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Gaza Journalists Demand End to Israel's Impunity for 'Genocide Against Us'
"We have been let down by the international community, particularly the international media organizations," said Abubaker Abed, sharing a message from Palestinian journalists.
Jan 09, 2025
Palestinian journalists gathered outside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah this week to call attention to Israeli forces' genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, their slaughter of those reporting on the ground, and the global community's failure to hold Israel accountable for the bloodshed.
On Thursday, the day after the event, Abubaker Abed, a Palestinian sports journalist now covering Israel's war on Gaza, shared on social media a short video of his remarks in English, which he said were delivered on behalf of all the reporters in blue vests who surrounded him and the podium.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Palestinian reporters across Gaza have covered what Abed called "the most well-documented and first livestreamed genocide in history," as Israel—armed by the United States—has launched airstrikes and ground raids, and stopped humanitarian aid and international media from entering the coastal enclave.
Abed said that "we've been reporting tirelessly, extensively, and thoroughly on this genocide. It's indeed a genocide against us, which we've been documenting in makeshift tented camps and workplaces... You've seen us shedding tears over our loved ones, colleagues, friends, and family members. You've seen us killed in every possible way. We've been immolated, incinerated, dismembered, and disemboweled—and recently, we've been freezing to death."
"What more ways should you be seeing us killed, then, so that you can move and act and stop the hell inflicted upon us? There are no words to describe what we've been going through, because you've seen our bodies, how they've become fragile, skinny, and fatigued, but we never stopped," he continued, highlighting how Palestinian journalists have worked "to help the population that has seen every sort of torture and tasted every type of death," while the world has refused to "stop Israel's impunity against us."
"Our message is very clear: We are journalists, and we are Palestinian journalists. We have been let down by the international community, particularly the international media organizations," Abed declared. "We haven't seen any sort of support—a single word of support. Even the press vests we're wearing right now mark us as a target. They do not protect us at all, because we are Palestinians. Maybe if we were Ukrainians or of any other citizenship, with blond hair and blue eyes, the world would rage and rant for us. But because we are Palestinians, we have only one right, which is to die and be maimed."
"We are just documenting a genocide against us," he concluded. "After almost a year and a half, we want you to stand foot-by-foot with us, because we are like any other journalists, reporters, and media workers all across the globe—no matter the origin, the color, or the race. Journalism is not a crime. We are not a target."
Some journalists around the world reposted Abed's video and called out their colleagues for ignoring Israel's decimation of Gaza or reporting on it in ways favorable to the far-right Israeli government and its supporters, including the United States.
"The past 15+ months have been one of the most shameful periods in the history of Western journalism,"
said Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, which has published Abed's reporting from Gaza. "The refusal of so many journalists to speak out in defense of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza as they and their families have been hunted down and killed is a bloody stain."
The New Yorker editor Erin Overbey similarly said that "the staggering silence of Western journalists this past year as their Palestinian colleagues have been targeted, intimidated, and killed by Israeli forces during the genocide in Gaza will go down as one of the most shameful periods in media/journalism and human rights history."
British writer Owen Jones
said: "How to describe the refusal of Western journalists to speak out about the biggest slaughter of journalists in the history of human civilization? Damning. Racist. Nauseating. You will never be forgiven. History will damn those who stayed silent—every last fucking one."
Hamza Yusuf, a London-based British Palestinian writer, said that "we will never forget that whilst Palestinian journalists in Gaza were being systematically slaughtered by Israel, their industry peers at best looked on with indifference and at worst used their positions and their coverage to whitewash Israel's crimes. Blood on their hands."
As of Thursday, health officials in Gaza put the death toll from Israel's 15-month assault at 46,006, with at least 109,378 other Palestinians wounded, the vast majority of the enclave's population displaced, and civilian infrastructure in ruins. Israel faces global accusations of genocide, including in a case at the International Court of Justice.
