That's A Lot of Journalists

According to the well-placed and well-connected PCHR group report, this past Friday's count of killed and wounded amongst those who attempted either to breach and/or damage the security barrier dividing the territory of Gaza ruled by the terrorist entity Hamas and Israel's sovereign state area was but one civilian killed while 338 others were wounded.

Of course, there is no real way to confirm such figures as all medical units are either linked to Hamas or supervised by Hamas.

What is notable is the continuing sharp decline of the numbers of persons killed or wounded, something I blogged previously:

Obviously, either IDF snipers are improving their technical capabilities, or there is less smoke or the Gazans are getting more careful, the drop in the statistics of dead and wounded is quite impressive. [And] While all figures of dead and wounded must be treated with certain circumspection and even doubt, especially as regards the number of injured, and to the identity label of "journalists"...

And now, to that label "journalists".

According to yesterday's summation, 41 "journalists" were wounded and 2 killed.

Journalism in a war-zone is a particularly dangerous profession. Two weeks ago, in a suicide bomb attack, 9 were killed in Afghanistan (a 10th was shot that same day in another location).

According to the International Press Institute, in all of the last year from May 2017, 46 journalists worldwide lost their lives since last May in targeted attacks. Another source for detailed information is here. Between 1992 and the beginning of 2018, 119 journalists were killed in the severe fighting in Syria alone. Yet another source lists 115 professional journalists killed in the past 15 years.

I found no source for numbers of wounded/injured which I sought for a comparison between the events at the Gaza border and those in other hot spots around the globe.

In any case, the figure appears quite large and would indicate, given the probabilities, that either there truly are hundreds of press persons in the area, or that, given the stark reduction overall in injuries since the first Friday, indeed Israel forces are targeting the media or, that these journalists are not all journalists.

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Journalist Shot Dead by Terrorists

While doing research, I came across this newspaper report from the Revisionist-affiliated HaMashkif daily, published in Mandate Palestine on May 22, 1939:

which quotes Vera Weizmann, Chaim's wife, writing to the British Minister for Colonies about a house guest of hers in Rehovot, a Manchester Guardian journalist, who was killed on the same day the White Paper was published by Arabs.

I looked for an English-language report and found this:

This is the Reuter's report as it appeared in the Straits Times:

and in the Sydney Morning-Herald:

His mother wrote "Life is such a rush" in 1931 and The Keys of Heaven in 1920 and a children's volume.  A comedy she wrote, Britannia Of Billingsgate, was aired on BBC Television on November 19, 1953.

I do not know if he was the first journalist to be murdered covering the Arab-Israel conflict and that will need more research.

But at least the Arabs were labeled as "terrorists".

Quite different from today's press.

UPDATE

He was buried in Ramleh:

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Pal. Authority "Freedoms"

Remember my comparison of how journalist groups attack Israel but the PA seems to escape real criticism?

Well, from the new US report:
2011 Human Rights Reports: Israel and the occupied territories - the occupied territories

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:Share

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

Status of Freedom of Speech and Press

The PA Basic Law provides every person the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and expression, orally, in writing, or through any other form. The PA does not have laws specifically providing for freedom of press; however, PA institutions applied aspects of an unratified 1995 press law as de facto law. In practice, PA security forces in the West Bank and members of the Hamas security apparatus in the Gaza Strip continued to restrict freedom of speech and press. HRW reported that since 2007 most abuses against journalists in both the West Bank and Gaza were related to tensions between the PA and Hamas. The PA military judiciary detained civilian journalists, according to human rights organizations.
Israeli authorities placed limits on certain forms of expression in the occupied territories.

