MURDERING JOURNALISTS IS A WAR CRIME - CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW

On 12/15 journalist Samer Abudaqa was murdered in a drone attack that also wounded Wael Dahdouh after they reported on an Israeli airstrike on a shelter for displaced people in Khan Younis. Abudaqa wasn’t killed instantly - he slowly bled out. Rescue teams were unable to reach him in a timely manner because they needed Israel’s approval, which was delayed for over 5 hours. This isn’t the first time Dahdouh has been targeted. On 10/25, Dahdouh’s wife, children, and several of his extended family were murdered by an Israeli airstrike. On the same day, Israel’s Channel 13 journalist Zvi Yehezkeli said that Dahdouh’s family was purposefully targeted. When National Security Council spokesman Kirby claimed in a press conference that there was “no indication whatsoever that Israel is going after journalists”, he was misleading us. On 10/30 two Lebanese journalists were murdered in southern Lebanon while stationed near their clearly marked press vehicle. Independent investigations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters, and Reporters Without Borders have concurred that an Israeli tank round killed them, and have called for an international investigation of this war crime. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. In 2019 a U.N. independent commission found reasonable grounds for these accusations from even older murders of the press by Israel. In 2023, Israel finally apologized for the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and claimed she was “accidentally” shot in the head by Israeli forces in 2022. Between 10/7 - 12/14, approximately 64 - 83 journalists and media workers have been murdered by the best estimates from the International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and EuroMed Human Rights Monitor. Since 1992 when CPJ began gathering casualty data for journalists, these have been the deadliest months on record. Israel has spread misinformation that has led to threats on several news outlets. On 11/8 Israel’s official X account posted a known, baseless claim from HonestReporting that “AP, CNN, NY Times and Reuters had journalists embedded with Hamas terrorists.” According to HonestReporting themselves, they are not a news organization. They’ve since retracted these claims. On 11/21 members of Congress sent a letter to Reuters accusing the organization of complicity in the 10/7 attack, parroting the exact verbiage and citing the same source as Israel’s official X post. On 12/4, multiple U.S. state Attorney Generals sent a threatening letter to the AP, CNN, NY Times and Reuters also mimicking this same lie. That letter ended with “Now your organizations are on notice. Follow the law”. The targeting and threatening of journalists has been been a tool to silence and suppress dissent by authoritarian regimes. What happened to freedom of the press? Now you are on notice. Follow international law. Prosecute Israel’s war crimes.