By Musheir El Farra and Dick Pitt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Israelis stop mass killings in Gaza, the media turns its unblinking eyes away.\u00a0 Life goes on in, what David Cameron called, a huge prison<\/a>.\u00a0 Why do we not hear about life in Gaza? What is their daily life like?\u00a0 What are the day to day discussions?\u00a0 What are the shortages? How is people\u2019s mental health? What are the political discussions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday 14th<\/sup> June, a group of \nlocal journalists from Sheffield were in a video discussion with\njournalists from Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gaza journalists had got together and approached Palestine Solidarity Campaign Chairman Musheir El Farra about how they can contact British journalists to talk to them about their work in blockaded Gaza.\u00a0 Over a period of two hours we got to hear bits of the story that they want the world to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The journalists pointed out that they were\nnon-combatants. They were there to report the facts. The\ndemonstrations, \u2018The right of Return\u2019 was not an invasion, not organised by any\nfaction. They were the march of a people who wished to return home from\nforced exile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Journalists\u2019 tools are cameras not guns. They need to write and become witnesses for a voiceless people. They need to be able to show their photographs in exhibitions and tell their stories free from harassment arrest, wounding or killing. Journalists wear very distinctive, easily identifiable gear. Yet 200 journalists had been injured by various projectiles, tear gas canisters, and bullets since the start of the protests, March 2018. The journalists were clear that they felt Israel has targeted Journalists. It was also pointed out that Israel is holding 40 journalists in prisons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A representative present from Human Rights organisation\nexplained the frustration of getting no results to their hundreds of complaints\nto the Israeli authorities regarding attacks on Palestinian journalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also repression by the Hamas authorities.\u00a0 One journalist described how she obtained a story on corruption in the obtaining exit permits for medical treatment.\u00a0 The result was that she was arrested, and four separate charges were filed against her, including one of impersonation (she had worn a face veil to avoid recognition).\u00a0\u00a0 The case against her collapsed. \u00a0Reports of demonstrations against Hamas were repressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One Palestinian journalist described how he built up a\nfollowing of 35,000 people and 5000 friends. His website was cyber\nattacked by the Israelis leaving him to restart the hard grind of building it\nup again from nothing. In total, 100 Facebook accounts for journalists in\nthe Gaza Strip were cyber attacked by Israel in an identical way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the journalists present explained how they received\nthreatening phone calls and text messages from unknown numbers to try to\nintimidate them to stop covering attacks by the Israeli army against civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They pointed out\nthat they needed to get to journalist conferences to share knowledge and\nexperiences. To do their work properly that have to have freedom of\nmovement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They needed to\nchallenge the bias of programs like the BBC A day in Gaza. At present\nthey are not able to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone agreed\nthat further such conference calls would be very useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One journalist explained the frustration of being in his\nthirties and being unemployed as a result of the Israeli blockade. \nHowever, this doesn\u2019t stop journalists from rushing to places were Israeli\nattacks are happening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palestinian journalists present; asked the British\njournalists to work on a plan to create a mechanism by which they, the British\njournalists, become their voice among the British people. The British\njournalists promised to do their best to try to pass the message to as many\njournalists as possible within the NUJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was agreed that this meeting was the start of\ncooperation between journalists in Palestine and Britain. Campaigning\nwork should start to organise a tour in Britain to repeat similar meeting\nformat with audience from the media and the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also agreed that Sheffield PSC and the South Yorkshire branch of NUJ will try their best to help with supporting small projects like short videos made by the Palestinian journalists to counter bias Western media reporting such as the BBC programme \u201cA day in Gaza \u201c and others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Musheir El Farra and Dick Pitt When the Israelis stop mass killings in Gaza, the media turns its unblinking eyes away.\u00a0 Life goes on in, what David Cameron called, a huge prison.\u00a0 Why do we not hear about life in Gaza? What is their daily life like?\u00a0 What are the day to day discussions?\u00a0 … Continue reading Gaza journalists seek a voice<\/span>