Freedom of Speech: Although there is no PA law prohibiting criticism of the government, there were reports that the government was not fully tolerant of criticism. HRW reported in February that the PA repeatedly responded to peaceful demonstrations with violent attacks (see section 2.b., Freedom of Assembly).
In the Gaza Strip, individuals publicly criticizing authorities risked reprisal by Hamas, including arrest, interrogation, seizure of property, and harassment. Civil society and youth activists, social media advocates, and individuals associated with political factions accused of criticizing Hamas in public fora such as the Internet faced punitive measures including raids on their facilities and residences, arbitrary detentions, and denial of permission to travel outside of Gaza. The ICHR reported numerous detentions of protesters in the Gaza Strip. For example, the ICHR reported at least 16 arrests of protesters in March alone and numerous instances in which Hamas quelled rallies and protests with violence.
In East Jerusalem, under Israeli authority, displays of Palestinian political symbols were punishable by fines or imprisonment, as were public expressions of anti-Israeli sentiment and support for terrorist groups. Israeli security officials regularly shut down meetings or conferences held in East Jerusalem affiliated with the PA or with PA officials in attendance. For example, the ISA warned organizers of a Palestinian agricultural trade show in East Jerusalem in September that they would face closure if they invited PA officials or displayed a Palestinian flag. In September Israeli police ordered shut a meeting in East Jerusalem on Israeli changes to Palestinian school curricula, and Israeli security officers questioned the organizers about their involvement in the meeting.


Freedom of Press: Across the occupied territories, independent media operated with some restrictions.
In the West Bank, the PA placed some restrictions on independent media as well as official media. The PA maintained a distribution ban in the West Bank on the twice-weekly pro-Hamas al-Risala and the Filistin daily newspapers, both Gaza-based publications. Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV reportedly enjoyed some degree of access to work in the West Bank without harassment.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas restricted independent media, especially for non-Hamas-affiliated press and media outlets. Israel restricted the mainstream pro-PA dailies, independent al-Quds (based in Jerusalem), independent pro-Fatah al-Ayyam, and PA official daily al-Hayat al-Jadida (the latter two based in the West Bank), from importation into the Gaza Strip. Hamas authorities tolerated reporting and interviews featuring officials from the PA to be locally broadcast. Hamas allowed, with some restrictions, the operation of non-Hamas-affiliated broadcast media in the Gaza Strip. The PA-supported Palestine TV reportedly enjoyed access to operate in the Gaza Strip.
In East Jerusalem independent media were able to operate. As a general rule, Israeli media were able to cover the occupied territories, except for combat zones where the IDF temporarily restricted access, but closures, curfews, and checkpoints limited the ability of Palestinian and foreign journalists to do their jobs (see section 2.d.). Israel revoked the press credentials of the majority of Palestinian journalists during the Second Intifada in 2000, with the exception of a few Palestinian journalists who worked as stringers for prominent international media outlets. As a result most Palestinian journalists were unable to cover stories outside the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.

Violence and Harassment: PA security forces reportedly harassed, detained occasionally with violence, and fined journalists several times during the year due to their reporting. HRW reported in April that the PA Preventative Security and General Intelligence services intimidated, detained, and assaulted journalists with impunity, including through detentions of civilian journalists by the military judiciary.
According to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), PA police officers prevented Ibtihal Mansour, a reporter for al-Sharq al-Awsat Studies Center, from covering a sit-in against PA political arrests in Nablus on June 13. Mansour stated that, although she adhered to orders, two female officers in civilian clothes beat her up and tried to confiscate her camera and cell phone. She was released after the intervention of members of the public and other journalists.
PA security services summoned and questioned several journalists in the West Bank. For example, on September 10, the Palestinian intelligence services in Bethlehem summoned al-Aqsa TV cameraman Osayd Amarneh, whom they questioned about filming a protest and later released.
In the Gaza Strip, journalists faced arrest, harassment, and other pressure from Hamas due to their reporting. There were reports that Hamas also summoned journalists for questioning in an attempt to intimidate them. Hamas also constrained journalists’ freedom of movement during the year, attempting to ban access to some official buildings, as well as several prodemocracy protests.
During coverage of popular intra-Palestinian reconciliation protests on March 19 in Gaza City, Hamas internal security forces forcibly entered the Gaza City offices of CNN, NHK (Japan’s public broadcasting service), and Reuters, assaulted several journalists, seized equipment, and demanded that the journalists stop filming the protests.
According to MADA, on August 17, Hamas security personnel prevented Wisam Zu’bur, a photographer for al-Hurriya Media Center, from taking pictures near al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.
There were reports during the year of Israeli authorities detaining or assaulting journalists due to their reporting or coverage. In various incidents Israeli forces subsequently raided those journalists’ homes.
For example, on August 19, Israeli forces reportedly assaulted Al Jazeera cameraman Nabeel Mizawi and correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while the two were covering Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. In a live report on Al Jazeera, Abu Akleh claimed that IDF personnel beat Mizawi and ordered them to stop filming. According to the report, IDF personnel also cut a voice cable to mute the broadcast.
Local media reported that on November 22, Israeli authorities arrested Israa Salhab, a reporter for al-Quds satellite station, after she anchored a program on Palestinian prisoners. She was released on November 28 and never faced official charges.


