Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Israel has persistently targeted Palestine. According to the latest report from Gaza's Ministry of Health, the civilian death toll from Israel's assaults is nearing 16,000. The grim count of children who have perished in these attacks, now entering its second month, has surpassed the alarming mark of 6,000. Undoubtedly, this stands as a record(!).
Contrasting this, the number of children who lost their lives in the two-year-long Russia-Ukraine war, as revealed by Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, has climbed over 500.
Russell, following her recent visit to Gaza, starkly declared, "Gaza is once again the most perilous place for a child to exist."
However, Israel's record-breaking actions extend beyond this tragic toll.
The tally of health care workers slain in Gaza has reached 281. Is there more?
In a statement from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), it was disclosed that Israel has claimed the lives of 104 U.N. staff members. This marks the highest number of U.N. aid workers killed in a conflict in its history.
Israel, which does not hesitate to kill journalists with international immunity who are trying to shed light on its war crimes and actions bordering on genocide, places itself also at the forefront of a disconcerting statistic.
The situation is rapidly escalating, posing significant dangers to journalists and freedom of expression on a global scale.
As reported by the Gaza Media Office, 73 media workers have lost their lives in just 55 days. This grim reality signifies that Israel is responsible for taking the life of at least one journalist every day in both Palestine and Lebanon.
Data from the Freedom Forum, a Washington-based foundation advocating for press freedom, reveals a distressing comparison – the number of media workers killed by Israel in approximately two months exceeds the total count of journalists killed throughout the entire six-year span (69) of World War II.
During the 20-year-long Vietnam War (1955-1975), 63 journalists, and in the three-year-long Korean War (1950-1953), 17 media workers lost their lives.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) based in New York, in the war between Russia and Ukraine that started in February 2022 and has been ongoing for about two years, a total of 17 journalists have lost their lives so far.
In Gaza, the issue is not only murder. Journalists in the region face horrifying events such as arrest, censorship and the killing of family members by Israel.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has announced that it filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes against journalists committed by Israeli violence in Palestine. While Israel is not a party to the ICC, it is not exempt from sanctions.
Nevertheless, when my colleague Jamal Khashoggi was brutally killed, we engaged in extensive discussions for months. However, the mainstream media in the United States and Europe is now turning a blind eye while dozens of journalists are being blatantly murdered. Global journalism organizations are conveniently ignoring the threats from the Israeli lobby advocating for censorship. With the exception of Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, which bravely dismisses these threats, the performance of social media platforms is no different.
This is because the advertisers and owners are well-known.
Rest assured, today's shamelessness, hypocrisy and self-censorship, setting a dismal record in the history of the "white media," will soon resurface tomorrow, lecturing us once again on press and freedom of expression.
However, it's all in vain. Whether during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. elections or the Russia-Ukraine War, they had already tarnished their reputation by disregarding the universal principles of the profession. In the Gaza test, every deceased journalist they excuse with a feeble "but Oct. 7" becomes another nail in the coffin.
