Demonstrations and watches took place worldwide to support the Palestinians suffering in Gaza and to pay tribute to the four journalists of Tel Aviv Tribune and two freelancers killed by Israel in the besieged enclave in a targeted assassination deliberate on Sunday.
Journalists, students, activists and members of civil society – notably in CAP, in South Africa; Manila, the Philippines; And London, the United Kingdom-held the demonstrations on Wednesday to ask their governments to put pressure on Israel to allow international media in Gaza and end the genocidal war of Israel there.
Late Sunday, the correspondents of Tel Aviv Tribune Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, as well as Cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, were killed in an Israeli strike which had targeted their media tent located by the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Al-Sharif had been one of the most recognizable faces of Gaza for its constant relationships on reality on the ground since the War of Israel against Gaza began to follow the attacks of October 7, 2023 led by Hamas against southern Israel.
The War of Israel against Gaza killed at least 61,722 people and injured 154,525. It is estimated that 1,139 people were killed in Israel during October 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel and more than 200 were taken in captivity.
Nearly 270 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since the start of the war.
South Africa
Members of civil society and journalists gathered on Wednesday at St George cathedral in Cape Town to express their anger during the murder of Al-Sharif, sporting signs with a single reading “Your voice was stronger than their bombs”.
The location is significant, said Fahmida Miller of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from Cape Town, as “it was an important signal against oppression here in South Africa, especially during the decades of apartheid”.
People gathered here “condemned what Israel did,” said Miller.
“They want the entry of international journalists in Gaza in addition to the work of Palestinian journalists,” she said. “People here are angry.”
Journalist Zubeida Jaffer told Miller: “I was one of the journalists who were targeted, you know the media that documented apartheid, so it really resonates with me.”
Miller said: “The South African government has already condemned the murder of journalists in Gaza, in particular in 2022, when Shireen Abu Akleh was killed. The South African government had declared that it was a violation of international law.”
Abu Akleh was a Palestinian journalist who worked as a journalist for 25 years for Tel Aviv Tribune, before she was killed by Israeli forces while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank occupied by Israeli.
In December 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of having committed a genocide in the Gaza Strip.
United Kingdom
Journalists belonging to the British branches of the National Union of Journalists paid tribute to the workers killed in Tel Aviv Tribune on Wednesday outside the Prime Minister’s residence at the Downing Street issue, said Jonah Hull of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from London.
Journalists, holding signs bearing the names of journalists killed since the start of the War of Israel in Gaza, read the names of each journalist who appeared on their sign and “symbolically, recited by Islamic funeral prayers” for those who killed Sunday, said Hull.
The people present “have really condemned the British government … Talking about its complicity in what is happening in Gaza, so as not to do more and speak more,” said Hull.
While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “spoke on Monday about his serious concern” concerning the murders of journalists from Tel Aviv Tribune, those present on Wednesday “want a pure and simple conviction and nothing less,” said Hull.
“They also want the government to take firm measures to put pressure on the Israeli government in order to guarantee the security of journalists in Gaza, especially to allow international journalists to enter Gaza to be able to work there freely and for an independent investigation to be carried out by the International Criminal Court in order to do justice and responsibility to the people involved.”
Last week, Starmer condemned Israel’s plans to take control of Gaza City, saying that they were “false” and “will no longer bring blood effutes”. He also announced that the United Kingdom will recognize a Palestinian state in September, unless Israel meets certain conditions, including accepting a cease-fire in Gaza and by rejecting the prospect of a two-state solution.
Philippines
Students, campus journalists and activists gathered on Wednesday at the University of the Philippines to express the indignation in the face of the murder of journalists from Tel Aviv Tribune.
They say that “the attack … is a deliberate concealment of Israel of its crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip, said Barnaby Lo of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from Manila.
“They also describe the accusation according to which Anas Al-Sharif, one of the most eminent voices reporting within Gaza, is a member of Hamas is baseless,” said LO, noting that the demonstrators say that “it is a secular tactic used by the governments which are determined to silence the truth”.
“Any imperialist power … will choose a scapegoat to use as a pretext, as false,” said the journalist of the campus Karl Patrick Suyat to Lo.
These demonstrators also gathered to urge “the international community to increase the pressure on Israel to stop its genocide, including that the Philippine government is buying its commercial and defense ties with Israel,” said LO.
The Philippines are the third largest importer in Israeli weapons.
In June, the Philippines voted in favor of a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly to demand an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza. This resolution also condemned the use by Israel of famine as a weapon of war and called on Israel to raise its blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israel
A small group of local and international journalists participated in a vigil in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, the vast majority of Israeli society and some traditional journalists celebrated this assassination, which targets Tel Aviv Tribune journalists, Oren Ziv, an Israeli journalist working in the independent magazine +972, told Tel Aviv Tribune de Tel Aviv.
Ziv explained that he and others wanted to hold this vigil because they “wanted to express our anger and our solidarity with the Palestinian journalists of Gaza who do incredible work in very difficult circumstances. And we also wanted to show that there are people here who oppose these murders and targeted murders. ”
Ziv added that he thought that Israel has deliberately targeted these journalists.
“We think that (targeted murder) does not mistakenly happen, but as a step to try to silence the only journalists who report to us in international media, they are the only voice we have there because Israel has blocked international media for almost two years when entering the Gaza Strip.”
And that the moment of the assassinations was not a coincidence.
“I think that is done on purpose before the so -called Gaza City occupation to make sure that no one is there to document and transmit to the world these voices and these images from there.”
Last week, the Israeli security firm approved a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of the city of Gaza, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
