Mourners and colleagues surround the bodies of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Refee, killed in an Israeli strike during their coverage of Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp, on July 31. Photo by Abood Abusalama / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images

Columnist Dan Perry September 13, 2024

The Gaza war has now dragged on for an unprecedented 11 months, and it has become a full-fledged global-historic disaster that actually might affect the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. Throughout this time, the international press has been blocked from reporting directly from the ground, and has relied on local reporters whose main mission, one can assume, is merely to somehow survive.

Last December, the Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association for Israel and the Palestinian territories — a volunteer organization I was the chairman of from 2001-2004 — filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court, seeking access for foreign journalists to Gaza. While the petition was denied on security grounds, the court did acknowledge that restrictions infringe on the freedom of the press and invited the FPA to request access again if circumstances change. The FPA this week filed just such a petition.

The court should rule in the FPA’s favor. Such a ruling would not be about foreign journalists. Rather, it would be about two things.

First, the world community, including Israelis and Palestinians themselves, has a right and indeed a duty to know what is going on inside the strip. The irony, for Israel, is that the blackout has cleared the field for information coming out of Hamas — including the reports of over 40,000 killed. In the absence of verifiable information, these numbers are passed on and Hamas propaganda enjoys a near-monopolistic status in the global discourse.

This skews public opinion — not only around the world but in Israel itself. Israel’s own people do not fully understand what the military is doing in their name in Gaza. Some assume the worst; others reject any criticism as absurd considering the satanic nature of the Hamas army Israel is trying to defeat, and no one knows what’s really going on.

Second, such a stand would be very good news for Israel’s global standing. It might remind people around the world that Israel is a democracy still, despite the best efforts of the far-right government to undermine the guardrails of that democracy in the tumultuous months leading up to the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and massacre.

To be clear: Israel’s government, horrible as it is, remains a million times less odious than Hamas, which started the war and is both a stain and a curse upon the Palestinians. It was democratically elected (by half a whisker, but that’s another story), but it does not currently enjoy the trust of the vast majority of that electorate. It is precisely at times when democracies make mistakes that the separation of powers built into a liberal democracy becomes tested, and is critical.

Here’s a quick survey of the situation.

To begin with, we are dealing with a 360-square-kilometer (140-square-mile) strip of desert beach that is essentially cut off from the world by Israel on the north and east, the Mediterranean Sea (blockaded by Israel) to the west, and Egypt to the south. The tightly regulated blockade — supported by Egypt as well, although there has been massive smuggling — was put in place when Hamas seized control of the area, and its more than 2 million residents, in 2007. (Also, it must be noted that in the current conflict, Egypt, too, has not allowed foreign journalists in.) The idea was to prevent Hamas from amassing an army and prevent an invasion — so it’s safe to say the policy has colossally failed.

Hamas has been firing rockets at Israel since it rose to power, and even before Oct. 7, sparked four smaller-scale wars. Each was followed by billions in reconstruction aid — money that seems to have gone toward building tunnels and an attack capability; the strip remains one of the most impoverished places on earth.

In the past, foreign journalists have been granted access to Gaza during conflicts, albeit with restrictions. Never before have they been kept out for such an extended period. This marks a worrying shift, especially considering the scale of the current conflict and its profound humanitarian impact. As the fighting rages on, the world is left to rely on official Israeli and Hamas accounts, both of which are likely to be partial and serve their respective narratives. (In the case of Hamas, a bloodthirsty mafia, to uncritically believe its reports is absurd). Independent journalism, particularly from international outlets, serves as a crucial counterbalance, offering unbiased reporting that is essential for the global community to form an informed view.

The Israeli government’s reasoning is grounded in security concerns, but journalists have a long history of entering dangerous conflict zones to report the truth. From Iraq to Afghanistan, from Syria to Lebanon, foreign journalists have risked their lives to provide vital coverage. Gaza is no different.

The risks are real, but it should be the journalists’ decision. The international media, alas, has quite profound experience with this: it has security specialists, sends reporters to security training, and has no desire to see reporters hurt. When I was the AP’s Middle East Editor during the past decade, we covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and, of course, Gaza. The security concern was paramount — but we sent reporters to all these places (indeed, several were injured and killed — and we did our best to learn).

(They are a strange and diminishing herd, these foreign correspondents. The global media’s business model is shot, but the mission is possibly more important than ever. Read about it here.)

Adding to the strength of the argument is the fact that humanitarian workers have been granted limited access to Gaza. Wherein lies the security difference? Indeed, journalists play a humanitarian role of their own by bringing attention to the suffering of civilians and ensuring that the world is not blind to the horrors of war.

In previous conflicts, journalists have been embedded with the Israel Defense Forces, which is a practice that continues in this war. However, the number of embeds allowed has been severely limited, and many smaller media organizations are entirely shut out. While embeds provide an important perspective, they also place the IDF in control of the narrative, selecting who gets access and under what circumstances. And, of course, there is no opportunity to speak unmonitored to Palestinians.

Moreover, the role of journalists in conflict zones is more than just reporting the facts. They are witnesses to atrocities, chroniclers of human suffering, and sometimes, their work shapes the outcome of wars by influencing international opinion and policy. Without them, the world is left in the dark, and human rights abuses may go unnoticed and unpunished.

Israel’s security concerns are understandable, but blocking journalists from entering for almost a year suggests a deeper unwillingness to allow scrutiny of its actions in Gaza. The Israeli government must recognize that the global community relies on independent reporting, and the continued denial of access raises questions about what they might not want the world to see.

It’s time to let the journalists in.

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