli attacks, comes to surface following the withdrawal of Israeli army in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 10,2024.

We Can't Afford to Ignore This Threat to the People of Gaza We Can't Afford to Ignore This Threat to the People of Gaza

The very air that Gazans breathe could put their health in danger for many years to come.

Abdullah Shihipar

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, United states President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Meacham Begin, celebrate after signing the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978.

Jimmy Carter’s Biographer on the Late President’s Biggest Regret Jimmy Carter’s Biographer on the Late President’s Biggest Regret

Carter summoned Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to Camp David to make peace, not apartheid, in the Middle East. But the Israeli president broke his promise to freeze settlements.

Kai Bird

Founder of the far-right National Front party Jean-Marie Le Pen points his finger as he poses during a photo session at his home in Saint-Cloud on January 14, 2021.

The Toxic Legacy of Jean-Marie Le Pen The Toxic Legacy of Jean-Marie Le Pen

The elder Le Pen is dead, but far-right populists across the world still echo his mix of violent rhetoric, brazen lies, and outreach to mainstream conservatives.

Obituary / David A. Bell

Members of the Syrian community hold flags of Syria and Germany as they rally on December 8, 2024, in Berlin.

The Syrian Diaspora in Germany After Assad The Syrian Diaspora in Germany After Assad

Some refugees may return to Syria because they want to live there again. But many won’t—for the same reasons many refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe didn’t after World War II.

Linda Mannheim

Sednaya Prison and the CIA

Sednaya Prison and the CIA Sednaya Prison and the CIA

Coverage of Syria’s prisons overlooks their decades-long use as key destinations for extraordinary rendition, where terror suspects were sent for brutal interrogations.

Barbara Koeppel