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benny gantz
Israeli Lawmakers Vote Against Palestinian Statehood
"In essence, the Israeli Knesset voted to continue to wipe Palestine off the map," said one critic.
Jul 17, 2024
While Israel's troops wage what has been widely decried as genocide on the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing "the establishment of a Palestinian state" west of the Jordan River.
The measure passed Israel's legislature, the Knesset, 68-9. It was spearheaded by Knesset Member Zeev Elkin of New Hope - The United Right, who shared the key messages from the resolution on social media along with a photo of the final tally.
According to Religious Zionism-affiliated Israel National News:
The proposal says, "The Israeli Knesset firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the land of Israel will pose an existential threat to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region."
"It will only be a matter of a short time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terrorism, working in coordination with the axis led by Iran, to eliminate the state of Israel."
"The promotion of the idea of the Palestinian state will be a reward for terrorism and will only encourage Hamas and its supporters who will see this as a victory thanks to the massacre of October 7, 2023, and a prelude to the takeover of jihadist Islam in the Middle East," the proposal reads.
Since the Hamas-led October attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed at least 38,794 Palestinians and wounded another 89,364, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Thousands more remain missing and believed dead beneath the rubble of bombed buildings.
In addition to destroying civilian infrastructure across the Hamas-governed coastal enclave, Israel has restricted the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, even as people starve and the remaining hospitals operate at a limited capacity.
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders.
"What is happening in Gaza is going down as the most documented genocide in history," Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. "When will the world denounce the crimes and stop tolerating their reoccurrence?"
The Knesset vote against a two-state solution comes as Netanyahu prepares for a trip to the United States—whose government has provided political and weapons support for Israel's war. The prime minister is supposed to meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House next Monday before addressing a joint session of Congress, though the American leader is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
"The measure was intended as a way to apply pressure on Netanyahu, since he is likely to face opposite pressure from U.S. officials on a hostage deal that could include future discussions of Palestinian sovereignty," The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. "Netanyahu himself was not present at the vote."
As the newspaper detailed:
Notably, National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz supported the proposal alongside three other members of his party, which is considered centrist. The three were MKs Michael Biton, Pnina Tameno-Shete, and Chili Tropper.
Gantz said after the vote, "National Unity is committed in any future political scenario, as long as it exists, to preserve the Jewish and democratic identity of the state of Israel, and to stand up for its historical right and security interests."
Members of various other parties—Netanyahu's Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Yisrael Beytenu—also voted in favor of the resolution.
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Israel Warns That It Could Send Lebanon 'Back to the Stone Age'
Critics of Israel denounced the bellicose rhetoric and U.N. leaders called for de-escalation as attacks mount along the Israel-Lebanon border and the threat of a full-scale war looms.
Jun 27, 2024
Despite efforts by the United Nations and others seeking to decrease tensions and prevent a wider war, Israel's defense minister on Wednesday warned that his military could send Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" as tensions continue to escalate between Israel and Hezbollah.
The remarks by Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration on Sunday that Israeli troops would be transferred from Gaza to the Lebanese border, with some experts predicting an Israeli incursion into Lebanon.
Cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah, a non-state militia and political party in Lebanon, have intensified in recent weeks and have left hundreds dead, mostly on the Lebanese side, over the last nine months.
"Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched," Gallant told reporters in Washington, D.C.
Gallant said the Israeli military is capable of taking Lebanon "back to the Stone Age, but we don’t want to do it."
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned Wednesday that a war in Lebanon could be "potentially apocalyptic" and draw in other countries such as Syria. It would be "the flashpoint beyond all flash points," he said.
Last week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had issued a similar warning about the stakes of a war in Lebanon.
"Let's be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza," Guterres said, calling for "immediate de-escalation."
"One rash move–one miscalculation–could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination," he added.
Owen Jones, a left-wing columnist at The Guardian, wrote on social media that Gallant's remarks were a threat to commit genocide.
Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to send Lebanon back to "the Stone Age".
This is itself a direct threat to commit mass war crimes, and indeed to commit genocide.
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 27, 2024
An escalation of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could be imminent. Politico reported on Monday that "U.S. officials appear resigned to the possibility that Israel will make a major move against Hezbollah inside Lebanon in the coming weeks."
