To those who refuse to stand by,

Yesterday, a day after Anas al-Sharif was martyred by Israeli occupation forces, reporter Mohammed Abu Salama shared a eulogy for his colleague and dear friend. “Anas was a mountain of a man,” he said, and then said again: “One of the mountains of Jabalia. A mountain from Jabalia camp.”

Al-Sharif, like so many of his brothers with cameras on the front lines, foresaw his own martyrdom. An hour before he was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike outside Al-Shifa hospital, he gave us one last warning: “If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people’s voices silenced, their faces erased.” He leaves behind his wife, Bayan; his one-year-old son, Saleh; and his four-year-old daughter, Sham.

Born in 1996, al-Sharif spent more than half his life under brutal Zionist siege. He was four years old when the Second Intifada began, 12 during Operation Cast Lead, 18 at the onset of the 2014 war, and 20 on the first day of the Great March of Return in 2018. At 28 he was buried, his body returned to the land he died protecting. Over the last two years, people of conscience around the world recognized his courageous, fearless, and unrelenting coverage of the genocide in Gaza. Despite the constant threats to his life and person, his sign-off remained the same, a defiant promise: “The coverage continues.”

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In December, after his colleague Fadi al-Wahidi was shot in the neck by the IOF and rendered paraplegic, al-Sharif wrote for The New York War Crimes about the necessity of securing a medical evacuation for his friend. He refused our payment, insisting that it was his duty as a journalist: to share the information, to tell the story. Al-Wahidi remembered his comrade as someone who “never left my side. Despite the army’s threats to him, he would come to me and not leave me alone; he comforted me, endured with me, and lifted my spirits.”

The love al-Sharif possessed for his people was reciprocated, apparent in the footage of him reporting the news of a ceasefire in January. “After more than a year, we can begin to discuss the removal of this helmet that exhausted me … this armor that was a part of my body,” he said. The men around him removed his vest and hoisted him on their shoulders as he recited the names of his martyred colleagues: Ismail al-Ghoul, Roshdi Sarraj, Hamza Dahdouh. “We announce, from Gaza and Gaza City, the news of a ceasefire.” Al-Sharif, over the months to come, often spoke of his desire to relive those moments; we too convinced ourselves that he would live forever, and imagined his voice announcing not only the last day of this war, but the day Gaza is liberated from siege and Palestine is free.

Click here to read the rest of our eulogy for Anas, written by members of The New York War Crimes Editorial Collective, and to download our martyr posters.

Read more:

• Anas Al-Sharif’s final message: “Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people…”

• A demand from Mohammed Qreqieh’s widow: “Stop killing our spouses.”

• A joint statement from PYM & WAWOG: “To the silent so-called journalists of the West: People of conscience know that this designation should be reserved for those who bring truth to the public. We revoke you of that title, held instead by Anas, Hossam, and all of the martyred journalists who sacrificed their lives to broadcast the truth. while you serve the institutions that bring justification of Israel’s genocide to TVs and doorsteps around the world.”

• Wael Dahdouh’s statement on the deaths of his colleagues: “I believe that if there is any consolation, then it is this: the path of journalism, the message of journalism, the profession of journalism, the values of journalism ... are emerging from Gaza.” 

Flood the newsrooms

Keep pressuring mainstream media to cover the fact that Israel is conducting a genocide not only by airstrike, not only by massacre, but by mass starvation enforced with the full backing of the U.S. This should be headline news everywhere in the world, every day until it stops. 

A few weeks ago, we compiled contact information for newsroom leaders and created a template you can use to flood their inboxes. It’s working — an employee at one major newspaper (no, not the Times) reported to us that after receiving over 300 emails, top editors in their newsroom held an all-morning meeting to talk about how to cover the famine.

Don’t just stand in solidarity

On August 12, the Newsguild-CWA and National Writers Union condemned the killing of Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Noufal in a new statement of solidarity with Palestinian journalists, one among many we have seen from media workers and their unions over the past two years. This condemnation must gain the force of action, of determination, of willingness to make sacrifices and take career risks in service of a more truthful world.

As media workers, our labor turns the wheels of the Western press: We are responsible for the narratives our publications spin and their consequences, spelled out in blood. It is our duty to tell the truth and to protect the journalists who have continued to bring that truth to the world over the last 675 days. One of the most effective ways to show solidarity with journalists in Gaza is to confront Zionism in your own newsroom. Rally your colleagues and demand that your bosses:

1. Stop publishing unverified Israeli claims about Palestinian journalists and their factional affiliations, which are intended both to demonize the resistance in Gaza — a governing force, as well as a military force, that is woven into the social fabric of the Strip — and to legitimize the targeting of journalists. Change headlines and issue corrections to stories where these claims have been repeated.
   

2. Publish an editorial condemning the IOF’s serial murders of media workers, which have made this the deadliest war for journalists in history. This alone should prove to any observer, let alone editors tasked with discerning the truth of the situation in Gaza, which ‘side’ is committing the war crimes.
   

3. End the racist bias that plagues editorial standards and style guides in mainstream media. Here’s a start.

If you want to take action in your newsroom and would like support, please reach out to our Worker Action Committee: action@wawog.com. Remember — the more of us there are, the more of us there are.

If you have sensitive information about journalistic malpractice at a major media company and would like to leak to WAWOG, write to wawog@proton.me from a secure, anonymized email address, like a Proton Mail address, with “hello” in the subject line. (We’re especially looking for tips about “journalists” who embed with the IOF, have served or have family members who have served in the IOF, have close working relationships with Israeli Occupation soldiers or officials, or have participated in Zionist propaganda trips.)

“You should attach as much value to Israel’s allegations about Anas Al-Sharif as you attach to the dust on the floor” 

We leave you with the words of Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian analyst and writer, who spoke to Al Jazeera about why you should not believe anything Israeli propagandists say about Anas or any other journalist:

[O]ne thing that you need to keep in mind is that Israel has been lying incessantly since the beginning of the genocide. It’s been the cornerstone of Israel’s genocidal campaign to lie every single day about everything possible and to come up with the most lunatic lies possible, imaginable. 

Israel lied about massacring the ambulance workers in Rafah. They lied about the GHF massacres. They lied about the Shifa hospital, the flour massacre, the beheaded babies, Hamad hospital, Hind Rajab, the terror list at the Rantisi hospital that turned out to be a calendar. The World Central Kitchen workers, babies in ovens, white phosphorus, deliberately starving Gazans, Sinwar surrounding himself with 20 hostages in a tunnel, gassing hostages, the Ahli hospital, killing women and children with white flags, mass raping Palestinians, non-existent tunnels under graveyards, Nasser hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, mass graves, snipers targeting kids in the heads. 

They lied about how many Hamas militants they killed, about the Red Crescent taking part in October 7th — that was another lie. They lied about how many journalists they’ve killed and they lied about designating previous journalists as Hamas militants. They lied about Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the head of the Shifa hospital. 

And after all these lies, Israel comes up and says, “But trust us, our next lie will be 100 percent true. Trust us.” You should attach as much value to Israel’s allegations about Anas Al-Sharif as you attach to the dust on the floor. Because without lies at this stage, without lies, Israel’s narrative dies completely.