Figures for press deaths have varied. The International Federation of Journalists—which works with its affiliate, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, to verify information—has documented the killings of 148 Palestinian media workers while the Committee to Protect Journalists has a list of 152 confirmed fatalities, at least 13 of which the group classifies as murders by Israeli forces.
At the end of last year, Al Jazeerapublished a long-form article titled "Know Their Names" and reported that "from October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26 when an Israeli airstrike targeted a news van near al-Awda Hospital."
"Eighty percent of the journalists and media workers killed were between the ages of 20 and 40, a stark statistic that captures the young age of those who risk their lives to document the conflict," according to
Al Jazeera. "They were reporters and writers, photographers and video directors, analysts and editors, sound engineers and voiceover artists, and even founders of media outlets. Their stories remind us of the heavy price paid by those who strive to document humanity's darkest moments."
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Corbyn Expected to Run as Independent After Starmer's Move to Bar Him From Labour
"Blocking Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate is an affront to decency and a declaration of civil war within a party about to metamorphose from a broad church to a toxic sect," said Yanis Varoufakis.
Mar 28, 2023
Former U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to seek reelection as an independent next year after current Leader Keir Starmer and his establishment allies on Tuesday made good on their pledge to formally block the leftist member of Parliament from running under the party's banner.
After Starmer publicly declared last month that "Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election," the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) voted 22-12 on Starmer's motion to not endorse Corbyn's candidacy.
The Timesreported that Corbyn's allies say the MP has already decided to run as an independent, with one source telling the London newspaper: "It's become personal. There will be an announcement by the end of the week."
Our message is clear: We are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.
Corbyn has represented the Greater London constituency Islington North for four decades and served as an independent MP since he was suspended from Labour in 2020 due to a battle over allegations of antisemitism in the party.
After news broke of Starmer's motion on Monday, Corbyn charged that the party leader "has broken his commitment to respect the rights of Labour members and denigrated the democratic foundation of the party."
Noting that Islington North voters have elected him as a Labour MP 10 consecutive times since 1983, Corbyn said that "I am proud to represent a community that supports vulnerable people, joins workers on the picket line, and fights for transformative change."
Also calling out the ruling Conservative Party, Corbyn continued:
This latest move represents a leadership increasingly unwilling to offer solutions that meet the scale of the crises facing us all. As the government plunges millions into poverty and demonizes refugees, Keir Starmer has focused his opposition on those demanding a more progressive and humane alternative.
I joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power. Our message is clear: We are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.
Some other MPs, constituents, journalists, and leftists from around the world have, since Monday, blasted Starmer's "disgraceful" move and expressed solidarity with Corbyn.
Greek leftist MP Yanis Varoufakis warned that "Starmer's Labour Party is close to the point of no return. Blocking Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate is an affront to decency and a declaration of civil war within a party about to metamorphose from a broad church to a toxic sect."
Critics have highlighted that in February 2020, Starmer said: "The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local party members should select their candidates for every election."
In a joint statement Tuesday, officers from the Islington North Constituency Labour Party (CLP) denounced the move by Starmer and the NEC.
"We believe in the democratic right of all constituency parties to choose their prospective parliamentary candidate," the CLP leaders from Corbyn's area said. "Therefore, we reject the NEC's undue interference in Islington North, which undermines our goal of defeating the Conservatives and working with our communities for social justice."
Noting the CLP's statement in a series of tweets Tuesday, Guardian columnist Owen Jones, who identifies as a socialist and a longtime Labour voter, also took aim at Starmer:
While Starmer was seeking his leadership role, "I think he said a lot of things he didn't believe at all, because he thought that if he didn't, then he wouldn't be elected leader of the Labour Party. And he was absolutely right in that calculation," Jones asserted.
"A lot of Starmer's cheerleaders see themselves as upstanding liberals who believe in decency, honesty, and integrity in politics. They don't," he said. "They disregard the colossal deceit of Starmer because they hate the left, and they believe anything done to crush the left is a good thing."
