On May 12, 2022, I published an article in the Spartan Daily about the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot by Israeli soldiers while reporting in a Jenin refugee camp.
I wrote about the hypocrisies in reporting by Western journalists, who used passive voice writing in their reports about her death, with major news outlets actively choosing to downplay her killing.
Now, more than a year later, the reporting of the killing of Palestinian civilians, including journalists, has become an often occurrence.
Since my last column piece on the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli Defense Forces, in just two months, Israel has killed more than 11,100 Palestinians, according to a Nov. 13 Washington Post article.
This includes 63 journalists and media workers, according to a Sunday report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
As I enter the workfield as a soon-to-be freshly graduated college journalist, the rage and grief I feel is never-ending.
I also feel a sense of bleakness, worry and despair, thinking, “What industry am I going into if it isn’t able to report the truth on genocide accurately?”
I see videos of mutilated bodies everyday, people pulling their families out of the rubble of destroyed homes and parents kissing their children goodbye.
I watched Western outlets reporting in real-time Israel’s claims of not bombing hospitals, while Israel was bombing hospitals under the pretense of Hamas “using tunnels” underneath the buildings.
Even with the “proof” the Israeli Defense Forces has released of “video evidence” of the so-called “tunnels,” the claims are still unsubstantiated, with the only intelligence of these tunnels coming from none other than Israel.
These claims continue in a long list, including the UN ambassador of Israel conflating UN workers with Hamas and bombing a Doctors without Borders convoy, according to a Saturday article by The Hill.
Propaganda is a dangerous tool and a tool that is used all throughout the medium of journalism.
CNN reporter Fareed Zakaria confirmed that in order for journalists to embed themselves in reporting on the Gaza Strip, all news outlets have to submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publishing, to which CNN agreed to, according to a Nov. 5 X post.
Independent and unbiased reporting through corporate media outlets with interest in state propaganda, doesn’t really exist to me anymore.
Its interests don’t lie with the Palestinian people and the horrors they face, its interests lie in protecting the interests of the state, the U.S. and Israel together.
In its online reporting on nurses in Gaza being forced to leave babies at al-Shifa, the Washington post reported the story with the headline, “Israel’s assault forced a nurse to leave babies behind. They were found decomposing.”
The print of the Washington Post headline reads as such:
“Four fragile lives found ended in evacuated Gaza hospital.”
How is that responsible editing? Who came up with this headline? The phrase “found ended” makes no sense in writing, journalistically or otherwise.
That is irresponsible, tone-deaf and beyond any common sense one should have in this field.
When the temporary ceasefire was announced on Nov. 24, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage exchange ended Friday, Israel's relentless airstrikes against the Gaza Strip began almost immediately, according to a Friday Al Jazeera News article.
700 Palestinians have already been killed since Friday, according to the Al Jazeera article.
There was no reprieve in my mind, as in those four days I knew the looming temporary peace would come to an end.
I think about the brave Palestinian journalists who risk their lives everyday to be reporting from the Gaza Strip, in spite of it all.
No food, no electricity, no water, I can only aspire to have the same amount of bravery as a journalist as they have.
Bisan Owda, a 24-year-old Palestinian filmmaker and journalist who has been one of the few voices still able to report from Gaza, wrote this on her Instagram account last night:
“I no longer have any hope of survival like I had at the beginning of this genocide, and I am certain that I will die in the next few weeks or maybe days. I have been sick with a severe viral infection for days and cannot move from the mattress!”
Plestia Alaqad, a 21-year-old Palestinian journalist who fled the Gaza Strip after reporting from the region in the past two months, shared Motaz Azaiza’s, another 24-year-old Palestinian translated words on Instagram as well.
“FYI Gaza Strip is getting divided into 3 parts the north of Gaza, the middle area and Deer Al Baleh, and Khanyoonis and Rafah,” Alaqad said. “The movement is becoming nearly impossible, and of course there is no safe place and people just don’t know where to go.”
This is referring to Israel widening its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, where they told civilians to flee to the South, according to a Monday CBS News article.
How can the world not see what this is? This is not a war, this is a targeted genocide on the people of Gaza.
Journalists younger than me, having to write what they may think are their respective last words everyday.
Journalists that I know are either the age of the journalists in our respective newsroom or even younger, having to wonder if death is going to happen everyday.
I cannot stand silent while this is happening. As journalists, it is our moral obligation and responsibility to report the truth in fairness.
I think of Wael al-Dahdouh, a Palestinian Al-Jazeera journalist whose entire family was killed.
His grandson, son, daughter and wife were all killed in an air-strike that targeted the house they were sheltering in, according to a Nov. 1 Al-Jazeera article.
There are videos of al-Dahdouh turning away from the camera, holding back tears while having to report on the deaths of his entire family.
He later fled because of his prominent image as a journalist, becoming a refugee in his own land.
Entire generations of families have been wiped out in the Gaza Strip, not just members, entire families, generation after generation, gone forever.
The al-Naouq family lost 21 relatives, according to an Nov. 18 AP News article.
Not only this, but Israel has also escalated attacks and persecution in the West Bank against Palestinians by Israeli settlers and Israelis where Hamas has no power or control.
Escalated persecutions of Palestinians in the area, show me that this has nothing really to do with Hamas and everything to do with the control of the land which Palestinians live.
My main call to action is this: a permanent ceasefire and to stop the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians on their own land.
It doesn’t just end with a ceasefire, the occupation of Palestine for 75 years has to come to an end, the brutal subjugation and oppression of Palestinians needs to end.
In my previous article for the Spartan Daily, I thought a lot about what that story might be or look like and I knew I could not leave without one more article reminding us that what is happening in Palestine, is not over.
Reading the despair and hopelessness in the words from Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad and Motaz Azaiza, I know that I cannot feel any of those things, that is my responsibility and duty as a journalist in the West to report the truth.
It’s to share their words and to continue to hold on to hope not only for them, but for Palestinians.
I graduate this year entering a workfield not necessarily knowing where I’ll end up, but I do know I leave with hope and patience, knowing that there has to be better than what we are currently seeing in our world.
