Welsh vigil for Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza
Martin Shipton
A vigil for Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza will take place in the centre of Cardiff on Tuesday September 17.
At least 127 journalists and media workers are among an estimated 41,000 residents to have died in the enclave since October 2023.
The media outlet voice.wales is hosting the vigil, which will be held by the Betty Campbell statue in Wood Street from 6pm.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the UK and Ireland National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) have condemned the killings and continued attacks on journalists. All three bodies have called for an immediate investigation into the deaths.
Protected
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “Media workers in areas of armed conflict must be treated and protected as civilians and allowed to perform their work without interference. The IFJ calls on all combatants in this conflict to do their utmost to safeguard journalists and media professionals. There is intense and deeply concerned interest in this conflict all round the world, but people will only be able to understand what is really going on if journalists are allowed to do their work.”.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “No story is worth a person’s life, but all too often journalists find themselves literally in the line of fire when carrying out their work. They endure dangerous conditions to cover wars and conflicts, they shine a light into places political despots and criminal gangs prefer kept dark and expose wrongdoings and corruption across the globe.
“The death toll in Gaza is all the more shocking because we believe journalists are being directly targeted by the Israeli Defence Forces. That is why we are calling for an immediate investigation by the International Criminal Court to ensure all incidents of the targeting of journalists constituting war crimes under international law are properly investigated.
“We mourn the deaths of our journalist colleagues in Palestine and extend sympathy to their families. We will continue to work with the International Federation of Journalists and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate to provide protection and provisions for the press working in unimaginable situations and suffering enormous privations. That’s why we thank members, chapels and branches for their generosity so far, but ask for further donations to the IFJ safety fund
“We again call for the release of all hostages and for both sides to agree to a permanent ceasefire to ensure attacks on journalists and all civilians come to an end.
“As the IFJ’s list of media workers killed grows by the week, we continue to argue with the UN for an international, legally binding convention to protect the safety and independence of journalists and to recognise that media workers face greater risks when compared to other civilians.”
Safety equipment
The IFJ has reminded journalists on the ground to take precautions, wear professional safety equipment and not to travel without their media providing them with all the professional safety equipment needed to cover events.
Recent journalists killed in Gaza include:
* August 28: Journalist Mohammad Abed Rabbo of Al-Manara Media Production Company was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit his apartment in central Gaza.
* August 26: PJS reported the death of 39-year-old journalist Ali Taima, a cameraman for Al-Awda TV channel, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
* August 22: Al Quds TV photojournalist Hossam Manal Al-Dabbaka was killed with his wife, children and other family members when their apartment was hit by an Israeli strike in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, media reported.
* August 20: Journalist Hamza Murtaja was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit Mustafa Hafez School, in western Gaza City, PJS reported.
* August 18: Freelance photojournalist Ibrahim Muhareb, who worked for a number of media outlets, was killed due to Israeli gunfire and shelling in western Khan Yunis when the Israeli tanks entered the city in southern Gaza, PJS and media reported.
* August 9: Journalist Tamim Muammar, who worked for the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation – Voice of Palestine, and journalist Abdullah Al-Sousi, who worked for Al Aqsa TV, were killed in two different Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis, southern of the Gaza Strip, PJS and media reported.
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In years to come it will eventually dawn on the world that it turned a blind eye to genocide and aided those ancestors of Holocaust survivors whose families were targeted for extermination by the Nazis are now doing the very same to the Palestinians people And as a I write innocient men, women & children are being killed by American made bombs and drones provided by Britain , drones I might add responsible for killing those brave British aid workers attempting to feed 2.1 million starving Palestinian refugees. We should all hang out heads in shame. May those 40,000 slaughtered… Read more »
I notice you have no words of sympathy for those innocent civilians that were tortured, murdered, raped, mutilated and kidnapped on October the 7th 2023. Please remember that it was the Palestinians that chose to escalate this conflict to its current level: and eradication of the Jewish people is their stated aim. What would you suggest we should have done if that had happened to people in Wales, Sing Kumbayah?
Many of those Israeli killed on 7th October were actually killed by the IDF – 28 Apache helicopters used all their ammunition and had to be reloaded.
Mainstream media is finally catching up to this mass Hannibal Directive of the Israeli military.
There is no reliable or verifiable evidence for this. It is a line being pushed by actors ideologically hostile to the very existence of the state of Israel and therefore cannot in any way be regarded as ‘objective’.
It was reported in the Israeli Press I understand.
If anyone’s gullible enough to believe the Hamas casualty figures I have a bridge to sell them. Civilians die in wars, that’s why escalating this one was a really, really stupid thing to do. The war would be over tomorrow if the Palestinians handed back the hostages, along with all the murderous Hamas nutcases.