"Anyway, I don't think it will end well for a Labour leadership which is founded on a load of lies, essentially believes in nothing, and is ahead in the polls solely because of Tory self-destruction," Jones added. "They'll win the election by default, then political reality will intrude."
The grassroots group Momentum, which has supported Corbyn since his successful 2015 campaign to lead the Labour Party, called Tuesday "a dark day for democracy."
While there was previously no appeals process for anyone blocked by the NEC, Sky Newsrevealed Tuesday as the party faces "accusations of fixing parliamentary selections for candidates who are preferred by the leadership," those "who wish to stand for Labour at the next election will be given the right to appeal if the party rejects their bid to become an MP."
According to the outlet, "Candidates will be provided with written feedback as to why they 'fell below the standards expected of a Westminster parliamentary candidate,' while an appeals panel will be convened to hear the claim."
Welcoming the development on Twitter, Momentum said that "socialists and trade unionists have been wrongly excluded in favor of those favored by a narrow London clique. The result has been a cohort of prospective MPs dominated by the professional political classes, making Labour less representative of the communities we seek to serve."
"This new process should mark an end to the Labour right's factional abuses of selections process," the group added. "In Islington North as everywhere else—let local members decide."
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Truss' Tories Plan to Slash Public Spending While Clinging to Chaos-Causing Tax Cuts
"When the IMF tells you, 'hang on guys, this is going to be so bad for inequality it needs a rethink,' you've got a serious problem," one U.K. activist said of the new mini-budget.
Sep 28, 2022
"So now the Tories are going to slash your already shredded local services because they crashed the economy because they want to cut the taxes of the top 1%."
"What was intended as mere bribery has turned out to be a gigantic financial bomb."
That's how socialist Guardian columnist Owen Jones on Wednesday summarized the recent revelations about U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss and other Conservative leaders' fiscal policies.
Following reports that U.K. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp will send letters asking government departments to identify potential "savings," the Tory confirmed on television Wednesday that they are being asked to "look for efficiencies wherever they can find them."
The push to cut public spending came as The Guardianrevealed Wednesday the National Health Service (NHS)--the U.K.'s publicly funded healthcare system--has admitted that "dangerous roofs that could collapse at any time at hospitals across England will not be fixed until 2035."
That admission came in response to a request from Liberal Democrats, whose health spokesperson and deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, took aim at Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng's "mini-budget," which was unveiled last Friday and includes major tax cuts for the rich, funded by extra borrowing.
"Kwasi Kwarteng's first budget prioritized slashing taxes on the big banks over fixing crumbling hospitals. There was a deafening silence from government on how it intends to deal with dangerous ambulance wait times or lack of local NHS dentists, let alone buildings at risk of collapse," Cooper told the newspaper. "This is a disaster waiting to happen and Conservative ministers just don't seem to care."
The tax plan--which caused the pound to fall to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in nearly four decades and ultimately led to emergency action by the Bank of England to calm the markets--has been criticized across the British political spectrum and around the world, including by the credit agency Moody's.
Even Tory members of Parliament are voicing concerns. BBC reports:
Few Conservative MPs are commenting publicly about Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's handling of the economic turmoil sparked by his mini-budget--but they are not mincing their words in off-the-record conversations.
Inept, humiliating, naive, and reckless are just some of the words that have cropped up.
Perhaps most notably, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), known worldwide as "a bastion of free market economics and fiscal austerity," on Tuesday delivered a rare critique of the policy--which Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott called "a global embarrassment for Truss and Kwarteng."
The mini-budget "will likely increase inequality," the IMF warned, adding that the next full budget announcement--which Kwarteng is expected to outline in November--gives the U.K. government "an early opportunity... to consider ways to provide support that is more targeted and re-evaluate the tax measures, especially those that benefit high-income earners."
Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based group Global Justice Now, tweeted Tuesday, "When the IMF tells you, 'hang on guys, this is going to be so bad for inequality it needs a rethink,' you've got a serious problem."
Economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the IMF and the U.S. Federal Reserve are concerned the United Kingdom "may trigger a financial crisis" by doing to the United States and other wealthy nations what "Greece did to the Eurozone."
"The particular focus of the concern... is the impact that the destabilization of the markets in Britain will have on the U.S. treasuries, in other words on the public debt of the United States," he said. "Because that kind of domino effect would have quite severe repercussions for the whole world."
\u201c"It is perfectly possible that this momentous error by the Truss government can create a domino effect"\n\nFormer Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says "this is why the IMF stepped in"\nhttps://t.co/BLd7rfZH0a\u201d— BBC Politics (@BBC Politics) 1664372024
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said during a BBC radio interview Wednesday that Truss must urgently review the budget following "very serious" criticism from the IMF, noting concerns that November would be too late.
According to Starmer, Truss needs to explain: "How are you going to fix the problems that you caused ...on Friday? The government caused this on the theory, the ideology that the way we fix our country is to make the rich richer."
Other critics also delivered broader rebukes of Truss-aligned ideology, with some going as far back as former Conservative U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"September 2022 will forever be remembered as the month in which the febrile fantasies of neoliberalism ran full-tilt into reality," saidGuardian columnist and author George Monbiot.
Referencing a London road that's home to various think tanks, one Twitter user dubbed this September "the month of the Tufton Street Massacre." Monbiot concurred.
\u201cThe Tufton Street Massacre is a perfect description of what they have done to us this month. The dark-money thinktanks got everything they wanted, and countless lives have been wrecked as a result.\u201d— George Monbiot (@George Monbiot) 1664385435
"This catastrophe isn't all on Truss and Kwarteng," Jones stressed Wednesday.
"This is the logical end point of a 43-year-long Thatcherite experiment--brought to us by Tory MPs, right-wing newspapers, and think tanks--which has brought nothing but stagnation, economic turmoil, and mass insecurity," he continued.
\u201cThis time round, the Tories don't even have North Sea oil to try and bail them out, and there's nothing left to privatise.\n\nAll they've done is wreck the economy for ideologically crazed reasons.\u201d— Owen Jones (@Owen Jones) 1664374011
Summarizing the chaos since last week, Guardian columnist and and senior economics commentator Aditya Chakrabortty wrote Wednesday:
What was intended as mere bribery has turned out to be a gigantic financial bomb. The pound dived so far that it won a new name: shitcoin. (One wag mused on Reddit: "Apparently britbongs use it to purchase crumpets and tea, but other than that doesn't have any usage.") Lending rates in the markets soared, so Halifax and other big mortgage firms had to pull some of their products. The Bank of England essentially lost control over interest rates, while pension funds and other investors began scrabbling around for cash. Finally, today, the bank started buying government bonds in a bid to quell panic.
A week is a long time in financial wreckage. Thanks to Kwarteng and Truss, you have just got a lot poorer. If you're a homeowner on a standard variable mortgage or looking to renew, your bills have spiraled. If you have a money-purchase pension or a nest-egg ISA, you probably don't want to check your balance. Prices for pretty much anything from overseas--from food to T-shirts to cars--have just gone up.
Institutionally, the Treasury's credibility has been ruined and the Bank of England's monetary policy destroyed.
"This is their crisis, not ours," Chakrabortty concluded of the Conservatives. "You didn't benefit from these big tax cuts, the Tory donors did. Truss can reverse her stupid, cynical budget, resign, and force a general election--and Labour should demand she does so."
Meanwhile, Tory leadership is showing no sign of reconsidering its path, with Financial Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith claiming Wednesday that the proposals were the "right plans" for the U.K.'s economy--despite the mounting evidence to the contrary.
As U.K. Conservatives doubled down on their controversial policies, a coalition of civil society groups launched the End Austerity campaign and warned that next year, 85% of the global population is set to live under "deadly" measures, from cuts to social programs to privatization of public services.
"This austerity recipe has been tried and failed many times," the campaign's website says, "and only inflicted hardship and pain on populations all over the world, supercharging the inequality crisis."
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