Censorship or Content Restrictions: The PA prohibits calls for violence, displays of arms, and racist slogans in PA-funded and controlled official media. Media throughout the occupied territories practiced self-censorship. There were no confirmed reports of any legal actions or prosecutions against any person publishing items counter to these PA guidelines.
Civil society organizations reported that Hamas censored television programs and written content, such as newspapers and books. On January 23, according to HRW, Hamas police officers entered three bookstores in Gaza and confiscated copies of two novels--Haidar Haidar’s A Banquet for Seaweed and Alaa’ al-Aswany’s Chicago--and searched for copies of a third book, Forbidden Pleasure, telling the store owners that the books were seized because the Hamas ministry of interior “deemed them “against sharia” (Islamic law).
There were no reports that the Israeli government monitored the media in the occupied territories. Israeli authorities retain the right to review and approve in advance of printing all Jerusalem-based Arabic publications for material perceived as a security threat. In practice anecdotal evidence suggested the Israeli authorities did not actively review the Jerusalem-based al-Quds newspaper or other Jerusalem-based Arabic publications. Jerusalem-based publications reported that, based on previous experiences with Israeli censorship, over time they came to know what is acceptable and self-censored publications accordingly.


Libel Laws/National Security: There were instances in which slander and libel laws were used to suppress criticism. For example, on August 16, the PA attorney general banned the annual Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation’s Palestine TV Ramadan comedy program series, Watan ala Watar, in its third season, after PA security forces, representatives of the PA Ministry of Health, and the union of PA employees filed complaints claiming the program slandered members of their respective professions. On August 18, the PA attorney general issued final orders sanctioning the forcible suspension of the program.
There were no known reports that Hamas used security justifications or slander or libel laws to censure public critique.

Internet Freedom

There were no PA restrictions on access to the Internet; however, there were reports that the PA, Hamas, and Israel monitored e‑mail and Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could generally engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e‑mail.
On August 11, the Palestinian Telecommunication Company (PTC) suspended the Web site of electronic newspaper Alshu’la for one week, according to MADA. Alshu’la filed a complaint against the PTC with the PA attorney general. Alshu’la was reportedly forced offline because of a dispute between the PA and former Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan, who financially sponsored the site.
On November 15, PA intelligence services arrested George Qanawati, station manager of Bethlehem 2000 Radio, after he published a comment on his Facebook page on September 8 about tensions within Fatah. He was released five days later without charges.
Hamas did not restrict Internet access; however, based on anecdotal reports from Palestinian civil society organizations and social media practitioners, Hamas authorities monitored Internet activities and postings of Gaza Strip residents. Individuals posting negative reports or commentary about Hamas, its policies, or affiliated organizations faced questioning, and authorities at times required them to remove or modify online postings. No information was available regarding punishment for not complying with such demands.
Israeli authorities did not restrict access to the Internet; however, they monitored some Internet activity.

And Beinart & comrades criticize Israeli democracy.

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Amira Arrested

22:57 Haaretz journalist Amira Hass arrested as she enters Israel from Gaza (Haaretz)

Remember what I suggested?

More On That Gaza Journalist Ban

Israel has closed its crossings with Gaza again because of Palestinian rocket fire at Israel, just a day after allowing vital humanitarian supplies in. Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets at Israel on Sunday, one on Monday and another on Tuesday, and the crossings were subsequently closed on Tuesday. [so grateful are they]

Even though they were opened to allow 42 truckloads of supplies in on Monday, foreign correspondents were not allowed in. The ban on reporters has been in effect for more than two weeks.

