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al jazeera
Emmy Committee Stands Firm on Gaza Journalist's Nomination
The call for Bisan Owda's nomination to be rescinded was "an incredible testament to the threat posed by a single young woman with an iPhone," said one author.
Aug 21, 2024
The head of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which nominated Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda for an Emmy Award for her documentary on life under Israel's bombardment of Gaza, rebuffed a demand on Tuesday from more than 150 actors, producers, and other industry leaders who wanted the nomination revoked.
Signing a letter released by the pro-Israel group Creative Community for Peace (CCP), which campaigns against cultural boycotts targeting Israel, actors including Debra Messing and Selma Blair were among those who accused Owda of being affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.
The signatories said Owda has "repeatedly participated in PFLP rallies" and accused her of "routinely" spreading antisemitism—an accusation that has been directed at many groups and people who have condemned Israel's assault on Gaza that began last October in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. The letter did not provide examples of antisemitic statements Owda has allegedly made.
Owda was nominated in the News and Documentary Emmys category of Outstanding Hard News Feature Story Short Form, for It's Bisan From Gaza and I'm Still Alive—an eight-minute video report about her family's forced evacuation of their home in Beit Hanoun as the Israel Defense Forces bombarded Gaza.
"Absolutely despicable to use your power to try to take more from a woman surviving literal hell."
The documentary was produced by AJ+, Al Jazeera's digital platform.
Adam Sharp, president and CEO of the academy, was clear in his response to the CCP letter, telling executive director Ari Ingel that many documentaries honored by the Emmy Awards in the past "have been controversial, giving a platform to voices that certain viewers may find objectionable or even abhorrent. But all have been in the service of the journalistic mission to capture every facet of the story."
Sharp said the organization was aware of reports cited in the CCP letter "that appear to show a then-teenaged Bisan Owda speaking at various PFLP-associated events between six and nine years ago," but said it "has been unable to corroborate these reports, nor has it been able, to date, to surface any evidence of more contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organization."
"Accordingly, NATAS has found no grounds, to date, upon which to overturn the editorial judgment of the independent journalists who reviewed the material," wrote Sharp.
The attempt by influential celebrities and Hollywood power brokers to rescind the recognition given to Owda was condemned by creative artists including NPR broadcaster Raina Douris, who called the CCP's effort "truly depressing and horrifying."
"Absolutely despicable to use your power to try to take more from a woman surviving literal hell," said Douris.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 110 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since Israel's assault began.
Author Lydia Kiesling added that the CCP letter demonstrated "soullessness," but was also "an incredible testament to the threat posed by a single young woman with an iPhone."
"It eats people alive," said Kiesling, "that 2,000-pound bombs have not been able to snuff out the power of witness and narrative."
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Investigation Details IDF Use of Gaza Civilians as Booby Trap Detectors
"It's not a one-time incident of a young and stupid company commander who decides on his own to take somebody," said one IDF soldier who admitted to using Palestinians as human shields.
Aug 13, 2024
Believing that "our lives are more important than their lives," Israel Defense Forces soldiers have widely used Palestinians including civilians as booby trap detectors in Gaza, according to a new Haaretz investigation, the latest of numerous reports detailing IDF use of kidnapped Gazans as human shields.
The report, published Tuesday, features testimonies of IDF soldiers, who said commanders are fully aware of the practice of using captured Palestinians as human shields. One soldier said "there is pride in it," referring to acts considered war crimes under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.
"When I saw the report from Al Jazeera, I said, 'Ah, yes, it's true.'"
The IDF's use of human shields in the current Gaza war first drew widespread international attention following a May report from Defense for Children International-Palestine detailing how minors are forced to walk ahead of Israeli soldiers during dangerous raids.
Subsequent Al Jazeera reports of a Palestinian strapped to the hood of an Israeli combat vehicle to deter attack and Gazans being sent into buildings and tunnels to ensure the locations weren't rigged with explosives sparked international outrage and initial IDF denials.
"When I saw the report from Al Jazeera, I said, 'Ah, yes, it's true,'" one IDF conscript who helped use Gazans as human shields told Haaretz. "And then I saw the IDF's response, which totally doesn't reflect reality. It's done with the knowledge of the brigade commander, at the least."
The soldier added that IDF commanders "know that it's not a one-time incident of a young and stupid company commander who decides on his own to take somebody."
Another IDF soldier said that "there were times when really old people were made to go into houses."
Yet another soldier said that Palestinian captives are told that if they do one tunnel mission, they'll be set free.
"People began to ask questions, very quickly a mess began about this procedure," one soldier recalled. "Some argued that they weren't willing to carry out operations if it included a Gazan who was forced to sacrifice himself."
"Of course, there were those who supported it, but at least with us there were just a few of them, mostly the commanders who were afraid to deal with the more senior commanders," they added.
Responding to the new report, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that "IDF instructions and orders prohibit the use of Gazan civilians caught in the field for military missions that pose a deliberate risk to their lives."
"The IDF's instructions and orders on the subject have been made clear to the forces," the unit's statement added. "Upon receipt of the request, the allegations were forwarded to the relevant authorities for review."
Israel has been accused of using human shields in wars going back to the founding of the nation in 1948.
In 2002, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the use of human shields in operations to quash the Second Intifada, or general uprising. Some IDF soldiers ignored the injunction,
according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
In 2010, two staff sergeants in the Givati Brigade were convicted of forcing a 9-year-old Palestinian boy to open bags they thought might contain explosives during the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. The staff sergeants were slapped on the wrists with suspended sentences and demotions. Neither went to prison.