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said there would be "no restraint and no rules and no ceilings" if Israel invaded Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.
Hezbollah, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and U.K. governments, receives military support from Iran and is estimated to have ten times the military capability of Hamas, with an estimated stockpile of 150,000 rockets and missiles, many of them with precision capabilities. Last week, according to CNN, U.S. officials expressed concern that Israel's Iron Dome defense system could be overwhelmed by Hezbollah's arsenal.
Hezbollah held Israel to a standstill during a 2006 war that lasted just over one month, and the group is regarded to be better equipped now. Israel and Lebanon have a longstanding border dispute; in practice the border is a U.N.-instituted and heavily militarized "Blue Line."
Though the media focus has been on a possible escalation, the last nine months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have already been costly. Al Jazeera reported Thursday that 543 Lebanese and 21 Israelis have been killed since October 7, though Reuters reported an overall lower figure earlier in the month. In addition, about 150,000 people in southern Lebanon and northern Israel have been displaced because of cross-border strikes.
The Biden administration, like the U.N., has called for de-escalation. Last week Biden sent a State Department official, Amos Hochstein, to Israel and Lebanon to push for peaceful solution.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that "we are urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel's northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border."
Another top U.S. military official warned on Sunday that an Israeli incursion into Lebanon could draw Iran into the conflict.
But the U.S. also warned Hezbollah this week that it can't stop an Israeli attack and that it will support Israel's defense in the event of Hezbollah retaliation, Politico reported.
The specter of war led several Western countries to call on their citizens who are in Lebanon to leave, with Canada planning to evacuate 45,000 of its nationals from the country in the event of a war.
Gallant's bellicose rhetoric on Wednesday echoed a line that Benny Gantz, an Israeli politician and former member of Netanyahu's coalition government, had used on the campaign trail in the past.
Gantz, who is often characterized as moderate in his hawkishness compared to Netanyahu and who recently quit the war cabinet, bragged in 2019 campaign ads about having sent Gaza "back to the Stone Age" during the 2014 Gaza war, which he helped lead.
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Ben-Gvir Sets Sights on Israeli War Cabinet After Gantz Quits
The National Unity leader delayed his departure due to an Israeli military operation that rescued four hostages but killed at least 274 people in Gaza and wounded 698 others.
Jun 09, 2024
As Benny Gantz of Israel's National Unity party ditched the country's emergency government and called for elections on Sunday—after briefly delaying his exit due to a deadly hostage rescue operation in the Gaza Strip—far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir swiftly sought more power.
Following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, an emergency government was formed and Gantz—a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of general staff—joined the Israeli War Cabinet, whose other members are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, both Likud party members.
There are also three observers on the Israeli War Cabinet, including Gadi Eisenkot, another ex-military chief who co-founded National Unity with Gantz and also left the panel on Sunday. Additionally, IDF Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza Division, announced his resignation as the Israeli assault on the besieged enclave continued.
In a social media post, Ben-Gvir shared his letter to Netanhayu demanding a seat on the Israeli War Cabinet. The Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party leader—known for making statements about Palestinians denounced globally as genocidal—said that "the time has come to make brave decisions, achieve real deterrence, and bring security to the residents of the south, the north, and Israel as a whole."
The letter came after Ben-Gvir made similar remarks earlier Sunday signaling his quest for more influence at a conference in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reported that he said, "I will demand that [the electoral strength I hold] be given expression and not as it has been until now," and suggested that if decision-makers had listened to him, "maybe October 7 would have looked different."
As the newspaper detailed:
Ben-Gvir says that his vision is to "conquer Gaza and [go to] war with Hezbollah," adding that if Netanyahu agrees to a "reckless" hostage deal, "I'm not there."
He also offers Gantz a good riddance, welcoming his impending resignation.
"We agreed that he would enter the government, and we thought he came to create unity, but in reality he came to create chaos and promote his political agenda," Ben-Gvir says, according to Hebrew media. "I think their departure is important, and I need to return to being a leading force like I was before Gantz entered the government."
