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dylan collins
Israel Calling Journalists Terrorists Decried as 'An Attempt to Preemptively Justify Their Murder'
"Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence," said the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Oct 23, 2024
Seasoned observers of Israeli disinformation campaigns on Wednesday responded with pointed skepticism to a claim by the country's military that half a dozen Al Jazeera journalists are linked to militant Palestinian resistance groups.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Wednesday that intelligence recovered during the ongoing invasion of Gaza revealed that Al Jazeera journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal Aruki are affiliated with either Hamas—which governs Palestine's coastal enclave and led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel—or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
This, the IDF said, "unequivocally proves that they function as military terrorist operatives of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip."
However, critics accused Israel of targeting the six journalists for exposing Israeli war crimes to the world.
"There's a very clear reason why Israel has been killing journalists," asserted U.S. investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill:
As the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Public Accuracy noted:
Shabat... wrote Tuesday: "I'm a reporter on the ground in North Gaza, and I'm here to tell you that no aid has entered the besieged area for the past 21 days. The Israeli and American governments are spreading inaccurate information.
Al-Sharif yesterday posted a video of children killed, one with their head literally blown off. He just posted a video of civil defense crews working five hours to rescue a child.
University of Edinburgh professor Nicola Perugini noted that some of the six journalists "are covering the new phase of the genocide, the complete depopulation of northern Gaza."
"The aim is to transform the last witnesses into killable targets," he said.
Al Jazeera —which is banned from operating in Israel but is the only major international media network on the ground in Gaza, as Israeli authorities prohibit foreign reporters from entering the besieged strip—denies the IDF's claim.
Others noted that Israeli forces have killed numerous Al Jazeera workers as part of a war on journalists in which at least 128 media professionals have been killed, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The United Nations says more than 170 media workers have been killed by Israeli forces.
"This is an assassination threat and an attempt to preemptively justify their murder," Scahill said of Israel's claim against the six Al Jazeera journalists.
"Anyone claiming Israel has offered 'irrefutable' proof to back up these allegations is either ignorant of the systematic campaign of lies, propaganda, and fake news unleashed by Israel or is trying to aid and abet the murder of more journalists," he added. "That is what is irrefutable."
CPJ said on social media that it "is aware of accusations made by the Israel Defense Forces against several journalists in Gaza accusing them of being members of militant groups."
"Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence," the group noted. "After killing Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul in July, the IDF previously produced a similar document, which contained contradictory information, showing that Al Ghoul, born in 1997, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007—when he would have been 10 years old."
The Paris-based international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed multiple complaints at the International Criminal Court alleging "war crimes against journalists in Gaza," including the apparently intentional targeting of media professionals.
In one filing, RSF said it "has reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians" and accused Israel of "an eradication of the Palestinian media."
"You don't shut down the media unless you have something to hide."
In June, the Gaza Project—an investigative journalism initiative led by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories—"analyzed nearly 100 cases of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, as well as other cases in which members of the press have been allegedly targeted, threatened, or injured."
The project found "a chilling pattern" of journalists who "may have been targeted even though they were identifiable as press."
In one case that enraged journalists and others around the world, at least one IDF member sent 19-year-old Palestinian reporter Hassan Hamad text messages threatening him and his family if he did not stop documenting Israel's assault on Gaza, which has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, millions more starved or sickened, and much of the territory in ruins.
Hamad refused. Earlier this month, Israeli forces assassinated him in a drone strike on his home in the Jabalia refugee camp.
U.S. citizens working in media have also been harmed by Israeli forces while on the job in Gaza and Lebanon, where IDF bombardment and invasion have killed and wounded thousands of people.
On Tuesday, a dozen members of U.S. Congress led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged the Biden administration—which supports Israeli with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover—to investigate Israeli attacks on journalists including Dylan Collins, who was with a group of six other reporters covering cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon when an IDF tank opened fire on their position despite their clear identification as press. Collins and five others were injured, and Lebanese Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed.
Israel's targeting of American journalists predates the current war and includes the 2022 killing of renowned Palestinian American Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. Multiple probes have concluded Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted by an IDF sniper as she was covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank.
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Sanders Leads Call for DOJ Probe of Israel Targeting US Journalist
The U.S. attorney general is also facing internal pressure to investigate Israel's killing of Americans.
Oct 22, 2024
A dozen members of Congress led by Sen. Bernie Sanderssent a Tuesday letter demanding the Biden administration open an independent investigation into an Israeli attack on journalists, including U.S. citizen Dylan Collins, in Lebanon last year.
