Shooting the Messenger: Journalism under fire by the Israeli army
In May 2022, the Israeli army shot dead Al Jazeera correspondent
Shireen Abu Akleh. It has reportedly killed at least 55 journalists in Palestine since 2000, with apparent impunity.
This film tells the story of four other Palestinian journalists: Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, killed by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza in April 2008; Muath Amarneh, shot in the eye by a sniper in Hebron in November 2019; Yaser Murtaja, also killed by a sniper in Rafah in 2018; and Nazih Dawarzeh, shot dead in Nablus in 2003.
Watch@AlJazeera
When Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by a Saudi hit squad the West kicked up a fuss for weeks across the news networks until the story was quietly filed away, yet journalists in Gaza and the West Bank risk their lives every year to bring the truth about Israeli occupation and their annexation of Palestinian land, harassment of their families in occupied neighbourhoods and violence towards their people.
The Israeli government flatly denies any involvement in the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh despite evidence of an IDF soldier deliberately targeting her with a shot to the head. No one has been charged.
What does it have to do with the UK?
Just a year after Operation Protective edge ended (in 2015), the government lifted all remaining restrictions on the sale of arms and military equipment to Israel. As a nation, we are officially assenting to trade deals which put weapons targeting systems, armoured vehicles and drones in the hands of an organisation which Amnesty International has
accused of war crimes.
Furthermore, banks which were bailed out with billions of bounds of public money have then gone on to invest in and support companies known to supply the Israeli military and government with weapons and technology “
used in the militarised repression of Palestinians, including war crimes”.