National Unity has eight members, including Gantz and Eisenkot, in the Knesset, Israel's 120-seat parliament. For now, Netanyahu's right-wing coalition retains a 64-seat majority: 32 Likud members; 11 Shas members; seven United Torah Judaism members; seven Religious Zionism members, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich; six Jewish Power members; and one Noam member.
While Gantz is often described as a "centrist" that some in the U.S. government hope will eventually be Israel's prime minister, critics on Sunday highlighted his long military career and how he has talked about it, including in political campaign messaging.
"Gantz is a literal representation of Israel’s military since the 1970s—participating either as a soldier or leader in Israel's sieges of Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza," said U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights policy manager Mohammed Khader. "He's no better than Netanyahu, regardless of his support and award from the U.S."
Thousands of people descended on the White House in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to protest U.S. weapons and diplomatic support for the war, which as of Sunday has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded another 84,494, according to officials in the Hamas-governed enclave.
Officials said those tallies include at least 274 people—among them, 64 children and teenagers, 57 women, and 37 seniors—killed and 698 others wounded Saturday in an Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp to rescue four hostages taken from Israel in October. Hamas claimed the operation killed three other hostages including a U.S. citizen.
Responding to the raid in a statement Sunday, Democracy for the Arab World Now Sarah executive director Leah Whitson said that "Israeli officials should be held responsible for this grotesque, botched Israeli operation—massacring not only 274 Palestinians, mostly women and children, but reportedly also killing three hostages, including a U.S. citizen—because it has violated the most basic laws of war requiring distinction and proportionality."
"By providing intelligence and logistics support for this operation, the Biden administration has now made the U.S. a party to this conflict and placed U.S. forces at risk for attack as legitimate military targets," Whitson continued, citing a Washington Post report.
"While it's a relief that a few hostages were released, this entire stunt was unnecessary given the ongoing cease-fire negotiations that include the release of all civilian hostages," she added. "Israel didn't need to carry out this operation; a diplomatic solution was already on the table, which would have secured the safe release of all hostages without further bloodshed."
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Israel's Response to ICJ Order to Halt Rafah Assault? More Bombing
"What needs to be ordered is a permanent cease-fire and an end to the siege and occupation," said a Palestinian forced to flee Gaza.
May 24, 2024
Civilians and journalists in the southern Gaza Strip reported Friday that Israel responded to an order by the International Court of Justice to halt military operations in Rafah by instead ramping up its assault on the southern city and elsewhere in the besieged enclave as the nation's political leaders condemned the ICJ ruling.
Al Jazeera Arabic posted on social media that Israeli warplanes launched violent raids on Rafah—from which over 900,000 Palestinians have recently fled due to the ongoing assault, according to the United Nations.
"Just a few minutes after the ICJ ordered the criminal Israeli army to halt its Rafah offensive, now more and more airstrikes on houses in the middle of Rafah," said Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, who was able to escape to Cairo with his family. "What needs to be ordered is a permanent cease-fire and an end to the siege and occupation."
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor chief of communications Muhammad Shehada noted that "Israeli media is gloating that Israel's response to the ICJ order to halt its Rafah offensive is a series of unusual 'belt of fire' attacks in the heart of Rafah," explaining that the term means "indiscriminately bombing an area with a huge amount of simultaneous airstrikes."
There were also reports of Israeli strikes in other parts of the Palestinian territory including Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.
Just after the ICJ ruling, Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American political analyst, offered what turned out to be an accurate prediction: "We already know what Israel's response will be: We won't listen to anyone, anyone who tries to make us stop our genocide is an antisemite, a terrorist, or both. Even having to stop killing Palestinians long enough to respond to this is the Holocaust all over again."
While the Israeli military bombed Rafah and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahucalled an emergency meeting with key ministers, leading political figures in the country forcefully rejected the U.N. court's latest order—part of a broader South Africa-led genocide case against Israel, which has so far killed at least 35,857 Palestinians and wounded another 80,293, according to Gaza officials.
In a lengthy joint statement, Tzachi Hanegbi, who heads the Israeli National Security Council, and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson called the genocide charges "false, outrageous, and morally repugnant," and insisted that Israel is complying with international law while waging a "defensive and just war to eliminate Hamas and to secure the release of our hostages."
