Apartheid Israel leads the world in killing journalists
A detailed study of the killing of journalists released this week shows that Israel leads the world in this grimmest of statistics:
Apartheid Israel tops the ranking by “average number of journalists killed per 10 million of population per year” that yields the following order: Occupied Palestine, over 6.164; Syria, 4.733; Afghanistan, 2.563; Israel-Palestine, over 2.190; Somalia, 1.751; Yemen, 1.278; Iraq, 0.897; Mexico, 0.750; Colombia, 0.366; Philippines, 0.283; Pakistan, 0.152; World, 0.084; India, 0.027. On a per capita basis, the killing of journalists by Apartheid Israel in Occupied Palestine leads the World, and is 73.4 times greater than for the World as a whole. In contrast, India scores 3.1 times lower than the World. The present data shows that Apartheid Israel leads the World by far for killing journalists
Israel has a long sordid history of targeting and murdering journalists reporting on its war crimes against the Palestinian people and last month’s killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh should be seen as part of this pattern.
Shireen’s killing hit the headlines because she had such a high profile across the Arab world and was an American citizen.
Our government waited a week before issuing an insipid tweet calling for an independent investigation into Shireen’s killing. The US has also been embarrassed into claiming it is deeply upset about the killing – usually the US looks the other way, giving impunity to its racist, apartheid proxy in Palestine. But journalists in the US are speaking up – even mainstream journalists are beginning to speak out. CNN, for example, has conducted its own probe into the killing and in part concluded:
“From the strike marks on the tree it appears that the shots, one of which hit Shireen, came from down the street from the direction of the IDF troops. The relatively tight grouping of the rounds indicate Shireen was intentionally targeted with aimed shots and not the victim of random or stray fire”
Other journalists are also trying to hold the US to account for the impunity it gives to Israeli war crimes:
During a Summit of the Americas event last night in Los Angeles, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was questioned by journalist Abby Martinabout the killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Secretary Blinken, what about Shireen Abu Akleh?,” asked Martin. “She was murdered by Israeli forces. CNN just agreed to this. These are our two greatest allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel. They have murdered American journalists and there have been absolutely no repercussions . . . you’re sitting up here talking about the freedom of press and democracy. The United States is denying sovereignty to tens of millions of people around the world with draconian sanctions for electing leaders that you do not like. Why is there no accountability for Israel or Saudi Arabia for murdering journalists?”
“I deplore the loss of Shireen,” Blinken responded. “She was a remarkable journalist, an American citizen…We are looking for an independent, credible investigation. When that investigation happens, we will follow the facts, wherever they lead. It’s as straightforward as that.”
Meanwhile there has been a deafening silence from most journalists about the plight of Julian Assange who has been persecuted by the US and its allies for exposing the truth behind the US pursuit of endless wars around the globe.
Exposing Israel’s horrific record in the targeted killing of journalists is journalism at its best. Silence about the fate of Julian Assange is journalism at its worst.
If only there was some way to independently verify the outraged bleats of the Hamas sympathizers – but once again, the Palestinians never miss the opportunity to miss an opportunity, so refuse to cooperate with anyone else.
There’s a reason the Arab world has moved on from giving a damn about the Iranian proxy regime.
Nice try. Protesting the Israeli Slaughter of 45 Palestinian Journalists since 2000 does Not make someone a Hamas supporter.
And it is Dishonest to suggest such. A Typical pro Israel supporter game.
Sean Try and stick to the point – this is about a journalist/ journalists being killed for passing on information.
I hope we don’t ever get to the stage that commenters lives are in danger, but then you might take an interest in the individual personal side caught up in the web of destruction and danger.
As a foreign journalist who worked in Gaza during two Israeli offensives, and who received multiple death threats from Israelis by phone and social media, I am appalled at the lack of action by our government – and most of the west except Ireland – over Israel’s ongoing breaches of the Geneva Conventions. If Ireland can stand up for human rights, why can’t NZ?
Kia ora Julie. Ireland fought a war against its British colonial masters and emerged victorious and thus is now in a position to take an independent line on foreign policy. Despite a long and noble history of resistance, Aotearoa has yet to expel the colonialist regime in Wellington. However it is important to remember that the colonialist regime does not speak for and is not representative of nga tangata motu.
LOL
I see you didn’t include your friends in Russia in your list.
Blinken is an unbelievable name for a person in that USA government occupation of whatever. Following the USA doings is pain-filled in itself and I am careful to avoid unnecessary pain. This guy is blinking every time something happens that should be repelled, and so much harm can be done in even a nano-second these days.
But politicians and the authoritarian right including armed forces and civil ‘defence’ are dragged down by a traceable line of downward morality to the edge of a crumbling cliff with a bog at the bottom. Because Jews were the subject of an industrialised extermination unprecedented in the world combined with hate propaganda it revealed how protean our society can be in making rules of behaviour and asserting rights to respect for oneself as a human, while denying such to others. Crass hypocrisy.
But hypocrisy abounds. I read the obituary of Mel Mermelstein* who took some aggressive Holocaust deniers to Court and won an apology and forced payment of money offered to anyone who proved it had happened factually to the taunting group. The viciousness in human society will keep on raising its head and we seem unwilling to recognise it and then to treat it with remedying positive firmness, and change attitudes and actions to avoid it even starting. History notes people have done bad things in the past; that seems to give the militant aggressive and aggrieved in the present the feeling of justification for brutality or meanness even.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Mermelstein
https://people.com/human-interest/mel-mermelstein-auschwitz-survivor-who-won-case-against-holocaust-deniers-dies-at-95/
We cannot wipe out the past that Jews have had perpetrated on them over centuries!, or their own lesser misdeeds. They carry the same burden of human psychology that will accept their misdeeds they perform and justify them. When will the people in large numbers, realise that they are following that historical line of continued viciousness that gets passed on down the generations and find a way to break through their own authorities’ control that brings a black cloud over them and Gaza, and also hangs over the USA?
Morality is permeable and is becoming a ragged shroud too often seen in this part of the 21st century.
Not surprising Israel leads the world in killing journalists nor do they allow any international investigations of their violations of international law nor have they ever cooperated with any UN rappeteurs for Palestine that would add futher evidence to its appalling, immoral and illegal occupation for the last 74 years.
“Everytime we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love” Julian Assange
Reminds me of the scores of thousands of Russian POWs who died because Molotov deliberately refused recourse to Red Cross (& their lifesaving parcels) during WII. Or let them into their lagers. Or into Russia. Reason: wd expose gulags running since since 20s. And post WWII.
‘Administrative.detentions’?! IDF Impunity when defending 1m. illegal settlers under civil law while Palestinians under military law. Rogue, pariah, apartheid state.
So is the term ‘anti-semite’ Gaby. Thank for so heroically doing your bit in helping help it die from over use.
As with so many unjust and unfair things that the Israeli state do….how do they keep getting away with it? And why does Ms Mahuta not speak up?