On Wednesday, the Israeli army killed two more Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi were working when they were struck by Israeli forces in Gaza City.
Al-Ghoul, whose Tel Aviv Tribune reporting was popular with Arab audiences, was wearing a press vest at the time of his killing.
The latest killings bring the record number of journalists killed in Israel to at least 113 during the ongoing genocide in Gaza, according to the most conservative estimate.
No other global conflict in recent history has killed so many journalists.
Israel has a long history of violence against journalists, so the death toll in Gaza is not necessarily surprising.
In fact, a 2023 report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented a “decades-long pattern” of Israel targeting and killing Palestinian journalists.
For example, a Human Rights Watch investigation found that Israel targeted “journalists and media outlets” four times in 2012. In these attacks, two journalists were killed and many others were injured.
In 2019, a United Nations commission concluded that Israel “intentionally fired” at two Palestinian journalists in 2018, killing them both.
More recently, in 2022, Israel shot dead Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank.
Israel tried to deny responsibility, as it almost always does after committing an atrocity, but the video evidence was overwhelming and Israel was forced to admit its guilt.
No consequences were meted out to the soldier who shot Abu Akleh, who was wearing a press vest and helmet, or to the Israelis involved in the other incidents targeting journalists.
The CPJ suggested that Israeli security forces enjoy “near-total immunity” in incidents of attacks on journalists.
In this broader context, Israel’s targeting of journalists during the current genocide is not particularly surprising or unusual.
But what is really surprising, even shocking, is the relative silence of Western journalists.
While there have certainly been reports and expressions of sympathy in North America and Europe, particularly from watchdog organizations like CPJ, there is little sense of journalistic solidarity, and certainly nothing approaching the widespread outrage and outcry over the threat that Israel’s actions pose to press freedom.
Can we imagine for a moment what the reaction of Western journalists would be if Russian forces killed more than 100 journalists in Ukraine in less than a year?
Even when Western media outlets have reported on Palestinian journalists killed since the start of the current war, they have tended to give Israel the benefit of the doubt, often portraying these killings as unwitting casualties of modern warfare.
Moreover, Western journalism’s heavy reliance on pro-Israeli sources has helped avoid colorful adjectives and condemnations.
Moreover, the excessive reliance on pro-Israeli sources has sometimes made it difficult to determine which side in the conflict is responsible for specific killings.
A unique case?
One might assume here that the Western media has simply maintained its devotion to Western reporting principles of detachment and neutrality.
But in other situations, Western journalists have shown that they are capable of causing trouble and showing solidarity.
The assassination of 12 Charlie Hebdo journalists in 2015 is a perfect example.
Following this attack, a veritable media spectacle took place, with the entire establishment of Western journalism seemingly united in focusing on the event.
Thousands of reports were generated within weeks, a solidarity hashtag (“Je suis Charlie” or “I am Charlie”) went viral, and statements and sentiments of solidarity poured in from Western journalists, news outlets and organizations dedicated to the principles of free speech.
For example, the American Society of Professional Journalists called the attack on Charlie Hebdo “barbaric” and “an attempt to stifle press freedom.”
Freedom House issued equally harsh congratulations, calling the attack “horrific” and noting that it posed a “direct threat to the right to free expression.”
PEN America and the UK’s National Secular Society have awarded Charlie Hebdo prizes, and the Guardian Media Group has donated a substantial sum to the publication.
The relative silence and calm of Western journalists in the face of the killing of at least 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza is particularly shocking when one considers the broader context of Israel’s war on journalism, which threatens all journalists.
In October, when the current war began, Israel told Western news agencies that it would not guarantee the safety of journalists entering Gaza.
Since then, Israel has maintained an entry ban on international journalists, even seeking to prevent them from entering Gaza during a brief pause in fighting in November 2023.
More importantly, perhaps, Israel used its influence in the West to shape and control Western media narratives about the war.
Western media has often bowed to Israeli manipulation tactics.
For example, as global outrage mounted against Israel in December 2023, Israel released false reports of mass and systematic rapes of Israeli women by Palestinian fighters on October 7.
Western media, including the New York Times, were fooled. They downplayed the growing outrage against Israel and began to push the story of “systematic rape.”
Later, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures against Israel.
Israel responded almost immediately by leveling absurd accusations of terrorism against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Western media outlets downplayed the interim measures, which were highly critical of Israel, and highlighted allegations against UNRWA that portrayed Palestinians in a negative light.
These and other examples of Israeli manipulation of Western news narratives are part of a broader pattern of influence that predates the current war.
An empirical study has revealed that Israel systematically times its attacks, particularly those likely to kill Palestinian civilians, in such a way as to ensure that they will be ignored or downplayed by the American media.
During the current genocide, Western media outlets have also tended to ignore the general trend of censorship of pro-Palestinian content on social media, a fact that should worry anyone interested in freedom of expression.
It is easy to point to a handful of Western media reports and investigations that have criticized certain Israeli actions during the current genocide.
But these reports have been lost in a sea of acquiescence to Israeli narratives and the general pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian framing.
Several studies, including analyses by the Center for Media Monitoring and The Intercept, have overwhelmingly demonstrated the presence of pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian reporting in Western media about the current war.
Is Western Journalism Dead?
In the United States and Europe, many journalists position themselves as truth tellers, critics of power, and guardians of the truth.
While acknowledging their errors in their reporting, journalists often believe that they and their news organizations rightly strive to be fair, accurate, thorough, balanced, neutral and detached.
But this is the great myth of Western journalism.
Numerous scientific studies suggest that Western media fall far short of their stated principles.
But Israel’s war on Gaza has further exposed the media’s fraud.
With few exceptions, the media in North America and Europe have abandoned their stated principles and have not supported the targeting and mass killing of their Palestinian colleagues.
In the midst of such spectacular failure and extensive research indicating that Western media is falling far short of its ideals, we must ask whether there is any point in continuing to perpetuate the myth of the Western journalistic ideal.
Is Western journalism as it is imagined dead?
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