Collins, a Vermonter working for Agence France-Presse, was the only American in a group of reporters who endured Israeli tank fire on October 13, 2023, just days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel. He and five others were injured, and Lebanese Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed.
The journalists were covering cross-border fire between the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah and Israeli forces—armed with diplomatic and weapons support from the Biden administration and Congress—during the early stages of a retaliatory assault on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip for which Israel is now on trial for genocide.
The lawmakers' letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Attorney General Merrick Garland came as Israel continued its war on Gaza and ramped up the operation against its northern neighbor, killing civilians and endangering peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
"Mr. Collins deserves better from his own government."
In addition to Collins' members of Congress—Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.)—the letter is signed by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
"To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability," the letter states, taking aim at Israel's leader. "Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident."
The journalists were "clearly marked as press and had selected an open and highly visible position on a hilltop near the Blue Line to minimize the risk of misidentification," the lawmakers wrote. "The group was clearly visible to several Israeli military positions, as well as to an Israeli Apache helicopter and drone circling overhead. There were no Hezbollah positions in the vicinity. The group had been filming from the position for close to an hour when, despite these precautions, they were struck twice by Israeli tank rounds, followed by a sustained burst of .50 caliber heavy machine gun fire."
"Six rigorous investigations—by UNIFIL, Reuters, AFP, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)—have all independently corroborated these details, based on video footage and multiple firsthand accounts, and concluded that it was an unlawful attack on civilians," they noted.
Referencing the Vermont delegation's May missive about Collins' case, the lawmakers highlighted that "in its June 27 response to our earlier letter, the State Department relied heavily on these investigations, indicating that the department finds them credible."
The new letter continues:
Unfortunately, this incident is part of a wider pattern of disregard by the Israeli military for the safety of civilians, including journalists and humanitarian aid workers. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 116 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli military strikes since October 7, 2023, an unprecedented number. The United Nations reports that 173 journalists and media workers have been killed, as well as 228 United Nations staff.
It is painfully obvious that the United States cannot rely on the Netanyahu government to ensure accountability for these attacks. For many years, the Israeli authorities have failed to investigate or account for attacks on journalists.
"We call on the U.S. government to immediately open an independent, impartial, comprehensive, and transparent investigation led by the Department of Justice into the attack," the lawmakers wrote. "This investigation is necessary to confirm the details of the attack, secure an explanation as to why it was carried out, identify those responsible throughout the chain of command, and hold to account those who ordered and executed the attack."
"Mr. Collins has done his part," the members of Congress added, detailing how he has met with various U.S. officials and provided video footage of the attack. "Mr. Collins deserves better from his own government."
They also emphasized the attack's relevance to the billions of dollars in security assistance that the U.S. gives Netanyahu's government, writing that "this is particularly important as the United States Congress considers joint resolutions of disapproval regarding the sale of additional arms to Israel, including 32,739 more 120mm tank cartridges, the same kind of tank rounds used against Mr. Collins and his journalist colleagues (and numerous other strikes on civilians)."
The Sanders-led letter came a day after McGovern and 64 other House Democrats called on Biden and Blinken to "take immediate action to advocate for unrestricted, independent media access" to Gaza.
The Monday coalition stressed that the "effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an overwhelming burden on local journalists who are documenting the war they are living through. Tragically, at least 130 journalists have lost their lives since the start of the war, and those who remain face conditions of extreme hardship and danger."
Also on Monday, Zeteo exclusively reported that Justice Department attorneys have sent a letter to Garland, urging him to "investigate potential violations of U.S. law by Israel's government, military, and citizenry, and hold the perpetrators to account."
Specifically, according to Zeteo, they want to probe Israeli citizens and soldiers killing U.S. citizens—including Ayşenur Eygi, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, Jacob Flickinger, Tawfiq Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Omar Assad, and Shireen Abu Akleh—as well as Israel's illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and proof of troops committing war crimes and engaging in torture.
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Journalist Who Lost Leg in Israeli Attack Carries Olympic Torch in Paris
Meanwhile, calls to ban Israel from the 2024 Games are growing following the World Court's ruling against illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine.
Jul 22, 2024
Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi, who lost a leg in an Israeli tank strike while working in southern Lebanon last year, carried the Olympic torch through Paris on Sunday amid renewed calls to ban Israel from the 2024 Games following a World Court ruling against the illegal occupation of Palestine and the ongoing obliteration of Gaza.