In Washington, visiting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was asked about the ban. He said, "The reason the passages are closed is completely related to security matters ... we didn't want to take responsibility for the safety of journalists passing through."

Why not let them in and then shut the crossings?

What Could Go Wrong?

You read my yesterday's post about that shot dead BBC journalist in Somalia?

Well, read on:-

The Foreign Press Association in Israel filed an appeal with the High Court on Monday demanding to be allowed into Gaza. Crossings between Gaza and Israel have been closed for several days due to rocket attacks on the western Negev, and journalists have not been allowed through.

Defense Ministry officials say only humanitarian workers will be allowed through the crossings while attacks continue. Journalists say the decision infringes on freedom of the press.

Heads of major media outlets worldwide recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asking him to allow journalists and television crews into Gaza. Among the signatories were senior journalists from ABC, CNN and BBC. Olmert has not yet responded to the letter.

I guess we might as well let them go in. Right?

I mean, what's the worst that can happen? An Alan Johnston kidnapping?

Dion Debate Continues

On the killing of a journalist in Gaza.

Here.

An Idiot

If you read Hebrew and go here, you'll read a story about a stupid journalist.

And if you can't read, then try this for background of a spread Yedioth Ahronot did on whether the security protection for VIPs is adequate.

What Yedioth did not reveal was that their reporter, one Nir Guntaj, actually pulled a toy pistol on one of the guard details.

Idiot.

Alan Johnston Follow Up

Missed this from two weeks ago:

Honour for kidnapped journalist

Freed journalist Alan Johnston is to be awarded an honorary degree by a Scottish university.

The BBC correspondent, who was held hostage for 114 days, is being given an honorary doctorate of letters by Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

And Terry Waite - who was abducted in 1987 and held for a total of 1,763 days while working to secure the release of European hostages held in the Lebanon - is also being honoured by the same university.

Great. Getting honored for being terror hostage victims who sympathize with the "plight of the terrorists".

Words of Wisdom

“Journalists are a sort of assassins, who sit with loaded blunder-busses at the corner of streets and fire them off for hire or for sport at any passenger they may select,” opined John Quincy Adams.

Source.

Michael Lerner was attacked for using bad terminology

And the terminology was "cheerleading journalists".

Read on.

Bernadotte - The Journalists Knew

In pointing out some historical errors committed by the BBC (here), I showed there a picture of members of Lechi (the Stern Group) demonstrating against Count Folke Bernadotte.

Well, here's the TIME magazine story from 1948 and pay attention to the opening paragraph:-

Monday, Sep. 27, 1948
Man of Peace

For a week members of the Stern gang, who haunt the Galina café on Tel Aviv's Herbert Samuel Esplanade, had been telling correspondents that they intended to deal with Count Folke Bernadotte. Posters appeared showing Bernadotte's gaunt figure, his hair flying, being kicked out of Israel by a huge boot. The caption read: "Advice to Agent Bernadotte: Get out of our country!"

It was not only the "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel" (as the Stern gangsters like to call themselves) who had inveighed against the U.N. mediator. The Communists (whose line the Sternists follow) called Bernadotte a "traveling agent of American business." Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok accused him of partiality to the Arabs, and Prime Minister Ben-Gurion himself snapped: "The truce is an act of war designed to break our will."

"I Must Take Risks." Bernadotte, a courageous and stubborn man, was not deterred by the country's temper. Last week he reported on conditions in Jerusalem. "It's like this," he said. "Both Arabs and Jews are trigger-happy. They shoot into the dark at night. They snipe by daylight. Excuse me, but it is a most idiotic thing."

...in Jerusalem's Katamon quarter (formerly an Arab residential district, now held by Israeli forces), the Count's cream-colored Chrysler was stopped at a roadblock. From a jeep stepped two men in Israeli army uniforms, carrying Sten guns. While U.S. Colonel Frank Begley (a U.N. observer who drove the Count's car) grappled with one of the men, the other looked into the car, recognized the Count, shoved his gun through the window and started shooting. The bullets went straight through the ribbons on Bernadotte's uniform. Said General Lundstrom, who sat beside him but escaped injury: "There was a considerable amount of blood on his clothes, mainly around his heart."

