The United Nations Security Council has been urged to not turn a blind eye to Israel’s attacks on press freedom, including the targeting of journalists and closure of Al Jazeera’s bureaus, during its war on Gaza.
“[There are] journalists from Palestine, Lebanon and Al Jazeera who Israel has killed or closed their offices while they risk everything to ensure we don’t all return to a world where children and babies die in silence, perish in darkness,” Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu told the 15-member body on Wednesday.
More than 110 journalists and media workers – including four Al Jazeera reporters – have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began in October last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), while authorities in Gaza have put the figure at 173. Israel denies targeting journalists.
In addition to destroying Gaza’s media infrastructure, Israeli authorities in recent months have also shut down Al Jazeera’s bureaus in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
The closures have drawn condemnation from press freedom groups and rights activists, with the CPJ saying “Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information on a war that has upended so many lives in the region”.
In his speech at the UN Security Council, Muizzu decried the attacks against journalists as he reminded members that it was this body that had established the architecture of a “world order based on justice”.
“That architecture is now crumbling under the rubble of destroyed homes, hospitals and schools, disintegrating under the weight of the bodies of innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon,” he said, referring to Israel’s massive bombing campaign this week on Lebanese villages, towns and cities.
“An architecture decaying, stained with the blood of those whose very existence is supposed to be a symbol of a civilised world order – from aid workers, to UN staff, to journalists,” he added, calling for the abolition of veto powers of the council’s five permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
“The veto continues to paralyse the council from stopping Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people,” Muizzu said.
“The veto has allowed Israel to continue with impunity, in practicing brutal occupation and risking regional security. The veto continues to enable the massacre of innocent people.”
Calls for accountability
Muizzu’s speech echoed his address at the UN General Assembly the previous day, during which he said Israel was attempting to cover up its crimes by targeting Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, including by closing Al Jazeera offices.
“How can we interpret this as anything other than brutal attempts to prevent the world from knowing the crimes taking place?” he asked on Tuesday.
“Israel must be held accountable for these acts of terrorism, for these violations of international law and UN resolutions.”
Al Jazeera has been providing extensive coverage of Israel’s nearly year-long war on Gaza, which has killed more than 41,400 Palestinians, and of a parallel surge in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers raided the bureau of the Qatar-based network’s bureau in Ramallah and ordered its closure for 45 days. The order came from the Israeli military authority despite the bureau being in Area A, an area delineated as being under Palestinian control in the Oslo Accords.
The Israeli army accused Al Jazeera of incitement and supporting “terrorism” and claimed “the channel’s broadcasts endanger the security and public order in both the area and the State of Israel as a whole”.
Al Jazeera rejected the “unfounded” accusations as a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that puts its journalists at risk.
“The raid on the office and seizure of our equipment is not only an attack on Al Jazeera, but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of journalism,” it said.
During the UN General Assembly, Al Jazeera launched a new advertising campaign to highlight Israel’s escalating efforts to silence journalists.
Apart from comprehensive digital advertising, the campaign featured a number of trucks driving around New York, including the area around the UN headquarters, displaying an electronic message on their sides reading: “Journalism is not a crime; attacking journalists is.”
The network said the campaign sought to highlight that “journalists carrying out their professional duty is not a crime, which is an essential aspect of global journalism”.
“It also aims to draw world leaders’ attention to the continued crimes against journalists within occupied territories by the Israeli occupation forces,” it said.
“Al Jazeera calls for an end to impunity and demands that perpetrators targeting journalists be held accountable.”