"Israel has not and will not conduct military actions in the Rafah area which may inflict on the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," they said. "Israel will continue its efforts to enable humanitarian assistance and will act, in full compliance with the law, to reduce as much as possible harm caused to the civilian population in Gaza."
While the statement added that "Israel will continue to enable the Rafah crossing to remain open for the entry of humanitarian assistance from the Egyptian side of the border, and will prevent terror groups from controlling the passage," Al Jazeera cited U.N. data showing that since Israel took control of that site earlier this month, no trucks have entered there.
Al Jazeera also reported that Benny Gantz, the Israel Defense Forces' former chief of the general staff and part of the War Cabinet with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, similarly claimed after the order Friday that that his country "set out on a just and necessary campaign" after October 7 attack.
"The state of Israel is committed to continue fighting to return its hostages and promise the security of its citizens—wherever and whenever necessary—including in Rafah," Gantz added. "We will continue operating in accordance with international law wherever we might operate while safeguarding to the best extent possible the civilian population—not because of the ICJ but because of who we are and the values we stand for."
According to The Jerusalem Post, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that "the irrelevant order of the antisemitic court in The Hague should have only one answer: the occupation of Rafah, the increase of military pressure, and the complete destruction of Hamas—until the complete victory in the war is achieved."
Quoting the late David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, Ben-Gvir also wrote on social media, "Our future does not depend on what the gentiles will say, but on what the Jews will do."
The Times of Israel highlighted remarks from some other right-wing officials:
Had this "antisemitic court" been active during the Holocaust, "it would undoubtedly have issued orders against the Allies," declares Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who is in Ben-Gvir's party.
"Those who demand that the state of Israel stop the war, demand that it decree the cessation of its existence—we will not agree to that," argues Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. "We will continue to fight for ourselves and for the entire free world. History will judge who today stood by the Nazis of Hamas and ISIS."
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem-based human rights group B'Tselem on Friday
noted that ICJ order follows the International Criminal Court's prosecutor seeking warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, asserted that "violence and disregard for human life are keystones of the Israeli apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea," and called for Israel to "immediately halt its military activity" in Gaza.
"With Israeli government displaying blatant disregard for human life—of Palestinians and of the Israeli hostages—we, the citizens of Israel, must open our eyes. We must listen to the clear call from around the world: The violence, destruction and killing must stop now," the group said. "If it continues to ignore the catastrophic reality on the ground and shirk its duty to protect human life, Israel will inevitably incur harsher international intervention."
Around the world, critics of the bloodshed pointed to the ICJ order as the latest proof that supporters of Israel—including and especially U.S. President Joe Biden—should immediately cut off weapons and apply diplomatic pressure to end the war, possibly through the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has veto power.
"The Israeli government is already thumbing its nose at the International Court of Justice with airstrikes on Rafah," former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said as the bombing continued Friday. "Is there anything that Netanyahu could do that might finally get Biden to take action—stopping arms or allowing Security Council action?"
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What a Leaked US Cable Says About Israel's Looming Assault on Rafah
An invasion would have "catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response," the cable warned.
Mar 06, 2024
An Israeli invasion of Rafah would have "catastrophic" consequences for the 1.5 million civilians sheltering in the southern Gazan city, a U.S. diplomatic cable has warned.
The cable, written by members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was sent from Jerusalem to the State Department in Washington, D.C. on Monday and reported by The Intercept on Tuesday.
"A potential escalation of military operations in within Southern Gaza's Rafah Governorate could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response, multiple relief actors have warned USAID's Levant Disaster Assistance Response Team," the cable reads.
"A 'military incursion' into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action."
It comes amid increased protests against a potential Rafah invasion and international calls for a cease-fire in an attack that the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible genocide. Israel's assault on Gaza has already killed more than 30,000 people, displaced at least 85% of the population, and induced a famine that is killing children through starvation and dehydration.
The Biden administration faces mounting domestic pressure to push for an end to the onslaught. However, the cable was publicized the same day that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz and did not categorically reject a Rafah invasion. Instead, Blinken reportedly "underscored the need for a credible and implementable humanitarian plan prior to any major military operation in Rafah, given the risks to civilians."
Yet the stark language of the cable belies the possibility of such a plan.
"At present, there appear to be no viable evacuation options for the 1.5 million in Rafah," the cable said.
