This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to Israel’s intensifying war on journalists. On Wednesday, the Israeli military publicly accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Press freedom groups blasted the Israeli military for releasing what some have described as a kill list for the journalists.
In a statement, Al Jazeera said, quote, “Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence. The Network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”
This comes as Israel continues to block the evacuation of two Al Jazeera camera operators who were severely injured after being shot by Israeli troops. One of the journalists, Fadi al-Wahidi, has been in a coma after being shot in the neck.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists here in New York.
Jodie, let’s start with the two journalists who are gravely wounded. One of them is paralyzed and in a coma. Israel is not letting them be evacuated. Can you talk about the significance of this?
JODIE GINSBERG: Well, yes. Fadi has been in a coma for over a week now, and not just in a coma, but with no access to painkillers. We’ve heard, obviously, about the ongoing bombardment in Gaza and what that has meant for hospitals. Al Jazeera has asked repeatedly, used all the formal channels to request their evacuation, and so far has had no reply. And this follows a pattern in which journalists appear to be being punished for doing their work, for exposing what’s happening inside Gaza.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie Ginsberg, if you could — let’s go to these six Al Jazeera journalists who have been accused by Israel of being terrorists. You have pointed to — the CPJ has pointed to contradictory information that’s been released by the IDF in the past, at least one recent instance, Ismail al-Ghoul. Explain who he was and what the IDF said about him.
JODIE GINSBERG: So, Ismail al-Ghoul was an Al Jazeera correspondent. He was killed along with a freelance camera operator, Rami al-Rifi, near Gaza City in July. And the IDF alleged that al-Ghoul was an engineer in a Hamas brigade, and that justified his killing. They published a document which they said was a record of Hamas military activity as proof of these accusations. Some of the information indicated that al-Ghoul, who was born in 1997, had received a Hamas military ranking in 2007, so he would have been 10 years old. So, the document was not, in our view, credible.
And unfortunately, this is not a one-off incident. There is a pattern of Israel making these kinds of allegations, providing evidence that is, frankly, not credible or, in some cases, no evidence at all.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie, especially talk about the significance of Israel doing this now. No one else, no other reporter is in Gaza. It’s only Al Jazeera reporters who are. Over 4,000 journalists have traveled to Israel to cover this war since October last year, but no other journalists have been permitted in.
JODIE GINSBERG: It’s hugely significant. This is the deadliest conflict for journalists that CPJ has ever documented. A hundred and twenty-eight journalists, at least, have been killed, 126 of them by Israel, and most of those are Palestinians. And in many cases, we believe those journalists to have been deliberately targeted for being journalists.
Now, you’re right, the major issue in all of this is that those journalists who remain are the only people who are able to provide us information about what’s happening inside Gaza. No journalist from outside Gaza has been allowed in since the start of that war, and that’s highly unusual. I speak to lots of war correspondents who’s covered many, many wars over decades, and all of them talk about how unprecedented this is to not have any access whatsoever. And that, of course, puts additional pressure on these journalists. And what you have when you have these kinds of accusations from Israel that the journalists are terrorists is a kind of justification for then killing them or attacking them.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you have Democratic Congressmember James McGovern leading 64 other congressmembers in a letter to Biden and Blinken, urging them to push for Israel to allow in international journalists. At the same time, Jodie Ginsberg, if you can talk about the number of journalists who have been killed in Gaza? Isn’t this unprecedented?
JODIE GINSBERG: It’s totally unprecedented. This number is — more journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the war, just the first 10 weeks of the war, than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year. That gives you some sense of the scale of this. Those journalists who remain are trying desperately to cover the impact of the war while suffering the same effects of the war as everyone else, the deprivations of food, the lack of shelter, the continual displacement, the lack of equipment. And as we have fewer and fewer journalists reporting and the challenge becomes greater and greater, of course we have less and less information coming out of Gaza. And it’s absolutely essential that we have that information, that we have those images, so that the international community can understand the scale of what’s happening.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jodie Ginsberg, finally, if you could put this in a broader context? Is there any other precedent for Europe, the U.S. or any of its allies restricting access to all international journalists to a war zone for over a year, as has happened here?
JODIE GINSBERG: There’s no precedent like this. In wars, inevitably, one side or other will restrict access to journalists. We see that frequently. But it is unheard of that not a single international journalist has been able to get into Gaza for an entire year.
And remember that it’s not just about the access. Of course, that’s a major issue. But we have Gazan journalists doing phenomenal work in Gaza and in the West Bank. It’s not just about the access. It’s also about the attacks that we’ve seen on media facilities, which is civilian infrastructure. We’ve seen repeated communications blackouts. We’ve seen the banning of Al Jazeera and the closure of the Al Jazeera Ramallah bureau. So, it’s not simply — we’ve seen arrests of journalists both in Gaza and the West Bank. So, it’s not simply the dangers, the killing of journalists, egregious as that is. It’s the whole pattern and systematic attempt — and quite successful attempt — to censor what is happening inside Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: Jodie Ginsberg, we want to thank you for being with us, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