Assi, who works for Agence France-Presse (AFP), carried the Olympic flame through Parisian streets in a wheelchair pushed by Dylan Collins, an American deputy editor at Al Jazeera English who was also wounded in the October 13 attack.
"This is all for my best friend, Issam Abdallah, and all the other journalists who we have lost this year," Assi said, according toDemocracy Now! "This is all for them and to pay tribute and to honor them, to honor their memory. And I will keep Issam's memory alive in everything I do. It's all for him."
🏅JO-2024 : Christina Assi et Dylan Collins, journalistes de l'AFP blessés lors d'un reportage en octobre 2023 au Liban, ont porté la flamme olympique dimanche à Vincennes, en hommage "à tous les journalistes, à nos collègues et amis tués cette année" #AFPVertical ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/DvODwOUU6t
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) July 21, 2024
Abdallah, Assi, and Collins were part of an international group of journalists who were covering cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on October 13 when they came under Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank fire. Abdallah, a 37-year-old Reuters videographer, was killed in the attack.
Noticing that Assi's leg was "blown off at the kneecap," Collins rushed to help his colleague and was wounded when a second Israeli shell exploded nearby, injuring him.
AFP, Al Jazeera, and Reuters all concluded that Israel deliberately targeted the journalists, who were clearly identifiable as members of the press. Groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also said the attack was "apparently deliberate" and demanded a war crimes investigation. Reporters Without Borders concluded that "it is unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants."
"This is a chance to continue talking about justice, and the targeted attack on October 13 that needs to be investigated as a war crime," Collins toldThe Associated Press on Sunday.
At least 108 media professionals—nearly all of them Palestinian—have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel's alleged deliberate targeting of journalists is part of the evidence presented in a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel being reviewed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 139,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 11,000 people who are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings. Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, and Israel's siege has caused widespread—and sometimes deadly—starvation.
In the wake of Friday's ICJ ruling that Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end, the Palestine Olympic Committee (POC) called for a last-minute International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban on Israeli participation in the 2024 Paris Games, which are set to start Friday.
"We have requested a ban of Israel at the Olympics because we believe that such ethics don't reflect the spirit of the Olympics."
"We have requested a ban of Israel at the Olympics because we believe that such ethics don't reflect the spirit of the Olympics," POC deputy secretary-general Nader Jayousi toldKyodo News, pointing to evidence including Israeli athletes visiting IDF troops and posting pictures of signed bombs.
Jayousi said it "should be the concern of the IOC" that Israelis who are "proud of slaughtering people"—a clear violation of the Olympic spirit—are set to compete in Paris.
Activists also renewed calls for an IOC ban on Israeli participation in Paris.
"With ICJ confirming Israel is committing the crime of apartheid in the [occupied Palestinian territories], the IOC and FIFA must immediately suspend Israel from international sport," Francis Awaritefe, an attorney and former member of the Australian men's national soccer team, said on social media, referring to soccer's world governing body.
"Apartheid is incompatible with the values of sport and membership of the international sports community," he added.
Sophia Brooks, a California-based activist focused on the intersection of Palestine and sports, on Monday cited "ample evidence" of why Israel should be banned from the games, including the destruction of sports facilities in Gaza and the killing of hundreds of Palestinian athletes.
According to Jayousi, around 400 Palestinian athletes and coaches have been killed since October 7. Israeli forces have also used facilities including Yarmouk Stadium for the detention of Palestinian men, women, and children—many of whom have reported torture and other abuse at the hands of their captors.
Numerous social media accounts posted video footage of French police telling attendees at Sunday's Olympic flame procession that they cannot display Palestinian flags during the event, despite the participation of Palestinian athletes in the Paris Games.
“You cannot display that flag”
Macron's police were ordered to take down only Palestinian flags, while flags from other countries were allowed to be displayed freely during the Olympic flame procession in Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris. pic.twitter.com/fB2kEIWwg2
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) July 22, 2024
The Palestine Chroniclereported Monday that a record eight Palestinian athletes are set to compete in six different Olympic sports.
"I'm very proud and happy to say to have made it this far," said Omar Yaser Ismail, an 18-year-old taekwondo athlete set to compete in Paris. "I've been dreaming of this moment since I was a little boy."
"I was very happy to imagine myself in Paris with the best athletes in the world," he said, adding that he would be "very happy to show my flag on the podium."
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