The Rafah Governorate, which it said was comparable in size to Syracuse, New York, has seen its population increase by more than sevenfold since Israel began its assault on Gaza following Hamas' deadly incursion into Southern Israel on October 7. The Israeli military ordered civilians to flee southward for safety, and now those who heeded those calls have nowhere else to go.
"A large portion of those residing in Rafah, including elderly populations, exhausted IDPs [internally displaced persons], and those with reduced mobility, would likely remain in the governorate during the potential military operation due to lack of viable alternatives, heightening the risk of mass casualties," the cable said.
It described the situation in Rafah as already dire. Many people entering Rafah from the north had their belongings seized by the Israel Defense Forces and then had to spend months trying to find basic items like blankets. The services that do exist are overwhelmed.
"The impact of hostilities has stretched the capacity of Gaza's health system beyond its limit," the cable said.
In addition, Israel been ramping up a bombing campaign against Rafah, leading to "escalating panic and increased breakdown of social order," the cable said.
Reacting to the cable, journalist Heidi Moore said on social media that its assessment of a potential Rafah invasion as "catastrophic" was "the only conclusion."
"A 'military incursion' into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action," Moore added.
It is unclear how much influence the cable will have with the administration. In addition to the State Department, copies of it were also sent to the National Security Council, secretary of defense, and the CIA.
USAID declined The Intercept's request for comment, but pointed to previous remarks of Administrator Samantha Power, who said in late February that the U.S. could not support a Rafah campaign without a "credible plan to protect civilians" and that it had "seen no credible plan."
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Press Freedom Group Slams Tom Cotton for Boosting 'Malicious Disinformation' About Gaza Journalists
The U.S. senator and top Israeli officials have "put journalists' lives at risk" by seizing on a baseless report, the Freedom of the Press Foundation said.
Nov 11, 2023
A U.S.-based press freedom group slammed Republican Sen. Tom Cotton and top Israeli officials on Friday for uncritically boosting a report that falsely suggested Gaza-based photojournalists who were on the scene during Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel last month were in some way complicit in the assault.
The report, published on November 8 by the Israeli media watchdog HonestReporting, stated that "judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping, and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically."
But the watchdog's executive director, a former reporter for The Jerusalem Post, has since admitted that the group had no evidence indicating that Gaza-based photojournalists working freelance for The New York Times, The Associated Press, and other outlets "coordinated with Hamas" ahead of the October 7 attack.
"They were legitimate questions to be asked," HonestReporting's Gil Hoffman said in an interview with the AP, adding that "we don't claim to be a news organization."
Hoffman told the AP that he was satisfied with journalists' explanations that they had no prior knowledge of the attack, but the Freedom of the Press Foundation warned Friday that "the potentially lethal damage has already been done."
While the Times, AP, and other news outlets mentioned in the HonestReporting analysis denied the group's insinuations about journalists' prior knowledge and coordination with Hamas, prominent politicians—including Cotton (Ark.) in the U.S. and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—rushed to amplify the baseless allegations.
"Cotton, a man with so much irrational hatred for the free press that he must have something awful to hide from it, sent a letter to the DOJ calling for an investigation of whether The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times, and Reuters 'committed federal crimes by supporting Hamas terrorists,'" Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, wrote Friday.
Cotton also
sent letters to the Times and other outlets demanding that they "answer what they knew about their employees accompanying Hamas during the October 7 attack." The Times' senior vice president and deputy general counsel replied that the Arkansas senator was "merely parroting disinformation harvested from the Internet based on a website that has conceded it had no evidence for its claims."
In addition to Cotton, Stern noted, Netanyahu used "the spurious report to call the photojournalists 'accomplices in crimes against humanity' and condemn the media outlets that published their work."
"Others went even further. Former Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz said journalists who photographed the attack 'are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such,'" Stern wrote. "Danny Danon, a member of Israel's parliament and its former representative to the United Nations, said on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel's internal security agency would add the photojournalists named in HonestReporting's report to its kill list."
"It's a virtual certainty that their irresponsible speculation will be cited to justify past and future violence against the press. They've put journalists' lives at risk."
