#PROTECTTHEJOURNALISTS
Answering the call from North Gaza to defend our colleagues.
“We call on our colleagues and media organizations worlwide to show their solidarity with us. Despite these serious and false threats against us, we remain committed to our profession and will continue to report the facts on the ground, where the genocide continues unabated.”
On October 23, 2024, the Israeli “Defense” Forces publicly threatened the lives of six journalists who have been reporting on the U.S.-backed Israeli war on Gaza for over a year: Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Abdul Aziz Muhammad Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Sami Ashour Saraj, Ismail Farid Muhammad Abu Omar, and Talal Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aruki. Israel accused these reporters of being “Islamic Jihad terrorists” — the latest lie in a long, well-documented history of making false claims in order to justify the assassinations of Palestinian journalists.
WAWOG has long called for media workers in the West to defend the lives and livelihoods of their colleagues in Gaza. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reports that since October 7, 2023, Israel has murdered 168 journalists and injured 360 more. Fadi Al-Wahidi, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was shot in the neck by Israeli forces while reporting earlier this month; he is now paraplegic and in a coma, waiting for Israel to approve his medical evacuation from Gaza. With this morning’s threat, Israel has once again declared its contempt for the free press and its intent to commit war crimes, daring the world to intervene.
Answering the calls from journalists in North Gaza, including Hossam Shabat and Anas al-Sharif, WAWOG launched a rapid-response campaign to pressure journalists in Western newsrooms into defending their colleagues. Click the link below for more information.
