The apparently targeted killing of three media workers in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Friday renewed calls to end impunity for Israeli abuses.
Advocates say the growing number of journalists killed by the Israeli military in the expanding conflict is the result of the failure of the international community – particularly the United States, Israel’s main supporter – to demand accountability. in the country.
The killing of media workers in Lebanon came days after Israel baselessly accused several Tel Aviv Tribune journalists in Gaza of being members of Palestinian armed groups, sparking concerns about their safety.
“The events of recent days are alarming and should serve as a wake-up call to the U.S. government and other states that have the power to hold the Israeli government accountable and put an end to this violence,” said Rebecca Vincent, responsible for the campaign. director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Friday’s deadly attack in Lebanon targeted a compound where several journalists and media workers were staying – in an area far from the fighting. There was no warning before the strike, which destroyed several buildings and left cars marked “press” covered in rubble.
“This is an assassination, after surveillance and monitoring, with premeditation and planning, because 18 journalists representing seven media institutions were present at the scene,” wrote Lebanese Minister of Information, Ziad Makary, on the networks social.
The killings add to one of the deadliest records for journalists covering conflict in years.
At least 128 journalists and media workers are among tens of thousands of people killed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon over the past year – the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began tracking these killings. more than four decades ago.
According to Palestinian officials, the toll is even higher, with 176 journalists killed in Gaza alone.
“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike against journalists, this time hitting a compound housing 18 members of the press in southern Lebanon,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement to Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Deliberately targeting journalists constitutes a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators held to account.
Calling journalists “terrorists”
Israeli officials have routinely defamed journalists murdered in Gaza, accusing them without evidence of being members of Hamas and other groups.
This week, Israel accused six Tel Aviv Tribune journalists of being “agents” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – raising fears it was pre-emptively justifying their targeting. Tel Aviv Tribune categorically rejected the Israeli allegations.
Israel has killed several Tel Aviv Tribune journalists and their family members in Gaza since the start of the war, including the channel’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Samer Abudaqa.
Critics accuse Israel – which has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes.
CPJ has repeatedly documented Israel’s “tendency to smear Palestinian journalists with baseless ‘terrorist’ labels following their killings.”
The latest threat against Tel Aviv Tribune journalists comes amid growing calls for Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza. Earlier this year, more than 70 media outlets and civil society organizations signed an open letter calling on Israel to grant access to journalists, a demand recently echoed by dozens of U.S. lawmakers.
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and analyst, said Israel does not want the world to see what is happening in Gaza.
“On the one hand, they don’t allow international journalists and, on the other hand, they murder the journalists who are there,” Buttu told Tel Aviv Tribune. “And then they smear the journalists who are there and call them targets in one way or another.”
Buttu stressed that under international law, people can only be considered legitimate targets in a war if they are combatants who engage in the fighting – accusing someone of being affiliated with an armed group , whether true or not, does not make it a legitimate target.
She added that Israel is “subverting international law” by labeling people as members of Hezbollah and Hamas to justify their killing.
Raed Jarrar, advocacy director of the US-based human rights group DAWN, said Israel’s charges against Tel Aviv Tribune journalists constitute a “deliberate tactic aimed at intimidating and silencing those who denounce the ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in northern Gaza.
“This campaign against journalists covering atrocities only further demonstrates Israel’s desperation to cover up its war crimes and systematic genocide against the Palestinians,” Jarrar added.
Impunity breeds impunity
While Israel has targeted journalists at an unprecedented rate during the current war, it has killed dozens more in the years leading up to it. But these killings had no consequences and this impunity paved the way for the current escalation, analysts say.
Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Tel Aviv Tribune that “the deadliest workplace for journalists these days is where Israel is waging war.”
The think tank released a video earlier this year documenting the lives of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Just before its release, one of the journalists featured in it, Sami Shehadeh, lost a leg in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, where he was filming.
Hassan said the lack of accountability for the killing of Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh – who was a US citizen – by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022 was a “harbinger of things to come” .
For months after Abu Akleh’s killing, U.S. lawmakers and advocates called for an independent U.S. investigation into the incident.
Although U.S. and Israeli media reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the shooting, U.S. officials never confirmed it publicly and no findings were released. No one was punished for killing Abu Akleh.
“If justice could be denied to Shireen by her own government, how can we expect justice to be served for Palestinian journalists in Gaza or any other journalists working on the battlefields of Palestine and Lebanon? Hassan said.
“The U.S. State Department and the White House recognize the critical role journalists play in telling the truth. Unfortunately, they do not place the same importance or value on the truth or civilian life when the truth reveals Israeli war crimes or the civilian target is a Palestinian or Arab journalist.
The United States often emphasizes the so-called “rules-based order” when criticizing the policies of Russia and China, but has maintained its unconditional support for Israel despite abuses. documented, including the assassination of journalists.
Washington provides at least $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel a year, and President Joe Biden approved an additional $14 billion in aid to the U.S. ally to help finance the current war.
While the United States and other countries have failed to curb Israel’s attacks on journalists, advocates have also criticized mainstream media outlets around the world for their lack of attention and anger over the attacks. Israelis against the press.
“There are a lot of people who are complicit in this. It’s not just governments that are definitely complicit, but also the fact that we haven’t heard international outrage from other journalists,” said Buttu, a close friend of Abu Akleh.
“These Palestinian journalists, these Lebanese journalists, their lives are no less dignified than those of international journalists, and the fact that we have not seen any form of outrage is incredible.”
But some alternative media outlets have openly condemned attacks on journalists by Israel.
This week, the progressive American publication Jewish Currents issued a statement of support for the six Tel Aviv Tribune journalists targeted by Israel.
“As a journalistic institution, we generally refrain from making statements or calling on others to act, but our position as media professionals requires us to stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza,” it reads .
“The normalization of Israel’s blatant targeting of journalists has implications for journalists around the world. »
The publication adds that the targeting of Palestinian journalists “should be treated as a crisis for international media.”