As AP reported Thursday, the Times said in response to HonestReporting that "Yousef Masoud, whose photographs of an Israeli tank captured by Hamas were used by the newspaper and AP, did not know" about the Hamas attack in advance.
"His first photographs that day were filed 90 minutes after the attack began," AP observed. "Reuters used pictures credited to Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih, two freelancers it had no prior relationship with. Its first photo was published more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border, the news agency said."
In a statement on Friday, Stern said that "it's absolutely reckless for a group calling itself 'HonestReporting' to insinuate that photojournalists who take pictures of atrocities are complicit in them."
"Despite HonestReporting's recent backpedaling, it's a virtual certainty that their irresponsible speculation will be cited to justify past and future violence against the press. They've put journalists' lives at risk," Stern added. "Photojournalists risk their lives to document history. It's absurd to suggest that photographing atrocities, or failing to somehow disarm gunmen with their news cameras, proves they're somehow collaborating with terrorists. And it's equally preposterous to suggest, as Sen. Cotton has, that U.S. news outlets are responsible for hypothetical misconduct by any freelancer overseas from whom they buy a photograph."
According to the latest tally from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 40 media workers have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon since October 7. Thirty-five of the journalists killed thus far were Palestinian.
CPJ has also documented the arrests of 13 journalists and "multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members."
The Middle East desk of Reporters Without Borders said Friday that in the wake of HonestReporting's false misinformation, "Israeli authorities have gone from claims that they cannot guarantee the protection of journalists in Gaza to death threats against reporters covering the conflict based on suspicions that are so far unsupported by arguments or evidence."
"Statements discrediting the integrity of an entire profession on this basis are unacceptable," the group said. "They condone and incite the persecution of those who are risking their lives to report the news. We condemn these statements and reiterate that targeting journalists who cover conflicts is a war crime."
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'An Absolute Outrage': Israel to Deny Visas to UN Officials Over Secretary-General's Gaza Remarks
Human rights advocates called on the U.S., U.K., and other European countries to take action against Israel's "intimidation" tactic.
Oct 25, 2023
Israeli authorities were accused of intimidation tactics "fitting of an authoritarian state" after they announced U.N. officials would no longer be permitted in Israel—a retaliatory step taken after comments by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres about the ongoing bombardment of civilian targets in Gaza.
The country's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, told Army Radio on Wednesday that the government will "refuse to issue visas to U.N. representatives" following Guterres' remark that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,400 people, did not happen "in a vacuum."
At the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Guterres once again "condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror by Hamas in Israel," and said that "nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring, and kidnapping of civilians."
"The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation," Guterres added. "They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing."
Erdan responded by saying Israel has already rescinded the visa of the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, and would do the same for Guterres and other officials. He also called on the secretary-general to resign.
"The time has come to teach them a lesson," he said.
Guterres' comments came a week after he joined the international call for a cease-fire in Gaza, which has been led by international human rights groups including Israel-based B'Tselem, Amnesty International, and Jewish-led U.S. groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace.
The U.N. chief repeated his strong condemnation of both Israel and Hamas on social media following the speech, but Israel still rejected his criticism of its bombardment of Gaza, where at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed since October 7. Health officials said the healthcare system is now "completely out of service" as of Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported, and Oxfam warned that in addition to repeated airstrikes which have targeted areas that Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate to, Israel is using "starvation as a weapon."
On Wednesday, Guterres said he was "shocked" by the "misrepresentation" of his remarks by Israeli officials including Minister Benny Gantz, who called the secretary-general a "terror apologist."
Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Sophie McNeill noted Israel has previously rescinded the visas of high-ranking U.N. officials "who dared speak out regarding Israeli violations," and called the tactic "an absolute outrage."
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that shutting out U.N. human rights officials "is bad for all aid groups assisting a million children under bombardment and in crossfire," and called on countries with strong influences on Israel, including the United States and United Kingdom, to speak out against Israel's decision.
British labor leader Howard Beckett noted that the strong support of leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and U.K. Labour Leader Keir Starmer—even in the face of thousands of civilian deaths from Israel's onslaught—has emboldened Israel.
"Israel believes it can make the U.N. an enemy," Beckett said. "Why? Because of Biden, Sunak, and Starmer."
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