Also hit (17 times) was Colonel Andre P. Serot, a French member of the U.N. truce mission. He was killed instantly. Bernadotte, still breathing, was rushed to nearby Hadassah Hospital, where he died. The assailants got away in their jeep.

...The Israel government immediately launched a manhunt for the killers. Hundreds of suspects were arrested. Ports and airfields throughout the country were closed. Crack troops entered Jerusalem, prowled the city in armored cars, guns ready. They knew little more than that the murderer was "sallow-faced and dark-haired." But they knew a lot about the Stern gang.

Formed in 1940 by one Abraham Stern as a terrorist weapon against the British, it had committed such deeds before. During the war, Stern offered to help the Axis invade the Middle East if they would recognize the Sternists as Palestine's government. In 1944 the Sternists murdered Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East.

Even though the vast majority of Israelis were shocked by the crime, world public opinion would link the assassination with the long record of gangsterism, terrorism and almost insanely violent propaganda which had become associated with Israel's struggle for independence, and which moderate Zionists seemed unable to stop. In other cases, propaganda had excused or glossed over the crimes of the Jewish extremists by alleging "imperialism" on the part of the British or charging worse atrocities to the Arabs. In Bernadotte's case there was no excuse to make. He was obviously a good man who sought nothing in Palestine but peace...

On English Journalists

IN 1930, poet Humbert Wolfe wrote his immortal ode to the English press:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist

(thank God) the British journalist.

But seeing what the man will do

Unbribed, there's no occasion to.

(Kippah tip: Zev Chafets via RG)

Alan Johnston Update

From Melanie Phillips blog:-

The NUJ itself has been trying to justify its action but only digging itself further into a very deep hole. Tim Gopsill, the editor of the NUJ’s own house rag The Journalist, told a caller that the boycott was ‘to reward the Palestinian Journalist Union for cooperating with the Alan Johnston campaign.’ This head-scratching absurdity was echoed in an idiotic and self-serving statement put out by the NUJ, in which it said:

The call for the boycott in part related it to the kidnap of Alan Johnston. The Palestinian journalists union has given huge support to the campaign for his release - holding demonstrations and strikes against the Palestinian Authority to demand more action from them.

The Palestinian journalists’ union, of course, demonstrated against the Palestinian Authority because Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinians. The NUJ apparently cannot grasp quite how demented it is, therefore, to boycott Israel because of the kidnap of Alan Johnston. If something nasty happens in the Middle East, they think Israel is the only party to be blamed. If Palestinians kill Jews, blame Israel. If Palestinians kill Palestinians, blame Israel. If Palestinians kidnap a British NUJ member, blame Israel. And if Palestinian journalists protest to Palestinians about the kidnap by Palestinians of a British journalist, those Palestinian journalists are to be ‘rewarded’ by — a boycott of Israel.

How can anyone now take such people seriously in anything they write? But the NUJ are positively pillars of intellectual and moral rigour compared with Alan Hart, who opines:

There is a case for saying (repeat a case) that the party with most to gain from Alan Johnston’s permanent disappearance was Israel. It would not be the first time that Israeli agents had dressed as Arabs to make a hit.

A case? There’s as much of a case for saying this as there is a case (repeat a case) for saying that Alan Hart is a man from Mars. Does it not occur to Alan Hart, even given his fanatical belief in the unfathomable depths of Israeli evil, that it would be singularly perverse for Israel to bring about Johnston’s ‘permanent disappearance’, since he was about to permanently disappear from Gaza within few days anyway because his tour of duty there for the BBC was at an end?

Is there a case for saying (repeat a case) that whole swathes of the British media have now been driven by their pathological hatred of Israel clean round the bend?

Didn't I point out that Alan's father had called him a "friend" of the Pals.?

Seems now that Alan's "friends" are mobilizing - against Israel.

Such a topsey-turvey world. So many dumb journalists.