Numerous subsequent instances of IDF soldiers' use of human shields have gone unpunished.
Palestinian militants including members of Hamas have also been accused of using Palestinians as human shields.
As is the case with the IDF reservists currently accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison, many Israeli government and military officials, as well as journalists and others, have defended the "right" of IDF soldiers to do what they want to Palestinians.
Haaretz explained that "the thinking is that it's better for the Israeli soldiers to remain alive and for the [Palestinians] to be the ones blown up by an explosive device."
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US Urged to Condemn Israel's 'Summary Execution' of Two Journalists
International outcry and a reporter's pointed questions weren't enough to get the State Department to denounce the killings of Al Jazeera journalists.
Aug 02, 2024
A Palestinian journalist on Thursday pressed a U.S. State Department spokesperson to characterize the killings of two Al Jazeera journalists by Israeli forces as summary execution.
The heated press briefing followed an airstrike on Wednesday that killedAl Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifee, and sparked global outrage. Israel's military acknowledged targeting al-Ghoul, saying he was "eliminated" because he was a Hamas "terrorist," an allegation the Qatar-based network said was "baseless."
The death toll of Palestinian journalists and media workers now stands at least 108, including several intentionally targeted by Israel forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Said Arikat, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Quds, an Arabic-language newspaper based in Jerusalem, called the strike a "premeditated crime to kill a journalist for doing their job" and a "summary execution" in the press briefing, but State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel declined to affirm the characterizations or condemn the airstrike.
. @SMArikat: Al Jazeera journalists were told to leave by the Israelis, they got in their car and moved and they were bombed, that is summary execution
Patel: We continue to engage with our partners in Israel
Said: Do you call on Israel to release journalists held without charge… pic.twitter.com/ijDd3ztqSs
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) August 1, 2024
Al-Ghoul and al-Rifee were killed in northern Gaza after reporting from near the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader who was assassinated in Tehran earlier on Wednesday. They wore press vests and had signs on their vehicle identifying them as journalists; they had last contacted their news desk just 15 minutes before the strike, Al Jazeerareported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) presented no evidence in a social media post claiming that al-Ghoul was a terrorist and Hamas operative. In March, al-Ghoul reported being stripped, handcuffed, and blindfolded during the course of a 12-hour detainment by Israeli forces; he had been covering an Israeli attack on al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Witnesses said Israeli forces severely beat al-Ghoul at the hospital before arresting him.
Anas al-Sharif, another Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza, was on site at a different hospital on Wednesday when his colleagues' bodies were brought in, and he spoke about the role al-Ghoul had played in the outlet's war coverage.
"Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza," he told his own news outlet.
"The feeling—no words can describe what happened," he added.
In protest of the killings, Palestinian journalists gathered to throw off their press vests and vowed to continue showing the suffering of Gazans through their work, despite the dangers they faced.
Palestinian journalists in Gaza threw their press vests to the ground in protest against Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi. pic.twitter.com/Dmi4D1MoQ3
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 1, 2024
Condemnation of the killings of the two Al Jazeera journalists came not just from Gaza but all over the world.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement that she was "dismayed" by the killings and that journalists are civilians who should never be targeted.
Defending Rights & Dissent, a U.S.-based civil liberties nonprofit, also condemned the killing of al-Ghoul and said the reasons for it were clear.
"When you 'eliminate' journalists, it's much easier to hide war crimes, it's easier to spread lies, it's easier to commit genocide," Sue Udry, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
In response to the killing, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that journalists "must be protected, and we decry attacks against them."
William Schomburg, head of the ICRC's sub-delegation in Gaza, said in a statement that his team had just met with al-Ghoul the previous week to get an update on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. "Journalists in all wars play a central role in highlighting the plight of civilians and in speaking for the voiceless," Schomburg said.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF, in French), a Paris-based nonprofit, wrote in unequivocal terms about the need for Israel to stop killing journalists.
"RSF is deeply disturbed to see the Israel Defense Forces using social media to justify their targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul," the organization wrote on social media. "Journalists are not terrorists. This campaign of violence against media in Gaza must stop now."
The Freedom of the Press Foundation also responded forcefully to the IDF's claim about al-Ghoul.
"Documenting a war isn't terrorism, it's journalism," the group wrote on social media. "If the IDF can prove al-Ghoul was working for Hamas' military, it should do so immediately. If not, this looks like a flimsy excuse for intentionally murdering a journalist from an outlet Israel dislikes."
Israeli forces have killed at seven journalists or media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera during the war, and Israel shut down the network's local operations in May, citing a security threat, though critics said it was a case of censorship—an attempt to hide the brutality of the assault on Gaza.
In total, 113 journalists and media workers have died since the war began, including two Israelis and three Lebanese, according to CPJ, which says this has been the deadliest period for journalists anywhere in the world since it began collecting data in 1992.
The international outcry over all of the killings has ramped up pressure on the U.S.—which has backed the Israeli assault with weapons and diplomatic support— to condemn them, and Wednesday's strike on al-Ghoul and al-Rifee has only increased that pressure. Still, Patel, the spokesperson, wouldn't issue any such condemnation on Thursday.
Arikat also pressed Patel to call for the release of Palestinian journalists being held in Israeli detention centers without charges, but Patel didn't do so.
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